Ticks in Maine Thriving After Long Cold Winter

Prepare for a rough summer with ticks.

The past few weeks I've done some serious hiking as the snow melted away. This spring I've hiked the old Shoreline Railway in Hancock, Big and Little Chick Hill and Bald Mountain twice. With all that time in the woods I'm getting back in the habit of checking for those pesky ticks.

Even with a long, cold winter, tick populations are thriving in Maine. Last year Maine had over 1,300 cases of Lyme disease, one of them being my dog Jojo. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention is warning that our good ol' fashion Maine winter did nothing to hurt the tick population. In fact, it only helped those buggers!

All that heavy snow helped protect the dormant ticks! According to experts, it would take two weeks of consistently bellow-zero temps to to hurt the tick population. That didn't happen last winter.

As the ground becomes bare and temperatures exceed the mid-40's, it's tick time.