Was this a tick on my desk in my room???

Oh yeah, that's a tick! They are amazing little buggers!! They can get transported without us even knowing about it!

It happens! We found one on the dash of our car once. They're going everywhere in north america lately too, because of migratory birds carrying them.

Here I am up in Canada...where getting lyme disease is so rare (yah, right!)....a few days ago I'm sitting on the back deck after walking around my back yard..my husband says, "hold still - there's something in your hair".
I immediately let out a squeal and jump up - he swats the bug off my hair onto the deck. Guess what it was? yup - a tick - engorged one.

pretty sure it didn't bite me, though.

I know what they look like now...but last year I didn't.

It's not the deer that we need to worry about, they are just caught in the middle like we are. The white footed mouse is the reservoir for Lyme Disease:
www.caryinstitute.org/science-program/research-projects/lyme-disease
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3812887

The ticks will grab onto anything that passes by them in the grass or leaf litter and climb to find a warm, safe place to hide and feed - so keeping areas around the house and yard that mice and other critters can hide in cleaned up will help reduce the number of ticks near the house.

I use a pesticide twice a year in my yard and garden as well though. It's Bug-B-Gon granules by Ortho. It's easy enough to get the area treated for ticks, fleas and even cuts down on the number of chiggers in the area. I'm not taking any serious chances of getting reinfected if I can help it!!

LOL, Opugirl!!!

Actually, it's the mice that infect the ticks and then the ticks go searching for other food sources and end up on deer, moose, goats, dogs, cats, birds and other critters (even some lizards!), which bring them to our areas - although some white footed mice live close to people as well and the ticks just go from the mice to our areas.

Ticks wait things like grass blades waiting for something to come along and carry them closer to their next food source - our pant legs, shoes, pets and even unwanted animals can bring them into our homes & places of business.

Also, it's not just ticks that spread these infections!! It's mosquitoes, fleas, biting flies of all types, even spiders and ants have been known to pass these infections to people.