Tick

[woodjin]

Yep. Discovered it today on my outside thigh. I must have got it yesterday taking a short hike with my son in some woods on my property. I was on a path too. I was hoping the harsh winter would keep the ticks and chiggers down this year. Maybe it was a fluke.

Jeff

[Mts83]

It may have been a harsh winter snow-wise, however temperature-wise it was far from it. With only a few nights below 10, our temperatures were actually fairly mild. Winters usually feature a few nights below zero (most times it was "just" cold enough to snow- a lot, persistently). After a few days near and above 60, its no surprise the ticks are showing up. Hopefully it isn't a sign for the upcoming season.

[Sue Gremlin]

Yep. Discovered it today on my outside thigh. I must have got it yesterday taking a short hike with my son in some woods on my property. I was on a path too. I was hoping the harsh winter would keep the ticks and chiggers down this year. Maybe it was a fluke.

Jeff

Theeeeeeeeeeeeyre heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere!

I don't think it's a fluke, now's their time to find hosts.
Was it a harsh winter from a tick's point of view? It snowed a bunch, but was it really that cold?

[woodjin]

I guess I was just thinking of the snow we had instead of the actual tempetures. Ahhh, well...here we go.

[PINEY MIKE]

My pup had three on him during the mild break of weather we had in January. I guess they went down under again after that. They'll be more and more of them with these temps. Just started the Frontline again.

[imkms]

.......
It snowed a bunch, but was it really that cold?

According to the data provided by the NWS, using the Degree Day Information only (December thru February for Atlantic City), this Winter was -7 degree days when compared to normal making it slightly warmer than a Normal Winter. When compared to last year there were an additional 159 degree days, making it much cooler than last year.

[Boyd]

I haven't seen a tick since last August - not complaining! Am planning to do my first permethrin treatment of my outdoor clothes this weekend though....

[andy1015]

I was at Batsto yesterday and picked one off of my girlfriends jeans. They are back

[JefferyDollars]

This year was a weird year climate and weather wise everyone is correct about the temps. Areas in the pine barrens are rated a USDA zone 6b which means that in a normal winter the absolute low temp for the year will be between -5 and 0. The inner and outer coastal plain bordering the pine barrens is a USDA zone 7a with normal winter absolute lows between 0 and 5 degrees F. And lastly for South Jersey our coastal areas like Cape May and Atlantic city are rated as a USDA zone 7b with normal winter absolute lows between 5 and 10 degrees F.

So now that I have laid the precedent of what you can expect in a normal winter in South Jersey lets talk about this year.... This year cities in the Pine Barrens which is actually the "ice box" of South Jersey had a zone 7a/b winter with lows not dipping much below 10f... areas not in the pine barrens but still in South Jersey like my house 15 mins from Philadelphia had a solid USDA 8a winter with absolute lows at my house of 12F (for a sense of scale Virginia Beach, Virginia the southernmost point in that state is a zone 8a during a normal winter) and our coastal areas came in around an 8a/b where many areas in Cape May didnt see below 15F.

As far as low temps were concerned we had a well above average winter, in a normal winter negative temps are rare to begin with in South Jersey and are usually only regulated in South Jersey to the pine barrens with their sandy soil that doesnt hold much heat at night, but this winter they were nonexistant.

But in a very weird contrast every single winter month was below average for the high temps with February being a very weak 9F below average for the highs! This is the reason we got so much snow, in a normal winter with much of South Jersey averaging 41f for highs in January and 45 in February, 2 out of 3 times those big nor'easters we get will be all rain events but since we couldnt seem to really warm up during the day this winter we got slammed with a mind bogglingly 79 inches of snow, a full 64 inches above avg!

So in conclusion, this winters lows were very mild but our highs were below avg every month of the winter.... So our lows were very warm but as a whole it was a harsh winter as far as precipitation and high temps were concerned. But the ticks were probably more worried about night time temps which were very warm.