Gah! I HATE ticks! I have tick-o-phobia! Do you live

[Flaxbee]

in an area without ticks? I'm in the southeast now (tick heaven) and somehow don't remember ever seeing a tick when I was growing up in/around Palm Springs, California.

I have no problem with spiders, don't like fleas but can cope, but I HATE TICKS! HATE THEM! Please, please tell me where I can move (aside from the obvious choice of my childhood) that doesn't have lots of ticks in the spring and summer. Please, I beg of you.

[Squatch]

1. Oh yeah. What purpose do ticks serve

other than to cause pain and anguish? If they're one of God's jokes, somebody needs to tell him that it wasn't funny.

[Beer Snob-50]

2. Northeast is no good then

lots of ticks here. In fact, tomorrow I am taking a group of boy scouts out into the woods to muddle through mud and high grass. I am sure therer will be a few ticks getting a good lunch.

[CottonBear]

3. I detest. I had one bite me the other day. I too live in the Southeast.

I have to check my horse for ticks. They tend to get on her udder and inside her hind legs (armpits as it were.) Thankfully, I've always handled her there so she doesn't mind me feeling around in that sensitive area.

Ticks are disgusting. Yuck.

[Roon]

4. Someone once posted an engorged tick sucking the blood of a dog

I hope he posts it here again. It's NASTY!! I want to see it again!! lol

[undeterred]

12. That was me (I'm a she)

I can't find it in the google image search where I found it before, and we can't search the DU archives right now! But there was one just like that in my dogs ear and the entire neighborhood worked on it.

[undeterred]

5. You don like me?

[Beausoir]

6. OMG..that is horrifying. We are getting tons of ticks up here in N Minnesota.

Gads. Pulled one off my son's head that was imbedded.

I hate the damn things.

[Flaxbee]

7. I totally believe in live and let live... the fuckers just need

to STAY OFFA ME AND MINE! Shit - we put tick repellent on our cats but they still manage to pick up a few, and whenever we go for walks it seems like they drop from the trees onto us. I HATE IT!

[LaraMN]

8. I hate anything parasitic.

I hate ticks and I hate leeches, particularly.

:scared:

[Flaxbee]

11. I think I'd get the heebie-jeebies if a leech latched on to me, but

they can be used for medicinal purposes and somehow don't freak me out as much as ticks. :shrug:

[pitohui]

9. never seen a tick in over 30 yrs in southeast louisiana

they say the tick can't co-exist w. the fire ant, so i guess you pick your poison, the fire ant may sting a little but at least there is no lyme disease in a fire ant bite

[Flaxbee]

10. really? I'll be damned. I thought they liked

humid climates, but I guess not if they have a natural enemy there.

Hmm.

[trackfan]

13. There are ticks in Southern California

but I've only seen them on a hike in the back country. They would sometimes get on my clothes or shoes, and once even started to bite my skin, but I never got one on me. My friend would always come home with 2 or 3 stuck to him somewhere, and would have to use the vaseline/flame method to get rid of them.

[SteppingRazor]

14. Move to a city. Any city.

You can still find ticks in urban areas, but they're way, way rarer than in rural.

[Flaxbee]

15. you have a point -- I don't recall ever encountering

a tick when I lived in Manhattan or Santa Monica....

[riverdale]

16. trees

yeah they dive bomb you from trees, so stay away from forests and paintball playing