People’s Google searches could provide the key to keeping an eye on the effects of climate change, scientists believe.

Did you know that what you ask the web’s biggest search engine could provide valuable information to people who are trying to track what’s happening to our planet?

No, not searches for pasta recipes or cats in various predicaments – people’s questions about ticks that could yield key insights into their populations and movements, indicators of climate change.

The conventional wisdom in recent years has been that climate change will spawn more ticks and tick-borne diseases in northern countries such as Denmark.

However, the current body of knowledge about how tick-borne diseases spread is limited.

According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), much more monitoring of tick and other vector-borne diseases is needed – in part to measure the effects of climate change, as well as to monitor the spread of diseases such as Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis.

But keeping an eye on tick populations remains notoriously difficult, according to Per Moestrup Jensen, an associate professor in the plant and environmental department at the University of Copenhagen.

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“The IPCC says that we desperately need monitoring. But where the heck can we get it from?” he said.

“Usually, you drag a stick with a flag across the ground and count how many ticks settle on the flag.

“On a good day, we can examine 1000 m2. But there’s no way for us to go out and collect ticks on a scale that resembles monitoring. Google Trends offers a shortcut.”

He was part of a team of researchers who extracted data for when during the year Danes and the populations of nine other European countries searched for the word “tick” over ten years.

By matching their findings with weather data, they analysed whether the Google searches aligned with ticks’ seasonal patterns in the specific places and respective climate variations.

The duration of tick activity depends on temperature.

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Prof Jensen said the fact that many people who are bitten by ticks search for information about it on Google lets researchers observe where in the world they are being searched for and when.

“Looking across Europe, there’s a very clear correlation between people’s tick searches on Google and local temperature variations.

“It confirms our beliefs about the seasonal patterns of ticks.”

He added: “So, here’s a request: If you get bitten by a tick and find yourself uncertain about anything, search online.

“You’re bound to discover plenty of useful information. Because at the same time, you’ll be helping to advance scientific research.”

The research was published in the journal Insects.

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