Montana

Deer ticks, Lyme disease carriers, found in Montana

Published

7 months ago

May 28, 2025

Press Room

Deer ticks, Lyme disease carriers, found in Montana

Laura Lundquist

(Missoula Current) Montana appears to have a new invasive species, and this one could come with a few nasty parasites.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services announced last week that three blacklegged ticks, also called deer ticks, have been found in eastern Montana over the past year. While the ticks aren’t necessarily pleasant, the real problem is that they’re known to carry Lyme disease, in addition to several other parasites that can infect people and animals.

The first blacklegged tick was found in Dawson County around Glendive earlier in 2024. A man found the tick on his hunting dog and sent it to the Montana State University Extension’s Schutter Diagnostic Lab, where diagnostician Marni Rolston identified it. Rolston collaborated with scientists at the National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton to confirm the identification.

“This discovery is incredibly important because it greatly expands the geographic range of the blacklegged tick, a carrier of the pathogen that causes Lyme Disease,” said Bob Peterson, an MSU entomologist in a release. “The implications of finding this tick in Montana cannot be overstated.”

In the fall of 2024, two more ticks were found in Sheridan County in far northeast Montana, an area popular for bird hunting, and DPHHS, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, confirmed they were blacklegged ticks.

The percentage of blacklegged ticks that are infected with Lyme disease ranges from none to more than 50% of a population, depending on the area and life stage. Lyme disease infection occurs mostly in the northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and north-central United States, according to the CDC. Blacklegged ticks found in most areas of the southeastern United States are almost never infected.

Lyme disease can produce a wide range of symptoms, depending on the stage of infection. These include fever, rash, facial paralysis, an irregular heartbeat and arthritis.

No pathogens were found on the ticks in Montana, according to the DPHHS. But their presence means Montanans should be alert, particularly in Dawson and Sheridan counties, said Devon Cozart, DPHHS vector-borne disease epidemiologist.

“The presence of this new type of tick in the state could mean that Montanans have an increased risk of exposure to diseases that weren’t previously a threat in Montana,” Cozart said in a release. “These ticks could have been carried into the state by a host animal, or they could be active and reproducing here – we just don’t know yet. We will be conducting further investigations this spring.”

Blacklegged ticks are not native to Montana. Research indicates they survived the Ice Age in the southeastern U.S. and then steadily expanded northward during the 20th century, spurred by reforestation, a warming climate and animal hosts moving north. In addition, blacklegged ticks have subsequently been spreading west, followed by the lone star tick.

Research has shown that several species can serve as migration vectors for ticks, including deer and migratory birds. People can also factor in, because they move animals around, including horses and dogs. In recent years, the number of nonresidents using eastern Montana to train their dogs in the winter and hunt in the fall has surged. Just like ticks can be carried into your house, one or two ticks could hitch rides to Montana on nonresident dogs from the hotbeds of Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

If anything, dog owners should be concerned because pets can get Lyme disease too. In most cases, a tick must be attached for more than 24 hours before the Lyme disease bacterium can be transmitted, according to the CDC. If you remove a tick within 24 hours, you can greatly reduce the chances of you or your pets getting Lyme disease.

According to the CDC, the established populations currently closest to Montana are in the eastern portions of the Dakotas and throughout Minnesota. A November 2023 CDC scientific review concluded that, because black-legged ticks have established in counties in the far eastern parts of Nebraska and the Dakotas, “it is reasonable to assume that (blacklegged ticks) invaded in recent decades from the eastern neighboring states of Minnesota and Iowa.”

The map showing tick presence could change to include Montana if researchers find more ticks. To that end, DPHHS is launching a citizen-scientist program and is requesting the public’s help in tick surveillance, especially in Dawson and Sheridan counties. Anyone who thinks they have found a blacklegged tick is encouraged to fill out this online form.

Montana is home to the Rocky Mountain wood tick and the American dog tick, which can also spread diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Colorado tick fever. These ticks tend to be brown and are much larger than the dark-red deer tick.

Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.

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Montana

Live Updates: Montana State leads SFA 7-0 in the first quarter

Published

11 hours ago

December 13, 2025

Press Room

Live Updates: Montana State leads SFA 7-0 in the first quarter

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Montana

Frigid Friday – several inches of snow in parts of the area

Published

23 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

Frigid Friday – several inches of snow in parts of the area

A band of moderate snow has formed from the Cut Bank area, extending southeast across Chouteau, Fergus, and Judith Basin Counties. Be alert for low visibility and slick road conditions. Icy conditions continue in Lewis & Clark and Broadwater counties, where snow fell on top of ice after some freezing rain overnight. Up to a 1/4″ of ice has been reported on cars and sidewalks. Freezing rain may mix in again this morning as milder air begins to move back in.

Today’s Forecast:

Frigid Friday, several inches of snowfall in parts of the area-Friday, December 12

It will be a frigid today, with high temperatures in the 0s and lower 10s across central and eastern Montana, and mid to upper 30s in Helena.

The snow band will continue throughout the day, bringing several inches of snow to areas east of I-15. The band of snow will gradually push east tonight, impacting Blaine, Phillips, and Valley counties overnight. Snow showers taper off by Saturday morning.

MTN News

Expect difficult driving conditions through Saturday morning, especially east of I-15 and into the mountains.

Arctic air slowly retreats north on Saturday. Temperatures start off in the -10s to near 0 on the Hi-Line and in the 0s for central Montana, then climb to the 0s and 10s for the Hi-Line and 10s to 20s in central Montana by Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, it will be a pleasant weekend in Helena with temperatures in the low 40s. A gusty breeze develops on Sunday, as temperatures warm nicely into the low to mid 40s in central Montana and into the 30s in northeast Montana.

Looking ahead to next week, mild and windy conditions kick off the workweek, followed by active weather returning midweek.

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Montana

Atmospheric river drives flooding in northwest Montana

Published

1 day ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

Atmospheric river drives flooding in northwest Montana

Warm temperatures and an “atmospheric river” of precipitation that flowed into northwestern Montana this week have generated a state of emergency in Montana’s northwesternmost county, Lincoln, as local waterways run unseasonably high.

Around 12 p.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service started issuing flooding watches as area snowpack sites reported 24-hour precipitation totals that were approaching record levels. NWS meteorologist Dan Borsum told Montana Free Press Thursday that the “rain-on-snow” nature of the recent precipitation has led to widespread flooding.

Borsum called the weather pattern “unusual” for mid-December, instead likening it to a warm April.

Zach Sherbo, the public health manager for the Lincoln County Health Department, said in a Thursday afternoon phone call that additional precipitation is expected through Thursday evening, so rivers could continue rising into Friday.

The Lincoln County communities of Libby and Troy have been hit the hardest by the deluge, which prompted emergency services personnel to issue a state of emergency Thursday afternoon. Residents are cautioned against unnecessary travel and those served by the Libby city water supply are under a boil-water order as a precaution in the event of water supply contamination. School has also been canceled for students in Libby and Troy, Sherbo said.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department has identified a handful of bridges that have been compromised or are washed out as a result of flooding. It suggests residents looking for information on road closures and bridge conditions review an interactive map that is available online and linked in a press release posted to the Lincoln County Health Department’s Facebook page.

“It’s going to take a long time to recoup from this, just structurally, just with the bridges we’ve lost already and the condition that they’re in and going toward,” Sherbo said. “It’s a pretty big combined local effort right now.”

Justun Juelfs, the Kalispell-area maintenance chief with the Montana Department of Transportation said three stretches of state-managed roadways were closed or under monitoring status as of 4 p.m. Thursday.

An approximately 80-foot section of the Farm to Market Road south of Libby has washed out as Libby Creek carved a new channel. MDT is also monitoring erosion that is occurring along a U.S. Highway 2 bridge southeast of Libby and along a section of Highway 56 near Bull Lake. Juelfs encouraged motorists to review MDT’s road conditions report for up-to-date information on impacts to state highways.

The Army Corps of Engineers is assisting with sandbag-filling and distributing efforts and the Red Cross has set up a shelter for those in need at the Assembly of God Church in Libby, according to Sherbo.

The Montana Disaster and Emergency Services agency is also lending a hand with the flood response. In an email to MTFP, Anette Ordahl with DES wrote that a district field officer and a recovery coordinator are on the ground in Libby to offer assistance.

In a Thursday afternoon press release, Gov. Greg Gianforte noted that Sanders and Flathead counties have also recognized the flooding by issuing emergency or disaster declarations. Up to four inches of additional rainfall are expected across western and south-central Montana, according to a disaster declaration Gianforte’s office included in a 3 p.m. press release.

The National Weather Service reported Thursday morning that the Bear Mountain snowpack monitoring site, located just across the border in Idaho, received 6.5 inches of precipitation as of this morning, making it the third-wettest 24-hour period for the site in its 44-year monitoring history. The six-day precipitation total for Dec. 6-11 is 13 inches.

Borsum, with the National Weather Service, said the recent, unseasonable warm spell in western Montana combined with the “super strong” atmospheric river to melt early season snowpack and drive flooding. A similar rain-on-snow event in early June of 2022 led to widespread flooding in parts of south-central Montana that required extensive repairs to roadways and bridges.

Thursday, the Yaak River near Troy surpassed its official flood stage, running at more than 7,500 cubic feet per second. Its usual volume for this time of the year is about 200 cfs.

The Fisher River near Libby was also nearing flood stage. As of Thursday afternoon, it was running at nearly 4,000 cfs, more than 20 times its usual volume for mid-December.

Zeke Lloyd and Jacob Olness contributed to this reporting.

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