They come out of their dens when temperatures are mild. With global warming, can we expect to see more ticks? 200 million years old, these insects have adapted to climate change; they are now found at altitude and in cities. We must therefore be prepared to warn ourselves of their bites and to react quickly, to cure illnesses and avoid other inconveniences.
Ticks adapt to climate
The sun shines on the Pourtalès park. It’s hot but Pascale walks around covered from head to toe to avoid ticks. Two years ago, an experience traumatized her. “I take a shower and realize to my horror that I had 5 or 6 on me“, she says, “I had them everywhere“. Since then, this regular hiker no longer leaves a piece of skin visible when she walks in the great outdoors, regardless of the climate: “I no longer hike in shorts or a skirt, it’s a shame“, she laments.
The Strasbourg resident believes that there are “more of them than before”, whether “in the Vosges forests” or in the city. “There are areas where there were no ticks before, there are now, but in areas where there were already, there is not necessarily an increase“, specifies Jonas Durand. He is an engineer for Cite, a participatory scientific research program. Citizens report the place where they were bitten and sometimes send the tick that caused the bite.
Learn to live with these insects
It would therefore be more accurate to speak of insects which “adapt” to the climate”, according to the researcher. This year, the structure began to receive reports earlier than in previous yearsbut they also became rarer in August, a hotter and drier month of the year than before because of global warminga climate not conducive to ticks.
“We already see ticks all year round, it’s just that people don’t realize it, we have to learn to live with them.“, he explains, “we have learned to adapt with barrier gestures at the height of Covid, with ticks, it will also be necessary to develop automatic preventive gestures“. He advises covering oneself, putting light clothing And systematically check possible bites after each walk in a natural area: “it doesn’t take that much time to cover yourself well and to check, especially on the most fragile people such as children and the elderly.“.
If ticks are present in more places, the important thing is to locate it and remove it with a tick remover as quickly as possible, before disinfecting. If these insects can transmit Lyme disease, it is a disease that can be cured very well if detected early.
