Catherine: We have deer ticks here all winter long. If there isn't snow on the ground, the dog will come in with them and she is in a fenced in yard with few trees! Dog ticks are usually not out until May-June here, so this would be early for them.

I was out walking around in a state wooded area last Thursday...at least I think it belongs to the state....anyway, I had no ticks on me. Now if my mom had been there, she'd of probably had half dozen or so. I swear she walks outside and the ticks find her!

Worst I ever saw was spring of '82. I went for a 20 minute walk in the Carlos Avery Nature Preserve in Minnesota and picked off over 50 dog ticks from my pant legs before I was thru...

Mike

ok,you guys will love this.
We too have always had an abundance of ticks, although it seems worse if you have tall grass. We just have trees, very little grass, but still they are out there. THe running joke here is that I have to buy extra Frontline at the vets to put on my husband and I.
Anyway, I recently had a heated argumant with a kidney stone that ended up at the local emergency room, and at the moment when I thought I was going to have to have a sledgehammer to the forehead to get any relief, my husband starts giggling. I was just about to hammer him into oblivion as well for his lack of sympathy when he leaned over and raked something out of my hair. I couldn't believe it. It was a tick. Now I know there are people that swear by the "ambush-jumping-from-low hanging-branches" explanation when it comes to these vermin, which we other more learned people know better than to believe, but I don't for the life of me know where that little bugger got the chance to make his move. During that pain, though, I did manage to find one little thing to make me smile, even if it was a tick.
THe other tick experience happened just yesterday, in the Kroger parking lot of all places. I was sitting there double checking my list and kept feeling the slightest little tickle just inside the line of my brassiere. I took a quick glance down there....nothing. Probably a hair or a piece of lint. SO I went back to scribbling down grocery items. THen I felt it again, and this time there was no mistaking it, I had something crawling on me. So, I put everything down, set my pen aside, unbuttoned the top button of my blouse and had at it. I was just about to decide it was my mind again when I saw something move, something flat darkish and round. Damn, a tick. I doubled my efforts and just managed to snag the little brute when I saw something out of the corner of my eye and looked to my left to see three elderly people sitting quietly in the car next to me. They were staring intently at this crazy woman digging around in her own shirt, and if they were even slightly any good at reading lips then they knew some of the things I had been saying to myself too. All I could do was smile sweetly, roll down the window a bit,give my forefinger a casual flick, and hope the cursed thing fell of with the first attempt and didn't instead shimmy back up my finger.
They don't know me, they won't forget me.

But better a tick anyday than a chigger!

LOL Dirtgirl.........I thought you were going to say you rolled down the window and gave those elderly people the finger!
Guess what I bought yesterday? A pair of tweezers to keep in my purse! There's nothing worse than being out and finding a tick on you with nothing to get it off with! (except finding a tick in a spot you can't reach and you're by yourself!!).
They are so sticky, even when they haven't dug into you yet. Ever since I found that one on my neck, I've been having these "phantom tick" tickles everywhere!
April has always been the worse time for them. I don't believe I even saw a single one last year........but this is a big year for them. Ohhhhhhhhh....they give me the shivers just thinking about them! They'd be creepy even if they didn't also possibly give you that horrible disease.

We have tons of ticks here too and I treat my pant legs of my jeans with Permanone (Repel) and it lasts for about two weeks through repeated washings. Best thing I have found to combat them buggers. If they get on your pants, they quickly fall off since the Permanone irritates them and will kill them if they contact it long enough.

But, even if I see one on my pants, for the rest of the day I get those "phantom tick" tickles too! LOL.

BN

LOL! The phantom tick tickles!!! I know exactly what that is like, it lasts for hours. They should make a horror movie about that!