You stand the greatest risk of catching a tick-borne disease from late May to July because nymphal blacklegged ticks are at their most active. But the tick season in New Hampshire runs from March to November, and there is a second peak in the fall as well.
If you feel like tick season is longer than it used to be, it’s not in your head. Twenty years ago, the general advice was to watch for ticks from May to August. Now, blacklegged ticks are found on people and pets as early as March and as late as November.
The spring adult peak comes first. Adult blacklegged ticks that survived the winter begin attaching to hosts as soon as daily lows go above freezing. In Southern New Hampshire, this can happen in late March or early April during a mild year.
Adult ticks are a problem. But they’re not the worst of the tick problems, as these adults are fairly large (sesame-seed sized). They’re easier to spot during a body check, so they come with a lower risk of being attached for a long time.
Late May is when nymphal ticks emerge. Nymphs are very small, about the size of a poppy seed, and they often carry Lyme disease. It is very easy for them to attach and go unnoticed for a long time along the hairline, behind the ears, and on the waistband. Lyme disease requires about 36 to 48 hours to transmit, so it’s this difficult-to-detect nature that makes nymphs so dangerous. The peak runs through June and into July.
Nymphal activity drops off in August. But a second wave of adult tick activity begins in September and runs through October and even into November, as adults seek a final blood meal before winter. Hikers, hunters, and anyone doing fall yard work in Southern New Hampshire are exposed during this period.
If you want to keep tick populations low on your Southern New Hampshire property through the full season, Mosquito Squad of Southern New Hampshire can help. Mosquito Squad treats the areas where ticks live and wait, reducing populations by up to 90% with technician visits every 21 days from spring through fall.
