TICKS

Tick activity is up this year. There are a number of possible reasons for this. One that veterinarians will tell you is that pet owners have become complacent with their usage of tick preventatives on their pet animals. In addition to this reason, with the economy as bad as it has been, there are more foreclosed properties supporting urban wildlife such as squirrels, raccoons, possums, birds etc...all hosts of ticks.

These properties are not being mown and kept u regularly. So there is also very lush tick habitat. And, this spring and early summer has brought huge amounts of rainfall to much of the United States, so there is more grass grown in this habitat. Deer populations are also on the increase and they both support the tick as a host and also serve to distribute them throughout their home range areas which can be quite large.