I lived in northern WI for a few years, and hunt there every year and I am out and about in the spring. I didn’t notice ticks to be any worse this spring.
When I lived there, I came to the conclusion that Frontline was not effective for me. My dogs regularly had attached ticks that had to have been on for > 12 hours. I moved to K9 Advantix, which you can’t use around cats, but that caused a reaction on my youngest dog. It did work better for me than Frontline. I now use the Soresto collar, but it never occurred to me that a dog would chew it off/ingest it! Scary. I do take the collar on and off, not every day but for example if we will be in the field for the weekend, it will go on Friday and off Sunday. I have still found it to be more effective, as long as it is on nice and snug.
John