How Many Nasty Little Ticks Have You Pulled Off Your Dog So Far?

It's only frikkin' March and there's still snow on the ground.

Not only is it March, it's still technically winter until this weekend. I feel like we shouldn't even have to have this conversation yet, but here we are. It was just barely a year ago that my wife and I got a dog, and we sort of didn't even think about ticks until the snow started to melt. This year, we're already thinking about them.

As soon as we had that one warm day a few weeks ago, my first actual first thought was, "when are those wretched ticks going to rear their ugly heads?" Sure enough, here we are. I'm not alone at all. I've seen people posting about them on the wildlife and pet pages on social media. People are already finding those Lyme-y little jerks.

Warm temps are the enemy when it comes to ticks.

As soon as we start getting to that place where snow becomes more rare, the little bloodsuckers come to be. It's like they just freeze in place, and as soon as the warm weather rolls in, they just start crawling right where they left off. I know they say cockroaches would be the only thing left after a nuclear bomb, but have you met our trusty tick friends? They truly seem to be invincible.

So far, and it's only March 14th, we've pulled about a dozen off our dog. Of course, another month from now, and we'll be pulling them off a dozen at a time. There's just little bugs everywhere trying to do us in. If it's not the ticks, it's the brown tail moth caterpillars. I have several of those nests around too. But that's another story...

IT AIN'T JUST TICKS. HERE'S 17 OTHER MAINE CRITTERS THAT WILL BITE YOU...