Illinois Ticks Worse Than We Thought, Especially In 2 State Parks

Remember when we told you earlier this season that ticks were shaping up to be a big problem in Illinois?

Well, it turns out we may have underestimated just how big that problem could be.

Two Illinois state parks have landed on a national list of the 10 state parks with the most severe tick-borne disease problems.

World Atlas ranked Starved Rock State Park #8 and Mississippi Palisades State Park #9 in the country, based on the severity of tick-borne disease problems in the surrounding regions.

a person holding a small bug

If You're Someone Who Enjoys Hiking Through Illinois' Beautiful State Parks, This Is Worth Paying Attention To

Starved Rock's combination of dense forest, abundant deer and more than 2 million visitors a year creates plenty of opportunities for people and ticks to cross paths. Mississippi Palisades, with its wooded bluffs and river-country habitat, presents many of the same conditions.

But the part about ticks that may be even more unsettling is that sometimes the biggest problem isn't the illness you get immediately after a bite. It's what happens months or even years later.

Illinois is seeing an increasing number of cases of alpha-gal syndrome, according to Chris Stone, a medical entomologist at the University of Illinois. Alpha-gal is a potentially life-threatening allergy that can develop after a bite from certain ticks, particularly the lone star tick.

A tick is on a person's skin

Alpha-Gal Is Not Your Typical Allergy At All

People with alpha-gal can develop reactions to red meat and other products derived from mammals, including beef, pork and lamb.

Symptoms can include hives, swelling, stomach pain, vomiting or diarrhea, difficulty breathing and, in severe cases, anaphylaxis. One especially strange feature is that the reaction often doesn't happen immediately. It can take several hours after eating the offending food.

So you could get bitten by a tick while enjoying a hike, feel perfectly fine, and never realize the bite may have set something very unusual in motion.

a black and red bug on a yellow flower

There Is Some Good News

You don't have to give up Illinois' parks. Just don't give the ticks a free meal.

Wear long pants and sleeves, use an EPA-registered insect repellent, stick to maintained trails when possible, and always check yourself, your kids and your pets for ticks after being outdoors.

Because apparently Illinois ticks weren't satisfied with just ruining our hikes. Now some of them are trying to ruin cheeseburgers and steaks, too.