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Canada Tick Guide (By Province)

Start here for province-level tick species, seasonality, disease risks, and official resources

Written by Phillip George · Last updated: September 9, 2026

Ticks in Canada: the national picture

Canada reported 5,809 Lyme disease cases in 2024, an incidence of 14.1 per 100,000, up from 4,785 cases (11.9 per 100,000) in 2023. The 2025 count is preliminary at 7,105 and will rise as late laboratory and clinical reports arrive. In 2009, the first year of national surveillance, Canada recorded 144 cases (PHAC Tick-borne disease surveillance in Canada annual report; PHAC Lyme disease surveillance).

Those totals hide a lopsided map. About 96 percent of 2024 cases came from three provinces: Ontario (2,369), Nova Scotia (2,350) and Quebec (834). Nova Scotia's rate, 217 per 100,000, is in a different league from the national 14.1. British Columbia reported 21 cases. The territories reported none.

Bar chart of reported Lyme disease cases in Canada from 2009 to 2025: 144 cases in 2009, 5,809 in 2024, and a preliminary 7,105 in 2025.
National counts from PHAC Lyme disease surveillance and the annual report. 2025 is preliminary. Chart by All About Ticks.

East, west and prairie are three different problems

  • Eastern Canada. The blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) is established and still spreading. It drives Lyme disease, anaplasmosis and babesiosis. Nova Scotia, southern Ontario and parts of Quebec carry the highest rates in the country.
  • British Columbia. A different vector, the western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus), carries Lyme at much lower infection rates. The interior's Rocky Mountain wood tick is a separate concern. Twenty-one reported Lyme cases in 2024 is not a rounding error on Ontario's total; it is a different ecology.
  • The Prairies. The large American dog tick, the woodtick of Manitoba speech, is the common springtime tick. Blacklegged ticks are established mainly in south-eastern Manitoba and expanding. Manitoba reported 84 Lyme cases in 2024.

For interactive range maps, use the official ones rather than a copy here: Health Infobase tick-borne disease surveillance and provincial tools such as the Ontario Vector-Borne Disease map and BCCDC's Lyme risk map.

What the numbers do not mean

Reported cases are not infections. Surveillance intensity varies by province. Case definitions have changed more than once: the national definition was revised in 2016 and again in 2024, and Nova Scotia moved to a laboratory-evidence-only definition on 1 January 2023, which increased its reported count compared with the older clinical-plus-lab rule. Comparing Nova Scotia 2022 with Nova Scotia 2024 without that caveat is a mistake. Preliminary 2025 figures will be revised upward. Underreporting is well documented in every Lyme surveillance system, including this one.

Comparison of the five provincial guides on this site. 2024 case counts are from the PHAC annual report. Peak months describe blacklegged tick nymphs except in British Columbia, where the western blacklegged tick is the Lyme vector.
Province Dominant human-biting ticks Peak risk months Reported Lyme, 2024 Where to submit a tick
Ontario Blacklegged tick in the south, expanding north Late spring through midsummer 2,369 eTick.ca; local public health units
Nova Scotia Blacklegged tick established across much of the province Late spring through midsummer 2,350 (217 per 100,000) eTick.ca. Read 2023 and later counts with the case-definition change in mind
Québec Blacklegged tick in the south-west, Estrie and Montérégie Late spring through midsummer 834 eTick.ca; INSPQ publishes provincial surveillance
Manitoba American dog tick (woodtick) in spring; blacklegged tick in the south-east Woodtick in spring; blacklegged nymphs in early summer 84 eTick.ca
British Columbia Western blacklegged tick; Rocky Mountain wood tick in the interior Spring and early summer 21 eTick.ca; BCCDC Lyme risk map rather than a case-count story

Free identification everywhere in Canada

eTick.ca is the national photo-identification platform. You upload a picture; a regional expert replies, usually within a day. Identification tells you the species. It does not tell you whether the tick, or you, carried a pathogen. For that you need a clinical assessment if symptoms appear, not a photo.

Choose your province

Each provincial page answers when tick season runs in that province, which species bite people, how many cases that province reports, and which places carry the most risk.

Ontario

Largest absolute case count in 2024. Blacklegged ticks are established across the south and still spreading north.

Ticks in Ontario
Québec

834 cases in 2024. Estrie, Montérégie and the south-west are the established zone; Québec City sits well north of that core.

Ticks in Québec
Nova Scotia

Highest provincial rate in the country. Read post-2022 counts with the laboratory-only case definition in mind.

Ticks in Nova Scotia
Manitoba

Woodtick season peaks in late spring. Blacklegged ticks are a south-east and expanding overlay on top of that.

Ticks in Manitoba
British Columbia

A different tick and a much smaller Lyme count. The BCCDC risk map is more useful here than a case table.

Ticks in British Columbia
Cite this section

All About Ticks. Ticks in Canada (by province). Updated 2026-09-09. Based on the PHAC Tick-borne disease surveillance in Canada annual report (2023–2024), PHAC Lyme disease surveillance (2009–2025 preliminary), and eTick.ca.

Common questions

Canada reported 5,809 Lyme disease cases in 2024, an incidence of 14.1 per 100,000. That followed 4,785 cases in 2023. The 2025 count is preliminary at 7,105 and will rise as late reports arrive. About 96 percent of 2024 cases came from Ontario, Nova Scotia and Quebec.

Eastern Canada shares the blacklegged tick with the US Northeast. British Columbia has a different vector, the western blacklegged tick, and much lower Lyme case counts. The Prairies add the American dog tick, often called a woodtick, as the common springtime tick.

eTick.ca is the national photo-identification service. You upload a picture and a regional expert replies, usually within a day. Identification tells you the species. It does not tell you whether the tick, or you, carried a pathogen.

Where to go from here

If a tick is attached, start with the removal guide. For clothing, repellents and tick checks, use the prevention checklist. The US comparison is on the USA hub.

Important: This hub is educational and is not medical advice. Reported cases are not a diagnosis, and a provincial ranking is not a personal risk score. If you develop symptoms after a tick bite, contact a healthcare provider or your provincial public health unit.
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