Throughout the first couple weeks of 2025, like many people, I have found myself recalling some of my favorite memories from 2024 and wondering what the new year has in store. In my personal life, 2024 was full of incredible travel experiences from visiting Glacier National Park to driving to Saint Louis, Missouri to watch Minnesota United defeat the home team in a late MLS season game. I am grateful for all the long-lasting memories I was able to make last year.
At the same time, life at Ney offered its fair share of memorable moments. We planted 500 fruiting tree seedlings with the help of our community, bonded with kids during action-packed summer camps, welcomed over 400 people to our Fall Festival, and successfully hosted an online silent auction to raise funds for the Fall Fling. While each of these experiences is undoubtedly positive, there is one particular memory that blends happiness and fear, I suppose, in its own unique way.
I was declared the 2024 Staff Tick Count winner with a total of 12 ticks picked up while working at Ney.
Between cutting down invasive Amur Maples, walking through grasses to plant trees, or simply enjoying program time outside, it is pretty clear to see that I had many opportunities to come into contact with ticks. Although I certainly don’t miss the feeling of ticks crawling through my hair, finalizing the results of our 2024 tick count did lead me to wonder what my eight-legged companions are up to now that it’s winter.
After feeding on and then being frantically flicked away by a human during the summer and fall seasons, fully fed ticks find ground cover, like the forest floor, to live in during their dormant winter stage. However, not all ticks are fully fed come winter, and not all winters provide adequate cover for ticks, so the life of a tick can be complicated during this time.
There are a couple scenarios that can play out for an underfed tick in the wintertime. First, if they do not eat at all during the summer or fall, they’ll die in the winter. Many people may cheer at that fact, but remember that ticks are an incredible food source for many of our beloved birds, frogs, and small mammals. A second possible scenario for ticks in the wintertime is a bit more frightening for us. If a tick was able to feed, but not feed enough, they do stand a chance to survive the winter. In order to make it to spring, an underfed tick waits for days when the temperature rises above freezing. During those days, a tick can crawl out of its winter cover and finally feed. Luckily for us, our layers of winter gear likely protect us from a winter tick feeding, but on those warmer days, it might be a good idea to do a tick check at the end of your time outside, just in case.
Weather, more specifically, snow accumulation can also impact a tick’s chances at surviving a Minnesota winter. An abundance of snow can serve as additional layers for the ticks to take cover in. Like this year and last year, if we are lacking snow, the ticks do not have the cover they need to stay dormant. As a result, they could either die off or be more active and in need of food.
Now that I have learned a little bit about ticks’ winter living patterns, I’m surprised to know that any member of our staff could potentially add a tick to our count earlier in 2025 than I previously thought possible. With this in mind, it is important to always remember the value of a good tick check. Although I did not enjoy having 12 total ticks crawling around on me, I am very glad that I found and removed each of them. Let’s hope that like 2024, 2025 has memorable personal and work moments to balance out the finding of future ticks!