Louanne Macdonald has a peculiar hobby that takes her into the Chilliwack woods in search of blood-sucking parasites. It began several years ago when she found a tick embedded in her skin after a day of clearing brush near her home in Lindell Beach, on the southern shore of Cultus Lake. Over 25 years as a trail runner and hiker, she had never found one on herself before. She began to check herself and her dogs after spending time outside, collecting the tiny eight-legged bugs in pill bottles and reporting them to eTick.ca, a website supported by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control that monitors ticks in Canada.
“I would occasionally find them,” she said. “And then all of a sudden, last year and especially this year, they seemed to be everywhere, in places where they’ve never been before.”
This spring, Macdonald’s neighbours have been pulling ticks off their dogs after walks on community paths. A parent found one on their child at the playground. On a Facebook page dedicated to camping in B.C., photos of engorged ticks show up between trip reports and campsite queries. At his vet clinic in Maple Ridge, Dr. Adrian Walton said he’s seeing pets with tick bites two or three times a month on average, something he rarely saw 10 years ago.
Despite the tick talk, Disease Control Centre data shows tick reports have remained static in B.C. over the last decade, with variations from month to month and year to year depending on the weather. Health officials said getting accurate numbers is a “complicated and complex task” because records come from public reports, but they remain confident that tick populations are not exploding in B.C., while the risk of Lyme disease remains very low.
The number of tick reports across the province tripled in February compared to last year, up to 75 compared to 25 in 2025, but they were down again in the following months, said Muhammad Morshed, head of zoonotic diseases and emerging pathogens at the Disease Control Centre. So far this May, there have been between 150 and 200 tick reports compared to 300 last May.
Nevertheless, Macdonald and her neighbour Angela Hauser, who was bitten by a tick in the Interior several years ago, want to see more tick education and awareness in B.C., particularly as the range of the arachnids is expanding globally due to climate change. Cases of Lyme disease, which is transmitted through tick bites, are also rising, from about 2,600 cases across Canada in 2019 compared to more than 5,200 in 2024.
Macdonald and Hauser were surprised the Disease Control Centre data doesn’t show an increase in ticks or Lyme disease in B.C. They recently picked five ticks off their dogs after a single walk. “That shocks me,” said Hauser, who sells a natural tick spray that she uses to protect herself and her pets. “I think that’s a lack of reporting.”
While Lyme disease remains rare in B.C., it is increasing across North America as tick populations explode. Hikers, campers, and pet owners are advised to check for ticks after spending time outdoors and to report any findings to help monitor the spread.
