People in France are being warned to look out for and stay alert to ticks, as summer approaches - with parents particularly advised to check their children - state tick researchers Citique.
Ticks can carry illnesses such as Lyme disease, and are spreading across the country.
Citique - a research collaboration between Inrae, ANSES, CPIE Nancy-Champenoux, the Université de Lorraine and laboratory network Tous Chercheurs - has been studying the spread, effect, and ways to prevent ticks for eight years.
The researchers urge people to familiarise themselves with the ticks (scientific name Ixodes Ricinus), and learn how to remove them as quickly as possible, to reduce the health risks associated with a bite.
Ticks are most active in May and June, but they have been spotted in France from the month of March onwards, particularly in warmer regions.
In a statement, Citique warned of “a lack of vigilance among citizens in early spring in March and April, with ticks sent to the Citique tick library more frequently engorged with blood and therefore removed too late”. “It is essential to remove the tick immediately as soon as the bite is noticed,” it states.
Since 2017, Citique has received more than 86,000 reports of bites on its online platform, and more than 27,000 ticks have been sent to the INRAE lab in Nancy. Of the bite reports, more than 72,000 were for cases of human bites (33,742 women/girls and 37,974 men/boys), while 13,502 cases were for an animal being bitten.
Where are ticks most prevalent?
Ticks appear to be most common in France in (red areas shown in the map below):
The Grand Est region
Centre
North-east
South-west
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They are not very widespread in the Mediterranean region or in mountain regions, nor in the west, states INRAE. The most recent map dates to 2022, but INRAE has said it is working to update it as soon as possible with the most recent information up to the end of 2024.
Habitat suitability map for ticks, 2022INRAE / Notre-environnment.gouv.fr
Typically, ticks are found in wooded and humid areas (forests, bushes, meadows, tall grass) and are particularly active between the temperatures of 10-25C, in humid climates below 1,500 metres altitude.
However, forest and wooded areas are not the only risky places; researchers found that between 2017 and 2024, 49% of bites reported via the Signalement Tique app occurred in forests, but 23% happened in gardens, and 4% even happened inside the home.
Similarly, the website Citique-tracker has been providing information on the level of risk in a given area, for the past two years. It makes all the data collected by scientists available to the public, and has its own map showing the number of reports per region, between the years 2017 and April 2024.
Alert focuses on children
Citique said that it receives two to three times’ more reports of bites among children, particularly among those aged 0-5 (compared to adults), and INRAE said that in Grand Est from 2018-2024 particularly, “there was also a high incidence of bites among children under the age of 10,” researchers stated.
“The difference is so significant (and corresponds to the same results as other studies in the United States) that we have chosen to highlight it to raise awareness of this risk,” said Citique, when contacted by health information website Destination Santé.
Parents and guardians are therefore particularly warned to check their child’s skin - especially their scalp - when returning from a walk or even from spending time in the garden.
How many ticks are dangerous?
Critique has found that of 2,000 ticks that had bitten humans, 29.9% were found to potentially carry a pathogen. Of these 2,000, 14.5% carried the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease, and 5% potentially carried at least two pathogens.
In addition to Lyme disease (the most common bacterial disease transmitted by ticks), ticks in France are also known to transmit:
Other bacteria: which can cause the fevers rickettsiosis, tularemia, or granulocytic anaplasmosis, which can cause flu-like symptoms and even worse;
Parasites: responsible for red blood cell condition babesiosis (mainly in animals, more rarely in humans);
Viruses that can cause tick-borne encephalitis, or brain swelling.
Tick bites that could lead to Lyme disease tend to be ‘bulls-eye’ in appearance, with a red or white centre, and concentric red rings spreading around the bite.
Lyme disease causes several hundred hospitalisations each year, according to Santé Publique France.
Symptoms include:
Fever, chills, headache, fatigue, and muscle/joint aches.
How can I prevent bites?
Awareness campaigns promote good preventive measures to avoid bites in the first place.
These include:
Wearing light-coloured, long, protective clothing
Applying repellents to skin and clothing
Checking yourself regularly
Staying on paths rather than going into long grass
Learning how to use a tick remover and having one to hand in case of a bite
Removing the tick safely and swiftly as soon as you notice a bite
If you believe your bite might be infected, or that you may have received a ‘Lyme bite’, or feel ill in the days and weeks afterwards, consult a doctor as soon as possible.
Introductory courses on the research process, called ‘Tous Chercheurs CiTIQUE’ (All CiTIQUE Researchers), are organised regularly. They allow anyone who wishes to do so to accompany and assist researchers for two days in a laboratory to better understand their work.
