Hotter UK summers are letting deadly fever-carrying ticks survive into adulthood for the FIRST TIME

From the Newshound archive · first published 3 October 2026 · last updated 4 October 2026.

Disease-carrying hyalomma ticks are surviving to adulthood in Britain for the first time, because heatwaves are now warm enough to allow them to complete their life cycle. Dr Jolyon Medlock, head of medical entomology at the UK Health Security Agency, warned that while still rare, officials are "starting to pick up a bit more" of the adult ticks through surveillance. The ticks hitch rides to Britain as poppy-seed-sized nymphs on migratory birds from Africa and the Mediterranean, then moult into adults during hot summers.

Hyalomma ticks are the primary transmitter of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, a potentially life-threatening virus now spreading across the Balkans and Spain.

Adults have been detected fewer than five times in the past decade, but the UKHSA's tick surveillance scheme is recording them with increasing frequency.

Dr Medlock stressed that surviving to adulthood 'doesn't necessarily mean it's an infection risk' — but warned colleagues across northern Europe are watching the same trend.