The highest-risk window is late May through early July, when nymphal blacklegged ticks are active and nearly impossible to see on the skin. But tick season in Wisconsin Lake Country stretches from early spring through November, so it’s important to do daily tick checks even when it’s not peak season.
You don’t want to find a tick on yourself, and especially not on your kid or pet. It’s always alarming to find one, given that there are plenty of headlines about tick-borne disease. So that’s why it helps to understand how the tick season works so you can know what to watch out for.
The season starts earlier than most people think it will. Adult blacklegged ticks become active as soon as temperatures consistently stay above freezing. In Lake Country, that can happen as early as late March. These adults spend the winter in leaf litter and emerge hungry. If you're doing early spring yard work or walking through wooded areas in April, you’re already in tick territory.
The most dangerous period begins in late May. That's when nymphal blacklegged ticks become active. Nymphs are the immature stage between larvae and adults, and they're tiny—roughly the size of a poppy seed. Their small size is what makes them dangerous. They attach and feed without being noticed, and because Lyme disease takes 36–48 hours to be transmitted, an undetected nymph has plenty of time to infect.
This nymphal peak runs through June and into early July. It coincides with the start of summer outdoor season around the lakes, when families are hiking, picnicking, and spending long days outside. So it’s important to be extra vigilant around this time.
By midsummer, nymphal activity drops off, but it doesn't disappear entirely. Then in September and October, adult blacklegged ticks become active again. Fall hikers and hunters are often surprised to find ticks on themselves late in the season, but adult activity can continue until a sustained hard freeze shuts things down, sometimes as late as November.
If you want to keep tick populations low on your Lake Country property throughout the full season, Mosquito Squad of Lake Country can help. A technician will come to your property and find out where ticks live. Then they will treat accordingly, and you can expect a reduction of up to 90% in the tick population for up to 21 days at a time.
