Tick talk: What you need to know about ticks & Lyme disease - Doctors of BC

The first frost doesn’t mean you can stop checking for ticks. In Nova Scotia, adult blacklegged ticks, the kind that can carry Lyme disease, are most active in the spring and fall, and the province says they stay active until temperatures are consistently below 4°C. That keeps leaf raking, trail walks and dog walks squarely in tick season this month. Ticks don’t need summer heat, either. The Public Health Agency of Canada says they can be active whenever the temperature is consistently above freezing and the ground isn’t covered by snow, and at any time of year when conditions are right.

Nova Scotia has a deer problem—and a tick problem that rides on its back. Blacklegged ticks, the vector for Lyme disease, have made this province the hardest hit in Canada. Many of us know someone — a neighbour, a coworker, a child — whose life has been upended by this disease.

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