Ticks are seasonal. Medications, treatments and prevention are constantly evolving. If you look at YOUR OWN search results, 99% of the threads are from between 2010-2019.

Yes. You're probably right. I never saw/found the tick that gifted me with FSME, which I contracted on just an average forest hike. No long grass, no meadows, no sitting for long periods in the woods.

It's the same with Lyme ticks. I'm from a town near Lyme, CT, and shocked I never contracted Lyme while I lived there. Leave it to me to travel thousands of miles to contract a more exotic form of tick-borne disease.

I hate those little effers.

There's an easier solution. Hike above 1800 m altitude. They don't live there .

Actually they can survive up to 3000 m.
https://www.uchealth.org/today/the-truth-about-ticks/
The real culprit is Global warming.

hike un ticino, no fsme there (yet).

According to who? Ticino Tourism?

Ticks in Switzerland (46) 16.May.2021
Tick Season (30) 19.Sep.2020

Op just clearly didn't search. And no... much hasn't changed in the last 2 years with regards to tick technology (ticknology?), hence I guess why the mods merged the threads.

As I'm learning is the norm, another super-informative post, MC! I wasn't aware that you could get anti-tick prophylactic meds, thank you for sharing. I found my first tick on Zola just a few weeks back (in the UK) and was horrified, but at least now I know what to look for! (a double coat doesn't make it easy though)


^^^ ditto - a good friend of mine went undiagnosed with Lyme for nearly 2 years. It's now been 5 years and she's still in weekly physiotherapy, and has only just been able to return to the workforce. It's a horrendous disease.


Edit:
Not to be controversial because I get the frustration when people don't search, however... I wouldn't have known to search for ticks on this forum, and yet finding this thread has been very helpful for this newbie, so maybe it's not so bad for some things to be repeated sometimes
(kudos for 'ticknology' though )

I had only one tick vaccination before COVID hit and I didn't go to any medical center since then... guess I will have to re-do it as over a year has now passed.

Here is an Swiss-centric article in English on ticks, hold a lot of information:

https://healthyandsafe.biz/get-tick-smart/

The tick vax should be good for 10 years...

Jess, there are numerous anti-tick meds available for dogs and cats, traditional topicals and the newer oral drugs. Which is best for your pup is a discussion you should have with your vet. That discussion should go close to the top of your 'to do' list, as this year does seem to be bad.

You should keep a tick puller in your hiking/walking kit.

Here's a thread discussing tick prevention in animals - the newer drugs are discussed in the later pages:
https://www.englishforum.ch/pet-corn...sing-year.html

Now back to ticks in people...

The problem is you need 2 or 3 doses (I forget exactly how many), and I only had the first.

Did they? I still see both threads.

only after you complete the whole cycle of 3 shots.

That said, what the timings on that cycle look like isn't an exact science and it seems to have varied, so I'd let the doctor decide whether to ignore it and restart the cycle or continue it in a reduced form (just 2 more shots with longer distance).

Well, yes, they can - technically speaking. I can also live about 4000 m... but.. would I ? :-) :-)

Even if they can survive, above 1800 m you enter (in CH) the subalpine vegetation (subalpine forest), characterized by conifers -- which prefer / render the soil acidic, so there is very very little grass for the "bestioles" to hide :-)

Personally, I feel 'safe' here in Switzerland -- compared with Austria. Never got as many ticks as during my years there - even with long trousers, socks and boots!

Yet, better safe than sorry. Vaccination, and reinforcement after 10 years (or, is it 5?)