If you spend enough time in the Catskills, you’ve likely heard the refrain: “The ticks are really bad this year.”
The reality is more complicated. While ticks and the diseases they carry are a persistent hazard in the region, whether a given season is truly “bad” depends on a mix of perception, climate conditions, and biology. Experts who track tick populations say winter weather, species distribution, and infection rates all play a greater role than anecdotal complaints—and the data often tell a different story than what residents assume.
According to Bryon Backenson, director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control at the New York State Department of Health, the answer depends not only on the year but also on the time of year.
“Cold winters with little snow are bad for ticks,” Backenson said. That, he explained, is tied to the tick’s two-year life cycle. Adults mature around October, when males search for mates and females seek a blood meal to sustain them through winter and to lay eggs. Snow insulates the female and her eggs while also providing moisture. A harsh, dry winter without snow reduces survival, leading to fewer ticks the following season.
“They die out when they dry out,” Backenson said, adding that ticks also struggle in higher, drier elevations.
From mid-May through July, nymphal ticks—“teenage ticks,” as Backenson calls them—scavenge for their first blood meal before going dormant until October, when they re-emerge as adults. The fall is when ticks carry the highest rates of disease.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that tick bites across the United States typically peak between May and June.
“Ticks in the fall are twice as likely to be infected,” Backenson said. “But nymphs are smaller and cause more problems because people don’t see them until too late.”
In the Hudson Valley, Department of Health data show adult tick populations in Ulster and Greene counties have declined in recent years. Ulster County recorded a nine-year low in 2024—the most recent data available—with an average of 12 ticks per 1,000 meters. That followed a peak of 60 ticks per 1,000 meters in 2021, and 25 in 2016. In Greene County, populations remained relatively steady from 2019 to 2024 at about 42 ticks per 1,000 meters, except for a spike in 2022 to 135. The county’s low point was 27 in 2018.
Backenson said residents and visitors should focus less on the number of ticks and more on the types they encounter.
“When I was a kid in the ’70s, dog ticks used to be the most common tick we saw,” said Backenson, who grew up outside Philadelphia. “Twenty years later, it was deer ticks. Now, depending on where you are, it might be a lone star tick.”
About 10 species of ticks live in New York, but only four transmit disease to people: the black-legged tick (commonly known as the deer tick), the American dog tick, the lone star tick, and the woodchuck tick, which is less common. Together, they can spread up to eight diseases, including Lyme disease, anaplasmosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
Lyme disease is the third-most common disease in New York, behind chlamydia and gonorrhea, Backenson said.
Once on a person’s body, ticks often embed in areas where people sweat, such as the groin or underarms. In the wild, they tend to dwell in high grass along paths and yards, making it easier to latch onto unsuspecting people or animals.
“Ticks are lazy in many ways,” Backenson said. “They are usually just waiting for something to come by and climb onto.”
More information can be found at the CDC website on how to protect yourself from ticks.
Jim Rich is a reporter for The Overlook. You can reach him at jim@theoverlooknews.com.