Ticks On Trail

[Rob]

Lyme disease, western fence lizard, and so on ...

https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=118655

https://www.sfgate.com/science/article/ ... 473861.php

https://news.berkeley.edu/2011/02/15/ti ... e-disease/

[Jillidge]

Just hiked into Horse Bridge from Arroyo Seco, spent 1 night, then did a day hike out Marble Trail- we encountered hundreds of ticks.. on the dogs, on us…
Maybe not a great time to be hiking out there right now. And take preventative measures …

[jdoelman]

This website seems to show a very low incidence of Lyme in Monterey county.
https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/datasurveillance/maps-recent.html

[BP22]

Heads up, I've been really active in the VW this year, and it's the worst tick year i've ever seen. finding them in places they've never been before. my last hike to VDC, i must have brushed off 100. no visible bites, i'm pretty careful. i remember the worst tick experience i have seen was about 6 years ago in the meadow below south face Pico Blanco, aptly named, "tick meadow." be careful out there

[GoneHikingGuest]

A tick bite is the worst thing most likely to happen to you in the outdoors, Ventana included. Lyme Disease is a serious disease often not properly diagnosed and is just one disease you can get from ticks. Your number one step for any outdoor California experience should be tick bite prevention. You should be wearing permethrin treated clothing or treat your own clothing and use picardian on any exposed skin. I do believe that there is a company working on a vaccine for humans again (the first one was never marketed) which will be nice. This is a great resource: https://www.bayarealyme.org/

[koosh]

Hello,

We went on Pine Ridge Trail (to the outlook) with the dog today afternoon and all came back with ticks. A dozen or so on the doggo and a handful on me and the wife. We didn’t veer off the trail so be careful out there!

[John Doe]

Just thought I'd let y'all know that I went up a coastal fire road to a ridge overlooking the H20 a few days back. I was expecting to find ticks-a-plenty as per the other posts & SF article. I didn't find many on me or on my Pooch. The grass was very short for this time of year. Seemed like it was 6" high if that & walking thru it didn't snag me any of the little buggers. My dog was equally without ticks.

On a funny note, it was one of those gorgeous days where it was warm so I took my 50 degree bag. Around midnight a strong ENE wind picked up & it shot down to below 40. I froze my &^% off from that point on Still an awesome trip any time you can get out.

[K Vandevere]

I got swarmed by ticks on the Danish Creek trail a couple of weeks ago, but they seem to be bad there every year (and at every season). Crawling through brush off-trail and along the Rattlesnake Trail, on the other hand, I didn't find any. Tick "swarms" usually seem to be fairly localized. Run into one and you'll be convinced it's a terrible year for ticks, get lucky enough not to encounter a swarm and you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. Hitting a heavy concentration of ticks - since it reminds you to give yourself a thorough tick inspection - probably makes actually being bitten a little less likely than if you only encountered a few ticks on your hike and had your mind on other things.

[ATT]

I'd say a better title would be "2012 already *is* a bad year for ticks"

In my experience Feb-April is the peak of tick season and they're worse near open woodland-riparian boundaries and grassland areas. Not as bad in chaparral dominated areas such as Mt Manuel or VDC.

Words like "invasion" and "horror film" sounds a little exaggerated but indeed they seem more prevalent this year. Just a matter of just enough rain with not enough freezing nights to allow them to populate.

[vonSpifficus]

Is it as bad right now as stienstra reports? http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1N2BSH.DTL

Was looking at an overnight or two up mt Manuel or to the double cone, but constantly brushing ticks off has me thinking twice.