Tick monitoring app opens to NWT residents

An app that tracks tick populations says residents in the Northwest Territories and Yukon can now report sightings of the parasites.

The eTick app last week announced a partnership with the NWT government, having opened to all Canadian provinces last year and launched in the Yukon in April.

Ticks can be found in the Northwest Territories, though you’re unlikely to encounter one. Winter ticks have been found on some moose and caribou in the southern NWT, but ticks normally found in the territory do not carry the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease.

Ticks appear so rarely in the NWT that the discovery of one tick in Yellowknife in 2017 warranted a news report.

The app allows residents to identify any tick they might find and report sightings, helping researchers to monitor tick populations.

“Although ticks are currently rare in the North, this situation may change rapidly due to climate change,” eTick stated on Twitter.

So far, a map produced by the app shows no reported sightings in the NWT or Yukon.