2025: Year of the Tick

[Blue Mule]

46 years living and playing in the rural parts of Kentucky and I have NEVER seen ticks as bad as they are right now. It's only May and I've gotten two dozen off of me, wife, cats, dogs. Literally can't even walk outside into the yard without finding a tick crawling up my leg. They are more numerous than I've ever seen, and we just came through a winter that was cold and brutal. I have learned that there is zero truth to the old wives' tale that "we need a cold winter to kill off the bugs". Seems like the more harsh winter is here, the worse the ticks, spiders, bees, and this year cicadas become!

 

[JeepHead]

The last two years have been horrible for me. I have picked as many of 27 off of me at one time. I was in my asphalt driveway just last week putting new calipers and rotors on my truck and wasn't even laying on the ground or anywhere near grass and had one climbing up my neck.

 

[kenmbz]

I have had 4 , one yesterday.
Wife had 1.
Usually find 2/year.
Seen lots of little ones.

 

[ponytug]

Yikes!

If it is that bad, I would be thinking about using one of the permethrin sprays for clothing that are said to be effective.

All the best,

Peter

 

[kenmbz]

Yikes!

If it is that bad, I would be thinking about using one of the permethrin sprays for clothing that are said to be effective.

All the best,

Peter

I do use it, who knows how many I would get otherwise.

 

[tacticalturnip]

They're extremely bad this year, and I swear it's worse every year.

 

[shooterdon]

I wear clothes from Insect Shield that are treated when it starts to get above 40 degrees. I got Lyme disease two years ago. That was my wake-up call.

 

[mllud]

They are bad. The pinhead size mostly.

 

[kenmbz]

I have had mostly the larger dog ticks, but we saw a lot of the little pin head sized ones earlier in the year.
We have more deer, fox etc. than ever. Unusual to go a day without seeing deer.

 

[JJT]

I pulled one off me last week. All I did was mow the lawn. We normally see a few each year, but never after just mowing.

The best tick remover is the Tic Twister. It comes in a two pack, one small and one large. I've pulled dozens of ticks off the dogs and myself over the past 20+ years with the Tic Twister and have never not pulled the entire tick out. When I used tweezers it was 50/50 on tick breakage, leaving the head embedded and requiring additional digging....