The long, rough winter could mean a tick-infested summer on Long Island.

According to the Cornell Cooperative Extension, snow is an excellent insulator for ticks.

"If the ticks were living in the leaves and then the leaves are covered with snow - they had a nice, cozy, warm place to survive the winter and now they're looking for something to feed on," said Tamson Yeh, of the Cornell Cooperative Extension.

East Hampton's Dr. George Dempsey sits on the advisory panel for the Tick-borne Disease Resource Center at Southampton Hospital. He encourages patients who have been bitten to bring the tick into his office.

"If we can identify the type of tick, then we can identify what disease they might carry and we know what to look for," said Dempsey.

The Cornell Cooperative Extension has developed an app called "TickClick" that has everything people need to know about the bugs.

Cornell Cooperative Extension is a partnership among federal, state, and local governments, the national land grant system and Cornell University.