HelpfulGardener.com

At least in my yard. Found one on one of the pet rabbits today. Now I feel stuff crawling on me. Of course there is nothing there but I feel something crawling all the same.

In general as long as you keep to trodden paths and avoid roaming in tall-ish grass you'll be ok. Ticks like to hang out on tall grasses and plants then jump onto you when you brush against the leaves and blades of tall grasses.

No grass, no leaves. Only a few blackberry plants and a willow shrub. This happened in the nearly barren rabbit pen. I found a tick on a bucket there last year. Never have seen one on tall grass despite years of looking.

The strangest place I've ever seen one was on the wall inside my aunt's house inside the city.

Since it had warmed up in spring, I have been finding one tick on me or near me or on my clothing after being out in the garden, then coming back inside... every day. I kind of got used to it and just inspect gardening clothes and assume I might find one crawling on me.

Then since summer started, it seemed like I was finding one extra every now and then -- not strictly attributable to me, but likely. Last couple of days, it has become more or less official. Toll is now DEFINITELY Two ticks per day.

Despite daily encounters, so far only a couple of near bite (surface skin bite) and one ...well, two... dug in.

Yesterday, I was reminded that I shouldn't dismiss the feeling that there might be something crawling on my skin -- I kept feeling something in my hair while gardening but my hands were dirty and I didn't feel like going all the way back to the faucet to wash. Last evening, I found the day's two ticks on the back of my head, one dug in (which DD expertly removed with tick removing forceps, commenting that she was no longer creeped out by them and was getting good at this -- she is my go-to helper)

Today, came back inside, felt something on back of my head -- at first thought the area was just itchy from yesterday, but reminded myself to trust the feeling and felt around... nothing. Then looked at my hand and thought -- wait, I only had ONE blood blister on my finger, didn't I...? And as I watched, the extra blister started crawling

We used to use lime sulfur in a nylon sock as a pounce. (Art studio term for a powder filled sack, like a resin bag, that you pounced on your drawing to blot ink, dust over imperfections and crumbs and grit, and then use a natural bristle brush to whisk everything away. Don't recall exactly what we did with resin bags, but that was gymnastics back in the Dark Ages when I was a kid. Different century. I digress. Oh, yeah, I think it was mostly hands and soles of feet for grip on bars.)

Back to ticks and lime sulfur. We'd tuck every cuff and shirt tail we could, and pounce the bag over those areas specifically, over hats and napes and up and down naked arms. It was to keep the ticks off and it seemed to help a great deal when out in scrubby areas. While I'd certainly see them and pick them off of clothing or arms, I might go an entire year without one digging in.

Ticks are insidious. But leeches annoy me more.