Well, my area of CT pretty much invented Lyme disease. And yes, some years we see them in Maine.

I have a confession that I will make at my own peril. One year, the ticks were so bad that, when I looked down, I could see them all over the stone walk in Maine. Like ants almost. Usually, i never even see ticks at all, though they are certainly there. From time to time you'd see one or two. This was the year when the neighbors were having a wedding ceremony on our lawn. We sprayed. I don't even know what it was. I don't believe in insecticides, but OTOH I know people with serious Lyme disease, including facial paralysis. I could not risk it.

This year in CT, nothing like that (no visible incursions) but DH has been bitten twice, both after going into the "woods" outside the fenced area of our property.

Not an issue, even though we have deer in our backyard

We use Simparica Trio. I have never found a tick on my current dog.

In NYC a friend walking in a greenway next to a major highway found a tick on her dog and on her scalp. This happened last week. She said that ticks are all over her apartment complex. I haven't been using insect repellent, I think I will start.

They seem bad here in KY. No spray, herbal nor chemical, seems to repel them any more. We went into the woods Saturday looking for morels, and I had 4 crawling on me. DH counted 7 on him. Yuck.

There was a darling Victorian house near us for sale, years ago, on 2 lots with a live oak tree that took up the entire second lot. We went over to look more closely, and the entire back of the house was covered in ticks. Covered. I could not have lived there. Ever.

Oh yes our dog takes a pill and it works 100%.

Oh my this is depressng! https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/05/22/tick-population-is-booming-is-climate-change-responsible-will-tick-borne-disease-increase/

I am quite sure I brought some home in a bale of pine straw we bought last month at a big box store. I needed some to spread in a flower bed. I did the work and then found one on my inner thigh. Creepy! I’ve been spraying ever since when I work in the garden and no issues. Someone later told me one of the big box stores had an entire shipment of pine straw quarantined one year due to ticks.

We had one of the most brutal winters on record here in central Oklahoma. Even with that, I pulled 2 ticks off of the dog within the last week. We live on a heavily wooded lot that the deer seem to meander through anytime they like and eat my flowers and drop ticks. (Not that we needed any additional)

I have a pest guy come and spray 2x a year. Not sure what he sprays with, but it hasn't decreased the birds or other bugs. We still have fireflies, (or lightening bugs) and other insects, but not so much ticks.

Ugh. Hate them. Fortunately, in my wanderings, I've not seen any nor have I seen any on my kitties...I do use frontline on them.

But a former co-worker of mine was recently bit on his hand, took the tick off and thought nothing of it...two weeks later, he felt tired, then spiked a fever of 104, ended up in the hospital with a lung infection and sepsis. Turns out he got anaplasmosis from the tick. Fortunately, he's doing much better now. But that's some scary sh!!

See, that is the thing. That is why I had them spray (by the way, whatever they did, it totally worked). I know too many people who have had very serious issues from tick bites.

Lyme disease is bad here in MN. We finally had a warm day at the lake so I suppose they will be out now. I have yard/woods work I have to do so I will cover up and spray DEET on my clothes so I can get it done and not get infected. Glad my cats are indoor only.

We live in the woods on outer Cape Cod. Seresto collars have worked extremely well for our Australian Shepherds. Wish there was something that could protect humans better. We have to be vigilant.

seagrass

Oddly enough, this past weekend we had neighborhood trail work day on the woods path that loops behind all our houses. Hours in the brush pruning and trimming.p, not a single tick. Then yesterday’s walk event. Ugh.

Mtn, I had one year like you described at our old house, I couldn’t walk out the door without coming back with a tick or two. I also sprayed and it did work. I already put dh on alert that if I can sit on the patio we will have to do something. So far no issues in our yard. We do have a lot of wild turkeys, I wonder if they eat the ticks like chickens do. Come to think of it the bad tick year at old house was after we stopped keeping chickens.....

Eld, yes need to switch to Simparica, have heard good things.

Look for opossum...they eat lots of ticks!

I took one off my lower back last week, when I was at the new house. I had only been in the grass/dog area in the back. I think it came off my 9lb dog that sleeps with me under the covers. Years ago, I pulled one off my stomach. Two weeks later my lymph nodes were swollen. I had forgotten about the bite and thought it was related to recent hysterectomy. Went to my GYN ONCOL who said everything was fine, then asked if I had been bitten by anything. Bingo! Wasn't my first time to find a tick, even buried, but the first time I had a reaction.

I haven't heard of Simparica. Is it new? Need to research a bit, and of course I just bought HeartGuard for both dogs. :-/

As a dog owner and resident of CT and PA, I have always unhappily co-existed with ticks. I swear by Bravecto. My dog gets a chew (dose) every three months. I have never found a single tick on her.

We are in Texas, and thankfully have had very few encounters with ticks. However, whenever DH is out hunting, he always checks and usually finds a couple on him even though he sprays and wears boots, etc. Venomous snakes are a bigger concern.

I think Simparica might be new. Our puppy was put on it, but our older dog is on Heart Guard.

A friend in CT was out walking last week and found 12 on her when she got home. I also know someone who contracted Lyme disease and it derailed her life. She was a former full-scholarship college athlete and marathoner who became confined to a wheelchair in her early 30s. She thinks she contracted it while on a trip to ME. This was many years ago and it took forever to diagnose. She has improved since then, but has never fully regained her health. Scary! Safe safe out there y'all.

What a tragedy Texanjana. Honestly, these stories have me thinking of spraying again. Like all over. And carrying an atomizer of it with me!

My son was home several weeks ago quarantining after being exposed to Covid at his college. He was in our basement for a week, never went outside. Somehow he found a tick on himself! Though we can’t remember if he had been petting our dog during that time, that is the only way we think he could have gotten one. Fortunately not a deer tick.

I, however, found a deer tick in the space between my middle and ring fingers ago. I had just woken up and was still in bed. The area was itchy so I was scratching and felt a bump. I thought it was mosquito or spider bite, but no, it was a deer tick!

Please-if you find a tick that has bitten you-send it in for analysis. I use tickreport.com and also pay for all the pathogens they test for. Prompt treatment is so important for many of the diseases that can be passed by ticks.

I use Nexgard for fleas & ticks

Heartgard for heart worm etc

I think I need to stop opening this thread.

Ugh. Found one on my back two weeks ago and one on my upper arm tonight. They are so disgusting. I wish we had more opossums here. We used to have a lot, but the raccoons chased them off. Love opossums and love that they eat millions of ticks.