I returned from a hike with a Ziploc bag of ticks I’d dug from my thigh, watching them squirm for weeks before flushing them down the toilet. In the Midwest, where I grew up unaware of ticks, Dr Bobbi Pritt warns that “ticks that transmit Lyme disease are now present in almost half of the counties in the continental US.” The CDC estimates 476,000 Americans are diagnosed and treated for Lyme each year, while another 450,000 may have alpha‑gal syndrome, a life‑threatening red‑meat allergy triggered by the Lone Star tick.

Personal ordeals illustrate the stakes. Amanda Fairbanks, bitten at a nursery‑school fundraiser on Long Island, endured years of rash, facial numbness, brain fog and post‑treatment Lyme syndrome. Sharon Forsyth of the Alpha‑Gal Alliance was bitten while butterfly‑hunting despite permethrin‑treated gear; a single bite gave her anaphylactic reactions to hamburgers.

Experts stress that most bites cause no illness, but precautions matter: stay on trail centers, tuck socks into trousers, check behind knees, groin and scalp, use repellent and permethrin clothing. Dr Scott Commins notes that only a fraction develop disease, and Forsyth refuses to “live in a basement.” The consensus: keep hiking, take precautions, and accept the small risk as part of being human.