You will probably be getting outside more soon looking for fossils, minerals, etc. in the woods, fields, and quarries.  Or at least, that’s what we hope… after all, this is the ESCONI website. And, remember fossil collecting season opens up on March 1st at Mazonia South. However, thanks to our mild winter and that early February warm spell, the ticks are getting early this year.

Ticks are more than just a nuisance; they are vectors for several serious diseases. In Illinois, keep an eye out for these common species:

• American Dog (Wood) Ticks
• Brown Dog Ticks
• Lone Star Ticks
• Blacklegged (Deer) Ticks

Stay Safe: Before you head out, make sure to “spray up” with DEET and treat your gear with permethrin. Let’s keep the focus on the finds, not the bites!

We received a particularly helpful link from Katherine Howard (ESCONI 1st Vice-president). You can find “The Tick You Don’t Feel” from “Voices of the Wild Earth” on Facebook.

THE TICK YOU DON’T FEEL.

You take advantage of a mild, 55-degree day in late February to clear some dormant brush at the edge of the woods. You don’t bother with bug spray; after all, the calendar says it’s still winter.

But as you pull off your boots, you find a dark, flat shape anchored to your ankle. You never felt a thing.

The Myth of the “Winter Freeze”

When it comes to vector-borne diseases, we comfort ourselves with the myth of the killing frost. We assume that freezing temperatures eradicate tick populations, and that we are safe until the deep, humid days of late May.

The Biological Reality: Winter does not kill ticks; it merely pauses them.

Ticks survive the cold by sheltering under the insulating layer of leaf litter in a state of suspended animation called diapause. They are essentially waiting for a thermal trigger. While the tiny Black-legged (Deer) tick is famous for waking up on any winter day above freezing, a larger, more aggressive villain is now shifting its timeline: the Lone Star Tick (Amblyomma americanum).

The Scientific Reality: The Biochemical Scalpel

Why didn’t you feel a tick the size of an apple seed biting into your leg?

Because a tick bite is not a mechanical puncture; it is a highly evolved biochemical procedure. According to entomological research from institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a tick’s saliva is a cocktail of pharmacologically active compounds.

Before it even begins to draw blood, the tick secretes anesthetics (to numb the skin), antihistamines (to prevent itching and swelling), and anticoagulants (to keep the blood pooling). It essentially locally paralyzes your immune system’s alarm bells so you remain completely unaware of its presence for days.

What is Happening Right Now (February)

We are currently witnessing a massive phenological shift—a change in the timing of biological events.

Due to milder late-winter weather patterns across the southern, central, and increasingly the northeastern United States, the thermal trigger is being pulled months earlier than historical averages.

Community Insight 1 (The “Early” Arrival): As a hiker recently noted: “I was walking through dead, dry grass last weekend and found a huge tick with a white dot on its back on my jeans. I thought it was way too early in the year for the big ones.”

That white dot is the identifying mark of an adult female Lone Star tick. Unlike other ticks that wait passively, Lone Star ticks are active hunters. If the ambient temperature breaks 50°F (10°C), they break diapause. They will actively crawl across the February leaf litter toward the carbon dioxide of your breath.

Community Insight 2 (The “Itchless” Attachment): Another observer commented: “I found one attached to my waist after doing yard work. It wasn’t itchy, it wasn’t red. I only found it because my hand brushed against it.”

This is the anesthetic saliva at work. You cannot rely on an itch or a stinging sensation to alert you to a late-winter tick. Visual inspection is the only defense.

Why This Matters Ecologically

The Lone Star tick was historically confined to the southeastern United States. Today, it has aggressively expanded its range as far north as Maine and the Great Lakes.

With this expansion comes a unique pathological footprint. While they do not carry Lyme disease, Lone Star ticks transmit Ehrlichiosis and are the primary vector for Alpha-gal Syndrome—a severe, newly recognized condition where the tick’s saliva triggers a lifelong, sometimes life-threatening allergic reaction to mammalian meat (beef, pork, lamb).

Practical Action: The “50-Degree Rule”

Change Your Baseline: Stop looking at the calendar and start looking at the thermometer. If the ground is not covered in snow and the temperature hits 50°F, you are in active tick territory.

The Permethrin Shield: Do not rely solely on skin repellents. Treat your hiking boots and work pants with Permethrin. Once dried, this chemical bonds to the fabric and physically kills ticks on contact, neutralizing the “active hunter” strategy of the Lone Star tick.

The Leaf Litter Boundary: Rake the damp, dead leaves away from the edges of your lawn. Ticks cannot survive the desiccation of dry, open grass. Creating a three-foot barrier of dry woodchips between your yard and the woods drops tick migration into your space by up to 80%.

The Verdict

Not all spring ticks are tiny, and spring is arriving earlier every year.

The cold doesn’t kill them; it just teaches them to wait.

The tick you don’t feel is already awake.

Scientific References & Evidence

Phenology & Range Expansion: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Geographic distribution of ticks that bite humans.” (Documents the aggressive northward expansion of Amblyomma americanum and its changing seasonal activity patterns).

Tick Saliva Biochemistry: Francischetti, I. M., et al. (2009). “The role of saliva in tick feeding.” Frontiers in Bioscience. (The foundational biochemical breakdown of the anesthetic, anti-inflammatory, and immunosuppressive compounds injected during a tick bite).

Alpha-gal Syndrome: Commins, S. P., et al. (2011). “The relevance of tick bites to the production of IgE antibodies to the mammalian oligosaccharide galactose-α-1,3-galactose.” Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. (Links the Lone Star tick bite directly to the development of mammalian meat allergies).

Here are some useful links to learn more.

• Tick Identification – Illinois Department of Public Health
• Common Ticks – Illinois Department of Public Health
• Study identifies hotspots of disease-carrying ticks in Illinois
• Types of Ticks in Illinois – When Do Ticks Come Out in IL?
• Ologies Podcast with Alie Ward has a great episode on Ticks.  BTW, it’s a great podcast to learn more about any type of science.
• There’s an app to help you avoid ticks!
• VOX has an interesting post about why there isn’t a Lyme Disease vaccine.  Spoiler, there is!  Unfortunately, anti-vaccine sentiment has led to it being pulled from the market. 
• The University of Rhode Island runs the TickEncounters.com website with great information about all things tick!  Check out their blog Tick Notes.
• Camping Cooks has an excellent guide on Lyme Disease.
• LymeDisease.org is another great resource.

Also, get a tick removal tool.  Here’s the one I’ve used.

Another nice kit for removing ticks.