As public gardens continue to expand their role as destinations for education and conservation, along with recreation, the work of horticultural teams has never been more essential – or more demanding. These professionals spend countless hours maintaining landscapes, caring for collections, and preserving natural spaces that also provide the ideal landscape for ticks.

Ticks can be easy to miss because they are tiny, and you often don’t feel them bite. While the bite itself isn’t always harmful, a tick feeding on your blood can transmit microbes that can cause Lyme disease and other serious illnesses. Public health officials report that the 2026 tick season is shaping up to be the worst in a decade. With tick season in full swing, it’s important to protect your teams against these bugs and know what to do when they attach themselves.

Why 2026 Is Different
Several factors are contributing to higher tick activity in 2026. Heavy winter snowfall acted as an insulating blanket, keeping ground temperatures warmer than usual and allowing more ticks to survive into spring. In addition, last year brought large quantities of acorns, which led to a rise in white-footed mice, one of the main hosts of blacklegged ticks, often called deer ticks. As these host populations grow, tick populations tend to increase as well. At the same time, blacklegged ticks are expanding into new areas of the country, putting more people at risk for tick-borne illnesses.

Early data suggest 2026 may be more severe than recent tick seasons. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), emergency room visits for tick bites are higher than usual in many parts of the country, some even 25% higher in April than the previous year. Meanwhile, Lyme disease cases are approaching 500,000 annually. These figures suggest that ticks are a growing public health concern; it’s crucial to take precautions and stay alert during peak tick season