Hungry, hungry tickos: Brief freeze did nothing to kill Lyme-carrying ticks, which make their own antifreeze, expert says

Constantin Takacs, an assistant professor of biology at Northeastern who specializes in studying the local ticks that spread Lyme disease, tells Northeastern Global News that ticks start looking for blood (i.e. yours) when the temperature approaches 40, so that's bad news in general as our winters get less cold, but also something to keep in mind if you go traipsing through the woods or meadows on warmer winter days.

Takacs says that ticks fill themselves with glycerol, a natural antifreeze, so it would take more than a single day of subfreezing temperatures to kill enough of them to make a difference, especially since many ticks manage to burrow deep enough into ground "leaf litter" to insulate themselves from the cold.

Oh, and winter ticks are adult ticks and adult ticks are fresh, um, more likely to contain the microorganism that causes Lyme disease, he adds.