With the summer season finally here, it’s time to enjoy the great outdoors. But with the joys of nature come some pesky critters – ticks. Did you know that the only tick-borne disease clinic in the Northeast is located in Hampton Bays?

The Stony Brook Southampton Hospital Regional Tick-Borne Disease Clinic, which opened in August 2023, provides expert tick removal, diagnosis, and treatment by a team of infectious disease specialists, convenient lab services/blood drawing, counseling on tick bite prevention, tick identification, free tick removal kits, and potentially the opportunity to participate in research studies.

“There are more ticks,” Rebecca Young, RN, of the Regional Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, noted in a recent article in the Southampton Press. “The lone star tick has just increased incredibly. There used to be more deer ticks out here, but now there are more lone star ticks. There are many more, all over the place, and they’re increasing in number.”

The Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s Regional Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center free tick disease “Help Line” was established in 2015 and has fielded over 6,500 calls. In 2023 alone, the popular “Help Line” received a record 929 calls, while the tick-borne disease clinic welcomed patients from all over Suffolk and Nassau Counties, as well as from New York City.

Want to learn more about ticks and prevention strategies?

• Tune into “Ticks & Tick-Borne Disease – What You Need to Know!,” a Zoom lecture on Thursday, June 20 at 12:00 p.m. Contact your local library for the Zoom link.
• Download the Center’s “Tick-Borne Disease Reference Handbook for Long Island and the Northeast,” a free booklet available at bit.ly/4awUXzg.

The Tick “Help Line” can be reached at (631) 726-TICK (8425). Appointments for both children and adults are required to visit the Stony Brook Southampton Hospital Regional Tick-Borne Disease Clinic, located at the Hampton Atrium in Hampton Bays. For more information, visit https://southampton.stonybrookmedicine.edu/services/tick-borne-disease-resource-center.