It’s that time of year here in New England: time to get outside to take in the daffodils and forsythia, time to stretch your legs on a spring hike—and time to fold your pant bottoms over and fashionably tuck them into your knee-high white socks in the hope of deterring a bite from the deer tick.

Most New Englanders understand that warm weather plus outdoor activity equals tick bites. However, according to State Entomologist Kirby Stafford, the elevation in noticeable tick activity is more likely due to an increase of early season outdoor activity than it is to ideal tick weather.

“People are out more, so they are seeing more ticks on themselves and their animals. It doesn’t mean there is a larger than usual tick population,” said Stafford.

Which leaves the question, what do we do?

“There is not much we can do, except be vigilant about tick checks of ourselves, our children, and our animals,” cautioned Stafford.

Jen Malaguti, one of the directors of the summer camp program and school at Bushy Hill Nature Center, heeds Stafford’s advice religiously.

“Since late February, when we got that warm weather, I would say we take at least one tick off our German shepherd every day,” said Malaguti. “I was told this time of year ticks like sandy areas, and our dog likes to dig in the sand, so she is getting ticks in her feet. You really do have to check everywhere.”

Ticks do what is referred to as “questing”—basically laying in wait in ground cover near the edge of yards, in the woods, and just about everywhere, anticipating the moment when they can latch onto a passing host.

Stafford explained that there are three life stages of deer ticks: larval, nymph, and adults. Ticks typically have a two-year life cycle and adult female ticks typically lay their eggs in May, making midsummer high season for larval tick hatching. Surviving larval ticks turn into nymphs the following year; June is the peak season for nymph tick activity.

Nymph ticks don’t carry more Lyme disease (LD) than adult ticks, but because nymph ticks are so small (about the size of a poppy seed), they are virtually undetectable and therefore infect more hosts with the disease, explained Stafford.

Ticks transmit LD to mice, mice in turn transmit LD to ticks in a never-ending cycle of infection, which then can be passed onto humans and other domesticated animals such as horses and dogs. According to Stafford, cats do get infected with LD, but rarely show illness or symptoms and only about five percent of dogs infected with the disease become clinically ill from it.

Last year, 31 percent of the ticks tested by the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station carried LD, 11 percent tested positive for babesiosis (another tick borne disease in Connecticut), and five percent tested positive for anaplasmosis disease bacteria. Some ticks even tested positive with dual diseases.

Stafford said that while many people try to limit their exposure to tick-borne disease by limiting outdoor activity, three fourths of the cases of LD identified in Connecticut came from people who were “just doing normal daily activities around their homes.”

He added that the largest population of individuals at risk for contracting LD in Connecticut are children.

“Personally I use repellent on myself and my children that contains essential oils and it seems to do a pretty good job of helping to keep the ticks off. This, plus regular tick checks, especially around feet, ankles, and legs below the knee, is what we need to do to help protect ourselves,” said Malaguti, who spends the majority of her time outdoors. “That, and wearing long sleeves, light clothing, and tucking our pants into socks...helps keep the ticks from getting out of control.”

For a downloadable handbook on tick management, visit the state website www.ct.gov and search “tick.”