Maine’s Least Favorite Pest is Now Just a Year-Round Resident

Once upon a time, I thought we got a rest from ticks.

They, whomever "they" are, used to say that we got a reprieve from ticks at a couple of points during the year. There always seems to be the summer lull, when it becomes too hot and dry in some areas, for the ticks to be active. And we used to be able to depend on the winter weather to also offer us some relief from the 8-legged jerks.

But these days, it seems that there's just no more guaranteed relief from ticks. For instance, last summer the damp, clammy weather never really let up, so ticks were everywhere. Here we are now in January, and we because a lack of deep cold and/or snow, we have to continually check our pets and ourselves for ticks.

For real, people are still posting on social media about ticks. In January...

Last year, I feel like right around the holiday season, we didn't really have a lot of snow on the ground. And I remember coming in from a walk in our back woods with my dog and pulling three ticks off him. It was the like the second week of January and it was in the 50's.

Right now, people are posting on Reddit that they're seeing ticks out right now, down in Southern Maine. But I've seen plenty in my own yard, too. Granted, once we get some snow on the ground, we'll have a bit of a respite. But it really does seem outrageous to have to keep my giving my dog tick-preventive medicine.

The moral of the story here is that you sadly still have to remain vigilant when it comes to the little bloodsucking yard demons. We're gonna have to keep it up with the treatments and the constant checks. Can we somehow just go back to the old days when they were nearly non-existent? That'd be great...

The mosquito can keep it's title as insect, because you know... that whole eight-legged thing on ticks...