Update 11 September 2026

This year, Tekenradar received a large number of reports of tick bites early in the season. The peak was higher than in previous years. However, after the peak, the number of tick bites declined somewhat faster than in previous years. The extreme drought may be the cause. Despite the lower number of tick bites, it is still important to check for tick bites after visiting green areas.

Tick activity rose early this year to high levels. This was evident from the number of people who report each week via Tekenradar.nl whether or not they were bitten in the previous week. The peak was even higher than in 2025 and therefore much higher than in 2024 and the average up to and including 2023. After the peak in June, the number of tick bites declined more quickly than in most previous years. We suspect that the very warm and very dry days were challenging for ticks. They run a greater risk of drying out when they go in search of a host to feed on blood.

July was very warm and very dry. Nationwide, an average of 15 millimeters of precipitation fell in July, according to the KNMI (normal: 78 millimeters). In the southwest, only about 3 millimeters of rain fell in some places. In the first half of August it was very warm and no rain fell at all. From the second half of August onward, rain began to fall regularly again. The current rainfall will not lead to a sudden new peak in the number of tick bites. However, it remains important to do a tick check after visiting green areas. At the moment, each week 1 in 20 of the weekly tick-bite reporters is still being bitten by a tick. The fact that people are still being bitten is also visible on the tick-bite reporting map on Tekenradar.nl.