Data show increase in ticks, Lyme disease in city

August 5, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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CITYWIDE — NEW RESEARCH FROM Columbia University has revealed an increase in ticks infesting the city’s parks, reports Gothamist, while other statistics show that the incidence of Lyme disease, which is caught from tick bites, has steadily increased in New York over the last two decades. Lead researcher Professor Maria Diuk-Wasser found that while in 2022 40% of parks in Brooklyn and Queens had tick populations, in 2023 that number shot up to an astonishing 80% of parks surveyed, including in Prospect Park. Lyme disease cases rose from 704 in 2020 to 3,323 in 2023.

The researchers conducted their study by dragging large white sheets of fabric through the underbrush, then plucking ticks off for study. Staten Island has historically had a major problem with several species of ticks, but has made some strides on tackling the infestation.

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