Ticks Go To The Beach

Dr Shawn M. Carney
Jul 22
7 min read

Tick threat shuts down Connecticut beach for the season! And many of the parasites are invasive non-native species spreading to this part of the country.

Pleasure Beach, a popular summer destination in Bridgeport, Connecticut, isn't just popular among people. It's swarming with ticks! Hence it will remain closed for the entire 2025 season due to the seriousness of tick infestation . (1)

Bridgeport city officials, in consultation with state environmental and public health experts, made the decision after discovering multiple tick species on the island. This is not the first year the closure of Pleasure Beach has been forced, as 2023 required the same measures be done. (2)

Ticks Don't Just Live in Fields and Forests

It is a common assumption that ticks only live in fields and forests, however, that is not the case. Some other common hot spots include trail edges, sand dunes and picnic areas. Their appearance in coastal habitats has been on the rise as part of the climate change global warming trend.

Furthermore, the spread of rodents and birds allow for the ticks to travel over potentially longer distances than otherwise possible, thereby introducing them into beach areas, notably if some of those beach areas have regions of vegetation overgrowth.

As such, high risk activities that contribute to exposure for tick bites when visiting beaches are varied. These include walking through beach grasses and dunes as well as picnicking near vegetation. And as much as our pet dogs need to be walked, bringing them along trails and allowing them to roam through these habitats greatly increases the risk of tick transmission.

The Spread of Non-Native Tick Species and New Challenges

As documented previously by the New Haven-based Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, which has been advising Bridgeport, there are at least four different species of the blood-sucking, disease-carrying arachnids at Pleasure Beach. These include the Gulf Coast tick, Lone Star tick and Asian longhorned tick, among others. Some of these invasive species that pose unique risks are by their carrying pathogens causing illnesses often not tested for and diagnosed in this area. Examples include the red meat 'allergy' Alpha Gal Syndrome from the Lone Star tick and the Asian longhorned "... being associated with more than 30 human pathogens , including Anaplasma, Babesia, Bartonella, Coxiella, Rickettsia, Theileria, and others". (3)

And unlike native ticks, the Asian longhorned species can reproduce asexually, allowing a single female to spawn a full-blown infestation! (3, 4)

Our Changing Climate and Human Health

Human health is intricately linked to the climate and weather patterns that shape our environment. As climate change accelerates, the impact on human health becomes more pronounced, with existing health threats exacerbated and new ones emerging. The United States is already witnessing the effects of these changes, from more frequent and intense extreme weather events to rising sea levels and melting ice caps. Understanding the connection between climate change and human health is crucial for making informed decisions about mitigating future climate change and prioritizing measures to protect public health.

The evidence of climate change is undeniable, with extensive data confirming unprecedented shifts in air and ocean temperatures, sea levels, and the extent of snow and ice cover. Human activity stands as the primary driver of this warming trend. (5) The 2023 U.S. Fifth National Climate Assessment highlighted the disruptive impact of rising temperatures and related phenomena on various aspects of American life and the economy. (6) As we confront the realities of a changing climate, acknowledging the human influence on these shifts is imperative for devising effective strategies to safeguard both the planet and human health for generations to come. That climate change, which includes global warming, is worsening health is not a question, the question is how far it will go!

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Ticks Increasing in Number, Range, and Amount of Infectious Diseases They Are Known to Carry

Lyme disease has been known to be carried by ticks for many decades, specifically by Ixodes scapularis, the black-legged deer tick. But these ticks can carry many more pathogens and potential infections than just the organism responsible for Lyme disease. Back in 2004, a study from New Jersey found over 30% of ticks sampled carried Lyme disease as well as Bartonella species and a recent sampling from Newtown, CT found the rate of sampled ticks infected with Lyme disease as high as 50%! (8,9) Yet surprisingly Bartonella is still often not tested for when a person is bitten by a black-legged deer tick. Other infectious bacteria and protozoans carried by ticks, like Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and Babesia, are more commonly tested in people and pets. But this list is by no means inclusive of all the possible infectious microbes such a tick can carry when it bites a person. That list continues to get longer, and has come to include even Powassan virus, which has a transmission time in as little as 15 minutes. (10,11)

But the list of types of infectious organisms from a black-legged deer tick is not the only factor in our worsening scenario with these arachnids; "[p]opulations of blacklegged ticks have established and flourished in areas of North America previously thought to be devoid of this species". (12) Ticks have been increasing in numbers as well as expanding their ranges. This is thought to be due, at least in part, to weather patterns and ecological factors. When the weather is warmer, spring starts earlier and people are outside more often, those conditions align to allow for more 'human-tick encounters'. Milder or wetter winters are also more favorable to ticks and there has definitely been a trend towards milder winters the last few decades. Indeed, as stated above, the previous decade is the hottest in recorded history!

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The warming climate is partially responsible for the tick expansion, as less colder temperatures allow these populations to gain a foot-hold into regions which historically they would not have been able to otherwise tolerate. And this is not just the black-legged deer tick, it applies to other types of ticks as well. As stated above, within the last few years, regions in Fairfield County, CT, reported established populations of two different kinds of ticks after having expanded their ranges, the Gulf Coast and Asian longhorn tick species. (9)

So given the environmental situation, it really is no surprise that incidence of tick-borne illness is on the rise. What is surprising is how ill-informed many physicians remain on the topic! If physicians across the country continue to only consider Lyme disease data for what was REPORTED to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), they will see a comparatively low number of cases. However, if they consider alternatively how often these cases are being DIAGNOSED, they will see the magnitude of the problem is much bigger. (14,15) The CDC themselves have posted on their website that the number of DIAGNOSED cases of Lyme disease is more than ten times over and beyond the number of cases REPORTED to them, with the difference going from approxiamtely 63,000 cases to over 476,000 cases in 2019. (16)

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The content and any recommendations in this article are for informational purposes only. They are not intended to replace the advice of the reader's own licensed healthcare professional or physician and are not intended to be taken as direct diagnostic or treatment directives. Any treatments described in this article may have known and unknown side effects and/or health hazards. Each reader is solely responsible for his or her own healthcare choices and decisions. The author advises the reader to discuss these ideas with a licensed naturopathic physician.