Near Zero a Week Ago, Now Ticks Are Out!

[jmarkitell]

I live near Pittsburgh, Pa and had zear zero temps a few days but has warmed up the last 2-3 days. My indoor/outdoor cat, Binks, is enjoying the warm weather (although he loves ANY weather!) and spent a few hours outside today, enjoying the warm day. The Crocus flowers have just begun to bloom, so winter isn't necessarily over totally....but today, when Binks decided to come back inside, he had a tick on him! Last year was a bad year for ticks, but I certainly didn't expect ticks to be out so quickly after having snow on the ground (on Saturday. I hope this isn't an indication of things to come, again.....

Jim M  

 

[lisahe]

We live in Maine and were just talking about this: I guess it's time to start with the flea/tick/heartworm goop! Our cats don't go out into grass but their screened-in place under the deck has plenty of cracks for all sorts of bugs to get in.

 

[jcat]

Yesterday there was a program on the radio about ticks, and the expert interviewed said they're already a tremendous problem this year because the winter was too mild. We had one week of very cold weather and are having some snow flurries this week, but he's right.

Last winter was too warm, too, and most of the stray cats that came into the shelter even in January or February were covered with ticks.

Fleas have been worse, too.

 

[lisahe]

We had a very mild winter, too: very little snow, only one horribly cold week, if that, plus lots of ridiculous warm spells. It's been nice to have low heating bills but it's a little disorienting!

 

[pushylady]

We had the same winter in Southern Ontario, very warm thanks to El Nino. I was shocked to discover a flea on Pushy last week! They never have fleas as we use Advantage, but we only do it in the summer. Guess we better crack open a treatment early then.