Unfortunately, it’s gearing up to be a hot tick summer as new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that bloodsucking tick bites are surging this year. According to the CDC, emergency room visits related to tick bites this past April were the highest they’ve been for this time of the year in nearly a decade. Tick bite rates have seen recent highs in nearly all parts of the country as well. And we still haven’t reached the peak of the tick season, which will continue until the fall. “Tick season is here and these tiny biters can make you seriously sick,” Alison Hinckley, an epidemiologist with the CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, said in an agency statement. The tick tracker The CDC has been publicly monitoring tick bites since 2017, via its Tick Bite Tracker. It collects emergency room data associated with tick bites from hospitals all across the country. According to the tracker, the monthly rate of tick bites was higher in April 2026 than any other year since 2017, and well above the seasonal average. ER visits may have declined in May, though the latest month’s data is preliminary and incomplete; even still, the current rate is well above that of many other recent years.