Tick Season in Germany and Austria: Risk Areas and When to Be Careful

Sunlit hiking path at the edge of a mixed forest and wildflower meadow in the Bavarian Alps foothills in late spring, typical tick habitat in Germany and Austria

TL;DR — key takeaways

  • Tick season in Germany and Austria runs roughly from March to October, but ticks become active whenever the ground temperature stays around 7 °C or above — which in mild winters means bites in January.
  • There are two peaks: a strong one in late spring and early summer, when the tiny nymphs are out, and a smaller second one in September and October.
  • Germany defines official TBE risk areas district by district; almost all of them are in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, southern Hesse, south-eastern Thuringia and Saxony, and the list creeps slowly northwards each year.
  • Austria is treated as endemic as a whole rather than being split into risk districts, and TBE has been found at higher altitudes than a generation ago.
  • The risk map only tracks TBE. Lyme borreliosis is far more common, has no routine vaccine, and occurs across both countries — so bite prevention matters everywhere, not just inside the shaded areas.

If you walk, run, garden or camp in Germany or Austria, tick season is not an abstract date in a calendar — it is a habitat and a temperature. Knowing when ticks are active, and which regions carry the higher risk of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE, in German FSME), lets you take the sensible precautions at the right time of year instead of worrying about it all summer.

When is tick season in Germany and Austria?

The common tick in both countries is Ixodes ricinus, the castor bean tick. It does not follow the calendar; it follows the thermometer and the humidity.

  • Activity threshold: ticks start questing once temperatures hold at roughly 7 °C. In practice that means from late February or March in most years.
  • Main season: March to October, with the highest number of reported bites between May and July.
  • Autumn peak: a second, smaller rise in September and October as adults become active again.
  • Winter: mild spells can wake ticks up at any point. A frost does not clear them — it only pauses them. We looked at that in detail in our guide to whether ticks are active in winter.

Why late spring is the riskiest period

The dangerous stage is not the adult tick you can see. It is the nymph — about the size of a poppy seed, active in huge numbers in late spring and early summer, and easy to miss on skin. Most TBE and Lyme infections are traced to bites that were never noticed at the time.

Where the risk areas are in Germany

Germany is unusual in mapping TBE risk formally. The Robert Koch Institute assesses reported cases district by district and publishes an updated list of FSME-Risikogebiete each spring. The pattern has been stable for years, with slow expansion at the edges:

  • Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg — almost entirely designated risk areas; these two states account for the large majority of German TBE cases.
  • Southern Hesse, south-eastern Thuringia and Saxony — substantial contiguous risk areas.
  • Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and parts of Lower Saxony — individual districts, added gradually as cases appear.
  • Northern Germany — largely outside the designated areas, but isolated districts have been added in recent years, so being in the north is not a guarantee.

The German Standing Committee on Vaccination recommends TBE vaccination for people who live in or travel to these districts and are likely to be exposed to ticks.

Where the risk areas are in Austria

Austria takes the opposite approach: the country is regarded as an endemic area as a whole, and vaccination is recommended for the entire resident population rather than for particular districts. Historically Austria had one of the highest TBE incidences in Europe; a sustained national vaccination campaign since the early 1980s is credited with cutting cases dramatically, and coverage remains among the highest anywhere.

Two points are worth knowing if you are hiking there. Hotspots are concentrated along river valleys and in the warmer eastern and southern regions — Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Burgenland and the Tyrolean valleys. And the virus has been detected at higher altitudes than it used to be: the old rule of thumb that ticks stop above about 1,000 m no longer holds reliably.

Germany and Austria compared

Germany Austria
How TBE risk is defined Officially designated risk districts, reviewed annually Whole country treated as endemic
Main affected regions Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, southern Hesse, SE Thuringia, Saxony Danube and other river valleys; Upper/Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Burgenland
Vaccination advice Recommended for people exposed to ticks in risk areas Recommended for the general population
Lyme borreliosis Everywhere, including outside TBE risk areas Everywhere
Peak season May–July, second rise in September–October

What the risk map does not tell you

The map is a TBE map. It says nothing about the infection you are far more likely to meet: Lyme borreliosis, caused by Borrelia bacteria carried by a significant share of ticks in both countries. Lyme is estimated in the hundreds of thousands of cases a year across Europe, against low thousands for TBE, it occurs well outside the designated risk districts, and there is no vaccine in routine use against it.

So the two risks behave differently. A vaccine handles TBE; only avoiding and quickly removing bites handles Lyme. That is also why being vaccinated does not retire the rest of the routine — a point we unpack in why vaccinated walkers still need tick protection.

When to be extra careful

  • Habitat over region. Ticks sit on low vegetation up to about knee height at the edges of woodland, in long grass, bracken, scrub and unmown meadow — including city parks and gardens.
  • Path edges. The brushing point between a trail and the undergrowth is where most bites happen. Walking in the middle of the path genuinely reduces contact.
  • Damp, mild weather. Ticks dry out easily and are most active in humid conditions after rain.
  • Children and dogs. Both move through vegetation at tick height. Check hairlines, behind the ears and the nape on children; check dogs after every walk.
  • Sitting and lying down. Picnics on grass, bivouacking and gardening on your knees all raise exposure.

A routine for a walk in a risk area

  1. Long trousers tucked into socks, closed shoes, light colours so a crawling tick shows up.
  2. Apply repellent to exposed skin — ankles, lower legs and forearms above all — and reapply as the label instructs.
  3. Stay on the path; avoid pushing through waist-high vegetation.
  4. Do a full body check the same day: behind the knees, groin, waistline, armpits, navel, hairline.
  5. Remove any tick immediately with fine tweezers or a tick tool, gripping close to the skin and pulling steadily.
  6. Watch the site for a few weeks; an expanding red ring, or fever and headache after a bite, is a reason to see a doctor and mention the tick.

How incognito® helps

Vaccination is your doctor’s department; the daily part is bite avoidance, and that is what we make. Our Active Tick Protection Bundle puts skin protection together with the practical kit for checking and removing ticks after a walk. The repellent is DEET-free and built on PMD (para-menthane-3,8-diol), the plant-derived active we source as Citrepel® from Javan citronella (Cymbopogon winterianus) — the same class of skin-applied active the US EPA lists alongside DEET and picaridin. It is clinically proven, vegan, biodegradable and recommended against both mosquitoes and ticks.

For a mixed trip where mosquitoes are as likely as ticks, the Insect Repellent Spray covers both in one bottle. Whichever you use, reapply as the label says — a repellent that has worn off protects nobody.

FAQs

When does tick season start in Germany and Austria?
Ticks become active once temperatures hold at around 7 °C, which usually means late February or March. The main season runs to October, with the highest activity between May and July.

Which parts of Germany are FSME risk areas?
Almost all of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, plus southern Hesse, south-eastern Thuringia, Saxony and individual districts in Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Lower Saxony. The Robert Koch Institute updates the district list each spring.

Is the whole of Austria a TBE risk area?
Austria is regarded as endemic as a country rather than being divided into risk districts, and TBE vaccination is recommended for the general population. Hotspots concentrate in river valleys and the warmer eastern and southern regions.

Are there ticks in the Alps at altitude?
Yes. Ticks and TBE virus have been recorded well above the old rule of thumb of about 1,000 m, so altitude alone is no longer a reliable reason to skip protection.

Can you get bitten by a tick in winter?
Yes, during mild spells. Frost pauses tick activity rather than ending it, and bites in December and January are reported in mild years.

Do I still need repellent if I am vaccinated against FSME?
Yes. The vaccine covers only the TBE virus. Lyme borreliosis and other tick-borne infections are not covered and have no routine vaccine, so repellent, covered legs and a daily tick check still matter.

Sources

This article is for general information and is not medical advice. Vaccination recommendations differ between countries — ask your doctor or a travel clinic what applies to you. If you develop fever, headache or an expanding rash after a tick bite, seek medical advice. Always follow the product label.