Tick season is getting worse. Can managing deer help?

A female white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) whose ears are infested with ticks at Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland. Mary Swift/iStockphoto/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Mary Swift/iStockphoto/Getty Images In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Virginia Barbatti moved with her family to Martha's Vineyard full time. It's an idyllic beach island off the coast of Massachusetts, a summer retreat for presidents from Ulysses S. Grant to Barack Obama. In the evenings, around dinnertime, deer roamed Barbatti's yard. "That was really exciting for us when we first moved here," Barbatti says. "It felt like we were connecting with nature and the outdoors." Fast-forward a few years, and Barbatti's feelings have changed. "Knowing that there are thousands of ticks potentially on a deer as they're walking through your yard, and they're dropping and moving them across the landscape — it really starts to shift perspective." She's now director of a nonprofit, started in December 2025, called Tick Free Martha's Vineyard . Barbatti's island haven is plagued with ticks — small arachnid parasites that live in the grass and woods, hitch rides on roaming animals and drink their blood. When some types of ticks bite humans, they can provoke life-threatening allergies to red meat. Others can transmit bacteria that cause Lyme or other diseases. Want the latest stories on the science of healthy living?