While still rare in Canada, they aggressively target humans and domestic animals and their saliva has been reported to cause a nasty meat allergy in some of the people they bite.

In recent months, various media outlets have been reporting that Canada is anticipating an explosion of ticks this year thanks to a mild winter that has failed to kill off resident tick populations in many regions. As with everything related to Lyme disease, the situation is much more complicated than what's being reported.