Are Ticks Already Ticking You Off This Year?

Those creepy crawlies are here again. No one likes them yet they arrive every spring just in time for outdoor play. They are - quite literally - the stuff of nightmares. We are talking about ticks.

Oh, how we hate them!

Long Islanders have an especially long and adversarial relation ship with the tiny arachnids. According to the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Lyme disease - a bacterial infection caused by the bite of an infected deer tick - was first identified back in 1986 and can cause a number of health problems. There have been over 95,000 cases confirmed in New York State since that time.

If that's not bad enough, last year a tick was identified whose bite can cause a meat allergy in some cases. The animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals angered some Long Islanders when it announced in its official blog last April that they were going to release the meat-allergy inducing ticks. In 2012, Suffolk County formed a tick task force to study the spread of tick and vector-borne related diseases.

An interesting way to trim the tick population comes from nature itself. One Smithtown resident partnered with local schools to raise quails, which feed on ticks.

We asked on our Facebook page what readers' experiences with ticks has been like so far this year and ideas on how to control them. Here's what some of them said:

Mary Glennon Pullis: They have an all natural spray with rosemary. Works great and smells good too.

Jose Rios Lori, I found 4 on me yesterday...Terrible!

Lori DeGeorges Stalker My six year old daughter has had FOUR ticks on her already! One way back before spring even started...locally, one upstate about a month later and two tiny ones at school last week. I have pulled them off of her with tweezers. None of them have left any mark except the one from upstate is still red about 6 weeks later. No bullseye.

Candace Gonzalez-Donin: I don't want to alarm anyone...but I never found a tick, never had a bullseye...went to dr. because my joints in my hands were terribly painful.....thought perhaps early onset of arthritis....but it was lyme disease...did 6 weeks of doxycycline....lyme went away, but still suffering from what is called "post lyme syndrome" which means the lyme itself is gone...but i have the residual effects of joint pain throughout my body now. My dog (not even 3 yrs old) was in renal failure before we knew she had lyme disease. PLEASE be vigilant! I would take ANY TICK found on pet or person to a vet or dr. IMMEDIATELY to check to see if it is a dog or deer tick. DON'T take chances.

Brendan Duffy Took 2 off the dog last week on same day. Can't win. Either you get ticks or spray stuff on yard that is bad for pets.

Add to the conversation here on Patch. Have you had a problem with ticks yet this season? What do you do when you find one? Have you had your yard sprayed? What method do you use?