UConn Health's Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus tells what to watch for with ticks, and when
Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus, director of the UConn Health Division of Infectious Diseases, explains some of the newer ticks that have been showing up in Connecticut, and the illnesses they carry on the September 2025 UConn Health Pulse podcast. (Photo by Ethan Giorgetti)
Deer ticks carrying Lyme disease are common in Connecticut. But the state is seeing other ticks with increasing frequency, and with that, illnesses like babesia, anaplasma, Powassan virus, and rarer ones, like Rickettsia parkeri and Borrelia miyamotoi.
The ticks and what they bring are the only change; ticks tend to stay active for a greater portion of the year. Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus, chief of UConn Health's Division of Infectious Diseases, joins the UConn Health Pulse podcast to explain how to recognize, treat, and reduce the risk of tick-borne illness, and offers some hope about a preventive measure we soon may be able to take against Lyme disease.
The season is expanding. Generally ticks are active whenever the temperature is over about 40 degrees. And so we're seeing that earlier.
— Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus
Listen now:
