Drought leads to a sharp drop in tick bites
Fewer people are being bitten by ticks, probably because of the long spell of dry weather, the public health institute RIVM said on Thursday.
Reports of tick bites are normally highest in June and July. ‘In the Netherlands, some 500,000 people are bitten by ticks in these two months, and we had a lot of reports in June, but suddenly, three weeks ago, the number dropped dramatically,’ said RIVM epidemiologist Kees van den Wijngaard.
The number of reports made on website tekenradar.nl are also down by almost two thirds compared with previous years.
Van den Wijngaard says the hot weather has forced ticks to dig deeper into the forest floor to avoid drying out. Nevertheless, people are still being bitten, he said.
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