May 2026
2026 Is a Record Tick Year: What Hunters, Hikers, and Landowners Need to Know
If it feels like you're seeing more ticks this year, you're not imagining it. Data shown at a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health briefing found something striking: emergency room visits for tick bites were up more than 25% in April 2026, compared to May 2026. That's the highest April rate since 2017. By late June, weekly tick-related ER visits had climbed even higher. The season also started earlier than usual, with tick activity picking up in February and March instead of waiting for spring.
The CDC now expects more than 500,000 Lyme disease cases in the U.S. this year. And Lyme disease is just the best-known threat. Ticks in the U.S. also carry Rocky Mountain spotted fever, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, alpha-gal syndrome, and the rarer but serious Powassan virus.
Why this matters if you spend time outside
If you hunt, hike, fish, camp, or manage land, you're already in the highest-risk group there is. And the map is shifting — tick populations are spreading into areas that used to see very few cases, which means people who never thought about tick-borne illness now need to.
Here's the good news: early Lyme disease is very treatable. Here's the bad news: it's also one of the most often misdiagnosed illnesses in medicine. Part of the reason is that the classic bullseye rash doesn't show up every time, and early symptoms — tiredness, headache, low fever, joint aches — look like a dozen other things.
Prevention still does most of the work
Before medicine ever enters the picture, prevention is your best move:
- Treat clothing and gear with permethrin. It stays effective through several washes.
- Tuck pants into socks, and wear light colors so ticks are easier to spot.
- Check your whole body for ticks every evening after time outdoors. Ticks often go unnoticed for hours before they attach.
- Remove ticks the right way. Use fine-tipped tweezers and pull straight up. Don't twist.
When prevention medicine becomes part of the conversation
Doctors use set rules to decide if a single dose of preventive antibiotic makes sense after a tick bite. They look at how long the tick was attached, how fast it was removed, and how common Lyme-carrying ticks are in that area. This is a decision to make with a doctor, not on your own. But it's exactly why doxycycline is a staple in wilderness medicine kits — it's one of the most useful antibiotics around, also good for sinus infections, pneumonia, and bite wounds. Knowing the early signs of Lyme disease, and knowing when treatment is time-sensitive, matters just as much as having the medicine itself.
What to watch for after a bite
Even with careful prevention, bites happen. Know the warning signs that mean you should call your doctor: a spreading red rash (with or without a bullseye pattern), fever, chills, tiredness, or joint pain that shows up days to weeks after spending time outdoors — especially in tick habitat.
The takeaway
This is shaping up to be one of the worst tick seasons on record, and it isn't over yet. If your fall includes deer camp, late hikes, or land work in tick country, prevention and early warning signs are your best defense. Having the right medicine on hand, prescribed and ready, closes the gap when the nearest clinic is a long drive away.
Stay safe out there.
This article is for general education. It isn't a substitute for medical advice from your own doctor. Decisions about tick-bite prevention and treatment should always involve a licensed medical provider. Survival Scripts kits are prescribed through a licensed telehealth visit with U.S.-based physicians.