Tick tubes and permethrin are effective.

Ticks get on you when you walk through tall grass or trees and brush against them. If you're not brushing against stuff, you're fine. If you are, check yourself frequently, and throughly when you get home.

Usually you don't have to worry about them in the winter, but that may be changing as we get warmer winters.

There are vaccines for Lyme disease in development right now. It's worth investigating.

I can answer some of your questions, but not all:

-I don't use flea/tick stuff on my dog in the winter, but make sure to use it long enough in the fall to cover October/November warm snaps.

-I know people who swear by cedar oil for ticks.

-The surface of the trail (paved vs. gravel) doesn't matter for ticks. What matters is if there are plants that could brush you. Ticks will dangle on plants and reach out for a passing animal to hitch a ride on. So it's really the width of the trail and how grassy/shrubby it is that you need to think about.

-Doctors tend to be pretty good about early treatment, and I've known folks who have gotten early treatment before their test comes back positive or negative, just based on the appearance of the bite and an abundance of caution.

-It's worth noting that, generally speaking, if you catch the tick within the first 24 hours it is on your body it won't have had time to transmit lyme. I'm outside a lot and have lived in New England most of my life, and I mostly rely on doing good tick checks after I've been outside.

Everyone mistakenly thinks all ticks are deer ticks that carry Lyme disease. When in actuality, most ticks you find are wood ticks.

I work in the woods and the best thing you can do is a “tick check” after you get home.

As for ridding your yard of ticks, get some chickens.

Permethrin is very effective. I keep a pair of "woods pants" that I treat with the Sawyer spray, re-treating a couple times over the summer. Wash them as little as possible. I've caught a couple ticks on me with the treated pants but nothing compared to the dozen I will get without them.

Picaridin is the only spray repellent I've found that has any effect on ticks. It's pretty good but expensive. I get the lotion and use it on my waistline, sock line, and my neck area for any ticks that are waiting on high brush.

Word of warning: wet permethrin is toxic to cats, so don't treat clothing around kitties if you have any. It's fine when it's dry.

Any Doctor or urgent care place should give you a prescription for antibiotics if you report a tick bite, but you shouldn't do this just because you find one latched on. If you're doing regular tick checks, you should know if a tick has been on you for less than a day. Check your entire body every time you go out in nature and you'll never need the doxycycline. However you can get a script pretty easily in case of any mistakes.

Guinea hens

A couple of years ago I went for a walk on a trail in Lebanon, NH. The trail went through a large field of grass but the trail had been mowed and also driven on by ATVs. The grass was only 4-6" long in the trail. There was a sign at the trailhead warning that it was tick season, but in all my years in New England I never happened to be in an area where they were a problem so I didn't worry much about it.

When I was at the end of the trail I turned around and headed back and noticed a couple of ticks on my shoes. I started looking everywhere on blades of grass and never saw any.

I was freaking out when I got back to the car as I was finding ticks all over me. I took my shirt off and found a few. I got in the car and headed back to work. I had to stop twice to get out and brush off ticks that were crawling on my pants and shirt.

I stripped down in the bathroom at work and found several more ticks. I went over my clothes carefully two different times, pulling several ticks off and finding more on the second inspection. A few were already embedded in my legs.

I went back to my desk and answered the door. The delivery guy noticed a tick on my ear.

I was in a Zoom meeting and felt two more ticks on me during the meeting which I removed.

After the meeting I went in the bathroom and stripped down again and found a couple more.

After I got home the wife found one more on my back.

I had removed somewhere around 40 ticks. These were larger ticks which supposedly don't carry Lyme, but it was still freaky and I will never hike in that area again!

Since then I do tick checks after hiking and only occasionally found one.

Tick tubes, very effective for your own property.

When you look at how many you think you need… up that number. On 3 acres, very wooded, I put out between 30-50 in spring and another batch in fall.

Haven’t seen a tick on my property in years. If I hear it’s expected to be a big tick year, I go closer to the 50.

Great product!

Sounds like someone planted an irrational fear in you.

I hike and camp maybe 10x a summer, for years.

Live in rural area.

My family averages maybe 1-2 ticks a year found crawling, in past 10 years maybe 1-2 ticks embedded.

Keep the yard clean, if possible remove oak trees from property (feel like the acorns bring more mice/chipmunks/squirrels around)

We don’t spray the yard, and only spray picardin/permethrin when hiking

Edit: most of the ticks we find seem to come from a day at the park/playground/ ball field.

My dogs black so can't always see the ticks until it is engorged. These are key.

For your dog:

https://www.amazon.com/Original-Ticked-Off-Remover-family/dp/B00CAQ7C8K/ref=sr_1_6?gclid=CjwKCAiA0cyfBhBREiwAAtStHHmHaUi8qvPTBHHEq_v1CfA10B3QZQ5tMXFuBkd50RRa6rX_5w-tzxoCiGcQAvD_BwE&hvadid=410024793012&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9002488&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=12048103164977144940&hvtargid=kwd-38522923139&hydadcr=15974_11432105&keywords=tick+removal+spoon&qid=1676901745&sr=8-6

Just stay out of brush, look at your trouser legs every few minutes when you're in the woods, and spend a minute checking yourself in the bathroom when you shower after the trip.

I have kids and go out innawoods and I only ever found one tick on me after the fact (still crawling around), and my son once had one in his skin after a camping trip.

It's not a big deal.

If Lyme or other tick-borne illnesses are your concern, daily tick checks during the warmer months are the best prevention. In general, ticks need to be latched on for 48-72 hours to spread disease. If you check yourself every day, you’ll be making make sure they don’t stick on you for more than 24 hours.

I’m not a doctor, but I know that many doctors will prescribe you antibiotics if you have a tick latched on for 48-72 hours as a cautionary measure.

If you have a dog, make sure he or she is up to date on the Lyme vaccine. We also use preventative meds that kills any ticks that latch on to the pup.

TLDR - Ticks themselves are unavoidable, but you can drastically reduce disease risk by checking yourself

Fellow former Minnesotan here. Anecdotally, on average the tick situation is a little heavier in NH than in MN. The St Croix river valley probably has a similar tick load, which isn’t a helpful reference unless you spent time over there lol.

I treat my hiking/outdoors clothes with permethrin. Definitely made a difference when compared to my friend’s who hike with me and do not treat their clothes. Be careful with permethrin around your pets though because wet permethrin is bad for cats/dogs. I treat my clothes outside on the deck with good air flow and allow the clothes to dry before bringing them inside. Needs to be reapplied to clothing after a handful of washes.

Most effective will be a thorough scan for ticks when you get home. Come up with a system to make sure you don’t miss checking any spots.

Edit to add: Ticks like warm, protected areas on your body. Make sure to check behind your ears, along the hairline on the back of your head/neck, armpits, etc.

Yes ticks do exist in New England. Are they the menace the media and people who most likely never go outside claim they are? Hardly.

As others have said, do a tick check after you've been out in deep woods or fields with tall grass. Light excursions on well-maintained trails pose very little chance of encountering ticks. They primarily lie in wait on objects that brush up against you.

Could also get chickens to help w the ticks. (Eggs are a benefit)

May and June are the worst in my observation of decades working outside. July dry weather seems to significantly reduce the population. Permethrin spray on dedicated work or hiking clothes. Only when I break the rules, not stripping down and showering do I bring ticks indoors.

It's very seasonal and depends on the weather. There are good years and bad years. Most of the concern should be for your pets and kids.

I walk my dog every day, and at the worst times I probably average one per day on me. They take hours before they can draw blood, so you have plenty of time to pick them off.

These are 90% dog ticks that don't carry Lyme. My dog got the monthly treatment, and it's very effective. But I still find the occasional tick on her. She had the lyme vaccine, but still tested positive for Lyme twice. She never had any symptoms.

I missed one deer tick a few years ago, and the next day it was engorged with blood. I called my doctor and got an antibiotic prescription over the phone. No issues.

I avoid walking through bushes and tall grass. If my lawn (weeds) gets too long, I'll find one occasionally. Some people spray, and it's very effective. I never felt the need.

Quail and opossums feast. The problem with control is that you are making your yard inhospitable to many forms of life.

If you have a good marriage think of tick checks as foreplay.

Pemethrin treatment on shoes and pants is like magic.

I still strip off in the garage, toss my clothes in the wash, and then hop into the shower as soon as I get home.

> Hire out or spray yard yourself? And does spraying make a big difference? Cost of hiring out? -Tick tubes seem to have an effect. How about mouse traps for the mice that apparently help spread Lyme?

For your curtilage, it's easy enough to do your own spraying, I use a pyrethroid for the yard and non-edible garden plants.

> Materials for tick barriers? Cedar mulch, lavender plants, and other plants that “repel” ticks…is there truth to these working?

The best way to keep ticks down is to reduce their habitat and drive away the animals (rodents and deer mostly) which carry Lyme.

Ticks prefer to live in moist and humid environments. So leaf litter and damp mulch is ideal for them.

> How about mouse traps for the mice that apparently help spread Lyme?

Haven't found many outdoor-rated rodent traps to be reliable and low-maintenance

Hope you're move goes well. I have three dogs. They've all been vaccinated against Lyme. It's a series of two shots. I only use flea/tick topical meds in spring and summer. My vet recommends heartworm medication year round. I have yard and live in a wooded area and I've yet to have a tick latch onto me. I also do quite a bit of hiking in the Whites and never had a tick bite. If you do get a bite and see redness around the bite, physician's will prescribe antibiotics. That's been my experience but others may have different experiences with these nasty insects.

Won’t add what others have already suggested, but maybe I can offer some reassurance.

I’ve lived here 20 years and only twice have the humans in my family had an issue- and by issue I mean finding a tic well before it was embedded. We do use OFF brand tic/mosquito spray when we know we are higher risk of encountering tics, but never for just around the yard.

We have animals so unfortunately they have had them (esp if I lose track of their preventative monthly med dose schedule). My dog ended up with a latent anaplasmosis infection but never had symptoms, and no longer tests positive for it. Key here is making sure you don’t let the dose schedule lapse, and it shouldn’t be an issue.

Welcome to NH.

A good reminder for me to put out tick tubes!

One item I didn't see mentioned here are piles of leaves. They can keep moisture so I have seen ticks from walking through them (or pets that do). Clean it up if in areas you will walk in. No need for garden treatment imo for ticks or otherwise unless you have specific issues to tackle (squash bugs, tomato worms). I do a lot of gardening and don't use anything except on our fruit trees (neem) and find even then I have some fungus issues with the apples I need to sort out. UGH

You will find ticks occasionally on you/kids/pets if you are out in woods or tall grass. No panic, they take a good while to latch in so easy to find and remove once done with your adventure. Treatment for pets is a thing if they are outdoors.

Folks consider Spring often the worse as they are out a lot and can be very small.

With that space you can get chickens perhaps. Too much work for me. Also if you have possum keep em around too.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this, but DEET based mosquito sprays also work on ticks.

Some people say "but DEET is a scary sounding chemical and therefor might be bad for you." But you know what's definitely bad for you? Lyme disease.

NH Department of Health and Human Services has a great site on tickborne diseases.

It includes UNH (University of New Hampshire) Cooperative Extension tools and the Connecticut tick management handbook, healthcare provider info, and lots more.

This is an investment but the best thing we did was install a cedar fence around our yard. We rarely see them inside that perimeter. Our dog mostly gets them on walks on side of road but luckily most are dog ticks vs deer ticks. Through checking upon return helps a lot but we still miss some

+1 on tick tubes. I'm going to be putting mine out in march. Ticks suck here.

I'm religious about checking myself for ticks and will always call the doctor and hold on to the body of the tick if it embeds itself.

We have a fenced yard with horses next door and our dogs used to bring in a lot of ticks when there were shrubs and weeds coming in through the fence. We removed all of the weeds/trees from the fence line, keeping it all well mowed, and added a gravel path between our fence and the horses. I'm happy to say that we didn't see a single tick this past summer. I am a big believer in the gravel barrier now. Good luck!

Vet tech in NH here: most vets will recommend year round preventatives because you never know when the weather will reach a temperature that they’ll come out of dormancy (ie: the crazy ass weather we’ve been having). This includes heartworm prevention too, as mosquitoes can be as resilient (I’ve seen them in my home a few times mid winter) and hw prevention only stays in their system for a few days to kill off any possible baby worms (microfilaria). If you skip a dose or two and they managed to get it in the interim, your dog will have to be treated for it and it’s NOT cheap like in the south….

TL; DR: year round prevention is best. For both fleas/ticks and heartworm

Bonus: most preventative companies will compensate you if you are regular about giving your preventions and they still manage to get a tick borne disease or heartworm.

I found a tick crawling on my dog yesterday (Concord). I will need to check her again today for more ticks. She doesn’t get tick meds year round.

Can some one post a link to tick tubes? I use “one guard” with a fogger.

Spray definitely works, I wouldn't spray it myself though.

Ticks are everywhere. As a landscaper I'm surprised how I have always managed to avoid them.. The only time I've ever had one is once on the Cape and one set of friends house visiting his garden in New Hampshire. I guess some people are more prone, but they are everywhere. I avoid all the chemicals nasty stuff. Just check yourself, just comes alwiththe turf. If you're really that afraid of the forest and field just get a condo or a city apartment

dunno. I have dozens of ticks on me at a time and apparently have never had Lyme. Either that or I'm immune somehow. Of course I run out into the woods and sleep on the ground, so maybe that has something to do with it.

I work outside with some regularity and deep woods off and permethrin have worked well for me. Only have Lyme once so far so here’s hoping I keep it that way.

I have my yard sprayed. Get someone who uses stuff that is safe for other animals! I have a 6 year old son and it’s worth getting the yard sprayed. Also have a dog. We live in the middle of the woods so we do have a lot of ticks. Took my dog for a walk and pulled 6 off her just in a 10 minute walk this last summer. Just check for ticks anytime your outside before coming inside and you should be fine..

How do I get to NH where are best places to apply looking to move there