Paralysis Tick Geography:

[sandgrubber]

Thanks, everyone for replies. The best I can figure is, that, sigh, like so much else in life, it's complicated.

I pull loads of ticks here in California. Sometimes I get three or four off each dog when we go through the daily inspections (you're right, the dogs love being feel-ed over). I get ticks as well as the dogs. It itches like hell and sometimes the pull-spots get infected when I pull them from myself (mostly it's the juveniles that get me . . . not the big fat suckers). I finally ended out putting the dogs on the chemical equivalent of Frontline-Plus in the spring, when we have the most ticks. But the little buggers we get here are a nuisance and not deadly. Lots of wildlife. No hope of getting rid of them. I like living where there's lots of wildlife. It scares the crap out of me to think of getting similar numbers of ticks when they may be a life and death matter. I spent ~15 yrs in WA, but haven't coped with the east coast conditions.

[kosmology]

Thanks, everyone for replies. The best I can figure is, that, sigh, like so much else in life, it's complicated.

I pull loads of ticks here in California. Sometimes I get three or four off each dog when we go through the daily inspections (you're right, the dogs love being feel-ed over). I get ticks as well as the dogs. It itches like hell and sometimes the pull-spots get infected when I pull them from myself (mostly it's the juveniles that get me . . . not the big fat suckers). I finally ended out putting the dogs on the chemical equivalent of Frontline-Plus in the spring, when we have the most ticks. But the little buggers we get here are a nuisance and not deadly. Lots of wildlife. No hope of getting rid of them. I like living where there's lots of wildlife. It scares the crap out of me to think of getting similar numbers of ticks when they may be a life and death matter. I spent ~15 yrs in WA, but haven't coped with the east coast conditions.

I guess it depends on whether or not you're prepared to risk living in a P tick region. The current La Nina weather pattern is affecting the east coast to such an extent that flooding/year-round torrential rain - and the humidity associated with this - is more than likely contributing to a more hospitable environment for the ticks.