Looking into the impacts of a cold winter on Vermont’s tick population

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Several subzero and snowy days have people wondering whether ticks are making it through the winter in Vermont.

University of Vermont tick expert Cheryl Frank Sullivan says it’s honestly too soon to tell and it depends on the tick.

Snow is actually a good thing for ticks. They burrow underneath and stay incubated.

But if you combine super cold days without much snow on the ground, that could cause some to die off.

“Things like the winter tick that survive on moose, the cold’s probably not going to bother them a little bit or all that much. The black-legged tick that’s actually free in the environment. If you have cold and snowless winters, that can be a little bit detrimental to their population because they can dry out a little bit,” said Sullivan.

Sullivan says closer to spring, she’ll have a better idea of what Vermont’s ticks will look like.

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