A vector ecologist explains the complexities of tracking tick-borne diseases like Lyme in a climate-changed world ...

Black-legged ticks can carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. (Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images) Spring temperatures usher in the start of tick season in Nova Scotia.

The number of black-legged ticks, a species known to carry Lyme disease, is increasing in Saskatchewan. Thanks to warmer winters, tick season is no longer limited to spring.

In early July 2004, Rob Manten was camping at the Brant Park Conservation Area near Brantford when he caught a black tick biting him. The environmental engineer, who was 38 at the time, thought ...