Ticks are a year round problem here (New York). 30 years ago ticks were a rare curiosity in most of New York. Long Island and areas very close to NYC being the exception back then. 20 years ago they became prolific in northern NY but not at home. Now pretty much anywhere in NY they are as Lisa described… if your dog is out in good cover they will collect very alarming numbers of ticks. I think its worth noting that really cold weather seems to have nothing to do with tick numbers. You can have a month of frigid weather, and then a day just above freezing, and you’ll find active ticks. The take away is always take precautions.
We have had very good success using Brevecto as an ever present sort of defense but dont think it is sufficient to protect the dogs when they get in the field. Then we also apply permethrin based sprays. Frontline and the Seresto brand collars work well too, in the sense that using them you don’t find attached ticks. Going to Brevecto avoided one more collar cluttering up the dog’s neck (Seresto) and obvious skin reactions we saw when using topicals (Frontline). Even with products that eventually kill the tick, without the spray the dog is a temporary vehicle to bring ticks into crates, kennels, vehicles, house etc.
We anticipate hearing many others use a similar approach but more importantly would like to hear if there is anything we missed too.