Provincetown Independent: The Lone Star Tick Settles In, Bringing New Risks
By Samuel A. Church, Provincetown Independent, Jul 2, 2025
It’s the lone star tick. This parasitic arachnid — whose adult female bears a single white dot on its back — is making its way up the East Coast, and experts say it’s here to stay, threatening to raise the incidence of tick-related illnesses as it spreads.
UMass Amherst Professor of Microbiology Stephen Rich told the Independent that the lone star tick has arrived on the Outer Cape. “We’re seeing them everywhere,” he said. “Not in great numbers yet, fortunately, but it does look like they’re getting established throughout the Cape.”
The lone star tick’s population surged a few years ago on Martha’s Vineyard, he said. “We had hoped that it was going to lag a little bit more for the Cape before we started to see that, but it looks like that onslaught has already started.” While Rich said that the situation here had not yet reached the intensity seen on the Vineyard, where lone star ticks almost match deer ticks in numbers, he added that the gap was closing.
‘Freak Out’
The Outer Cape is home to three main tick species: the dog tick, the deer tick, and now, the lone star tick. Dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) are the most familiar in the lineup. Their larger size makes them easy to spot, and they’re less dangerous, with a lower likelihood of transmitting disease compared to other species.
Up to now, it’s the deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) that’s gotten all the attention — and for good reason, given the health risks it carries. These ticks are widespread on the Cape, and they’re the species most likely type to carry Lyme disease, which, although it usually causes mild symptoms ranging from rash to fever, headaches, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes, is feared for the times it turns severe. Even with treatment, some cases worsen — and these, referred to as “chronic Lyme,” can last for months or years.
Though they don’t carry Lyme disease, the spread of lone star ticks (Amblyomma americanum) is a cause for concern, one that University of Rhode Island Professor Thomas Mather, director of URI’s Center for Vector-Borne Disease and its Tick Encounter Resource Center, said should have people “freaked out.”
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