Deer ticks...the smaller ones that are the shape of a Sesame seed (which are the main carrier of lymes), are out all year long, but like the cooler temps......the winters here don't get cold enough to kill them off. When it is really cold....of corse they probably won't be out, but if it is mild....I've gotten them in winter. So always check yourself for ticks after a stroll in the woods in every season.
The lone star and dog ticks come out in warmer weather.
Chiggers come out full blown in Aug./Sept. and stay until Oct./Nov. (Some biologists will argue that jersey doesn't have chiggers at all, but they are nymphs-baby ticks-. They are so small, smaller than beach sand so when they bite people you just scratch and don't realize it was a tick because when you scratch them the small tick can't hold on and will fall off and bite somewhere else. Then there will be a welt from it so they think it was a chigger. What ever you want to call them....they still suck.)
I walk in the woods and carry a lint roller or duck tape....every time I stop I will use the lint roller to get all the ticks off.....it helps a lot. It also made me see for the first time what the biologist was saying about the nymps....I'm not a bug person so I can't be sure what they were....but they were friggan small. I also used clear tape and put them under a scope...Still don't know what they are...but they do look like small ticks. To me they itch so much more than a larger tick bite. So, I still call them chiggers due to how I react to the bite.
Hope this helps. (Sorry...I'm a rambler....and can't sleep)
