“West Michigan, in general, represents what we would refer to as the expansion front for populations of black-legged ticks in Michigan.”
Dr. William Miller is a wildlife biologist and Assistant Professor of Biology at Calvin University. He leads the county’s tick surveillance study and says tick populations have been expanding up West Michigan’s coastline and inland for decades, and this year’s population is larger than usual.
“And currently some of the work that we’re doing right now is trying to understand some of the ecological drivers of where ticks are being found, and if they are being found there, what are the things that drive how common or abundant they are at particular sites.”
One such site is Seidman Park, where Dr. Miller’s research team drag the trails with specialized cloths to collect ticks to help monitor exposure risks. Ticks are the leading cause of Lyme disease.
A major culprit for the spread? Invasive Japanese barberry, an ornamental shrub that provides the perfect shelter for ticks to thrive.
“And because of that, we may see higher tick densities and potentially higher prevalence rates of the Lyme disease bacterium within the ticks that are surrounding those areas.”
More information about tick exposure prevention can be found online at the CDC’s tick prevention website.
