I think so-last summer, it was terrible-I spent the summer picking them off my dog. This year-nothing! The last time I saw one was in March-since then, absolutely nothing.
What I don’t understand: ticks live on (primarily) squirrels, deer, mice and rabbits. The rabbit population around here is enormous-they just ate all of my impatiens flowers to the ground. There seem to be plenty of fieldmice around as well-so, what happened to the tick population?
Not that I’m complaining…I would be happy to never see another one.
Not so much cyclic as weather dependent as far as I understand.
I think most populations in nature are cyclical as well as weather dependent. This year, the mosquitos in my neighborhood were almost nonexistent. This will probably reduce the population of dragonflies, frogs and other insect-eating animals, then the mosquito population will rebound due to lack of predators.
The only thing constant is change.
I’ve noticed the same thing here in western PA as far as ticks. Last year was awful, this year, none.
All the native animal species populations ebb and flow around here. I notice the ones I dislike (ticks, wasps, voles) a lot more than the ones I consider benign, but I’m pretty sure it is universal. Ticks also are seasonally active.
Nobody likes ticks? No wonder they’re cynical.
No Emily, the tick population is cyclical. Not cynical.