Watch for more ticks around Halifax area after harsh winter: expert

WATCH: Nova Scotia is having a bumper year for ticks. The tiny insect can cause some big problems for people and their pets, but there are precautions you can take. Ray Bradshaw reports.

HALIFAX – With warmer weather finally arriving in Halifax, people are noticing a large number of ticks around.

Blair Baxter regularly takes his dogs for a run at Sandy Lake Park. He knows there are ticks in the woods, and he’s taking precautions.

“The park is known for having ticks. So what I do with my dogs is, on a daily basis, I check them over in the evenings when we get home. I have found a tick on myself. … You just pick it off and terminate it.”

Zoologist Andrew Hebda, who works at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, said the harsh winter created ideal conditions for ticks and other insects to multiply.

“The ground hadn’t had a chance to freeze up very much,” he said. “After that, the snow acted as a blanket of insulation so it kept the temperatures nice and gentle for the tick.”

Veterinarian Eric Carnegy said he has seen an increase in ticks on dogs coming into his animal hospital.

“The good news is the ticks that we’re seeing are the red-legged tick or the wood tick, which is a nuisance tick,” he said. “They don’t carry any of the diseases like Lyme. That is a real problem with the deer ticks, which we usually see later in summer and in the fall.”

Carnegy said the two types of ticks are easy to distinguish.

“The wood tick is a bigger tick than the deer tick, so they’re easier to see. The main thing is they have a reddish-brown coloured leg, whereas the deer tick is an ebony-black coloured leg.”

If they’re found early, ticks can easily be removed. It takes them 12 to 24 hours to get into a feeding position.

“Once they get into that feeding position it will take them about 24 hours to actually start feeding and potentially have an impact,” said Hebda.

Carnegy said ticks usually attach around the ears, neck and top of the head.

Black-legged ticks feed in warm body parts, like the groin and armpits. Baxter said for those ticks, it’s especially important to check yourself and your dog.

“On the side of caution moreso, because ticks do carry lime disease and once you get that you’re in a world of trouble.”