Ballwin Rescue Center Says Warm Winter Could Mean More Ticks

Despite being mid-January, it feels as through winter has only finally arrived. Luckily, this year’s peculiar inversion of spring and winter won’t have a large effect on local plants and animals, according to the Ballwin-based Wildlife Rescue Center.

The center did name one animal whose habits might have changed in the winter weather: The tick.

“Ticks are typically inactive during winter months, but they can become active again when temperatures rise above 40 degrees Fahrenheit,” the center said on its blog.

That means we could see larger-than-normal tick populations this spring, which could affect other animals, such as deer.

The wildlife center said they don’t expect any changes in hibernation patterns.

The warm weather caused some plants to flower later in the year than normal, but spring’s display of flowers should be just as lovely as it normally is, the center said.

“Some plants have flowered later than usual, but there is no effect anticipated on the spring display of flowers,” the center said on its blog this week.

Plants use snow as insulation to protect them from frost, so the lack of snow may cause “a few plants” to “succumb” to any harsh winter to come, the center said.

Meteorologists attribute the warm weather to La Niña, “an atmospheric weather pattern that occurs when the sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean become cooler than normal,” according to the center. La Niña comes around every three to five years.