R on Nostr: Time to view deer populations the same as feral hogs. Time for helicopter deer ...

Time to view deer populations the same as feral hogs. Time for helicopter deer hunting 🚁😎

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Ontario is seeing a surge in tick-borne disease that shows how fast this problem is escalating.

Reports of blacklegged ticks in the province are up 45% over the same period last year, with 1,672 Lyme-carrying ticks logged so far in 2026. The Greater Toronto Area is the epicenter, driven by warmer winters, dense ravine networks, and growing white-tailed deer populations.

Canada's Lyme disease cases have gone from 144 in 2009 to 5,239 in 2024. A 2016 study found 41% of blacklegged ticks in Ontario carry the Lyme bacterium. If left untreated, the infection can spread to the nerves, joints, and nervous system and become difficult to treat. The widely used antibody tests can return false negatives during the first four to six weeks of infection, which is the most critical window for treatment.

One 28-year-old Toronto woman contracted Lyme from a tick bite in 2016. Her initial test came back negative. Doctors refused to believe she had the condition. She spent two years looking for answers while developing neurological symptoms including twitches and tremors. She was eventually diagnosed by a private California lab. By then, antibiotics couldn't fully quell her symptoms. Today she remains unable to work full time and lives with chronic pain and fatigue.

Ticks also carry alpha-gal syndrome, which causes a severe, often permanent allergy to red meat. The arachnids are gradually spreading northward into regions that were previously too cold, and adult blacklegged ticks can become active any time the temperature rises above 4°C, even in winter.

The president of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation says reported numbers are likely a "huge underestimation" as Lyme has historically gone under-reported.