CDC reports record high ER visits for tick bites: What Bay Area doctors say you need to watch for this summer

TAMPA, Fla. - Wherever there’s grass, bushes, and leaves, they may be ticks, and Florida is not immune.

Record spike in tick bite ER visits

By the numbers:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a record number of visits to the emergency room for tick bites in April, the highest since 2017. According to the tick bite data tracker, there were 104 ER visits reported in April 2026 and 101 in April 2017. 

"For the Tampa Bay area, honestly, almost every home, not to be alarmist, but it's common. So just knowing that even in a yard, you can have that in your own backyards," Dr. Kartik Cherabuddi, a professor of infectious diseases at USF Health and the chief epidemiologist at Tampa General Hospital, said.

Cherabuddi said tick bites are difficult to track and underreported, so it’s likely there are much higher numbers of people treating bites on their own.

Summer and Memorial Day are peak tick season

What they're saying:

As school lets out for summer and people gear up for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, tick season is here. Ticks are seen year-round in Florida, but doctors like Dr. Evelyn Huang with Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital in St. Petersburg said they see more patients during the summer months. Some ticks spread diseases, like alpha gal syndrome, where you develop a red meat allergy, ehrlichiosis and Lyme disease.

"Typically, Lyme disease will start with a red bump where that tick was, and that red bump will start to expand and get bigger," Huang said. "The center part of the rash will kind of clear up. So, it'll kind of return to your natural skin tone. It kind of looks like a bullseye or a target. And that's kind of our classic sign of Lyme disease." 

Prevention tips

What you can do:

The key to preventing infection is catching the tick and removing it within the first 24 hours. 

"Catch it earlier than that or before the tick is engorged with blood, you really don't suffer any consequences," Cherabuddi said. "Even on those who are truly exposed, many of us are able to beat the infection with our own immunity." 

Doctors advise you to remove a tick gently with tweezers as soon as you spot it, and to watch for any symptoms like a fever or rash. Prevention tips include wearing protective clothes — like long sleeves and pants, and taking a bath as soon as you get home. You can also keep your grass trimmed and walk on paved areas where ticks don’t like to go.