This WI State Park Ranked Among 10 Worst Nationwide For Tick-Borne Illness

A Wisconsin state park was ranked among the 10 nationwide with the most tick-borne illnesses, according to a recent list from WorldAtlas.

“The Northeast, the mid-Atlantic, and the upper Midwest carry the heaviest tick-borne disease burden in the United States, and the wooded parks in those regions put people directly into the habitat where deer, mice, and infected ticks overlap,” according to WorldAtlas.

The ranked parks have documented tick activity, are the subject of published research, or have drawn firsthand accounts of infection, according to the website, which ranked the parks by severity of tick-borne disease in the surrounding region.

In Wisconsin, Devil’s Lake State Park ranked No. 5, with WorldAtlas noting it is the most-visited state park — with more than 2 million people a year — in a state that records over 3,000 Lyme disease cases annually, and “the mix of wooded trail and open bluffland at Devil's Lake creates the edge habitat where ticks concentrate.”

The state parks ranked highest for tick-borne illness nationally were Pine Grove Furnace in Pennsylvania at No. 1, Green Lakes in New York at No. 2, and Harriman, also in New York, at No. 3.

“The parks on this list are not places to avoid; they are places to enter prepared,” WorldAtlas reported.

Visitors should use insect repellent with 20-30 percent DEET, wear long sleeves and pants, stay on cleared trails, check for ticks during and after a hike, take a shower within two hours of coming inside, and put worn clothing in a hot dryer for 10 minutes, according to WorldAtlas.

Read the full list from WorldAtlas.