Ticks in Southern California: What Hikers Should Know Before Hitting the Trail

The first properly cool morning of fall does something to people in Southern California. Boots come out of the closet. The trail that was too hot to think about in August suddenly sounds like a great idea, and so does the one through the canyon with the shade and the long grass. Then you get home, peel off your socks, and find a small, flat, dark speck on your ankle that wasn't there this morning. It's attached. The weather that makes hiking pleasant again is the same weather the ticks have been waiting for.

Ticks don't jump, fly or drop out of trees, whatever you heard at summer camp. They climb to the tips of grass, brush and low plants and wait with their front legs held out for something to brush past. It's called questing. When your pant leg or your dog's side touches the plant, the tick grabs on and starts climbing, looking for a good place to feed.

That makes the trail edge the problem. Across Southern California, ticks are most common in brushy and grassy areas, along narrow or overgrown trails where vegetation crowds in, in shaded canyons, and anywhere deer and other wildlife regularly pass through. Sitting on a log, leaning against a tree trunk or sprawling in leaf litter during a break also puts you in contact with them. They aren't limited to any particular trail. Where plants crowd the path and animals move through, assume they are there.

You don't have to be miles from town, either. Homes that back onto canyons, open space or brushy hillsides can have ticks at the edge of the yard, and dogs carry them home from neighborhood walks as readily as from wilderness hikes.

Southern California has several tick species, and you don't need to identify them on the trail. A rough sense of what is out there helps, though.

In much of the country, ticks are a summer problem. California runs a little differently. Here, the adult stage of the western blacklegged tick is most active in the cooler, wetter months, roughly fall through spring, while the tiny nymphs are more active in spring and early summer. Other species keep their own schedules, but the overlap is clear: the months when hiking is most pleasant in Southern California are also the months when ticks are out on the trail edges.

A wet winter can mean thicker vegetation and damp, shaded trail edges, which ticks like. With a wetter-than-normal winter in the forecast this year, it's a good season to build the habits below.

Ticks can carry diseases, and in California that includes Lyme disease along with a handful of less common infections. Lyme disease does occur here, though it is much less common than in parts of the Northeast and Upper Midwest. Most tick bites don't make anyone sick, and the risk of infection generally goes up the longer an infected tick stays attached. That's why the prevention habits and same-day checks matter: they shorten the time a tick gets.

This is a prevention guide, not a medical one. For questions about a specific bite, symptoms or testing, talk to your physician or your county public health department.

Most tick encounters happen in the first few feet off the center of the trail. The single most effective habit is staying in the middle of the path and not brushing against vegetation. Don't cut switchbacks, walk single file through narrow sections, and resist wading into tall grass for a better photo.

For breaks, choose a sunny rock or open ground over a shady log or a bed of leaf litter. Keep dogs leashed and on the trail, where they can't run nose-first into the brush. If you hike the same routes often, you will start to recognize the overgrown, shaded stretches where ticks turn up, and those are the sections to move through briskly.

Tell the doctor about the bite and where you were hiking. A tick bite isn't a diagnosis, and most never cause trouble, but it is useful information. For anything you're unsure about, call your physician or your county public health department.

Most trail ticks never become a household problem. They come home on a pant leg or a dog, get found, and that is the end of it. Two situations are different.

The first is a yard that backs onto open space, brush or a canyon, where ticks can live along the edge of the property. Keep grass short where the yard meets the brush, clear leaf litter and brush piles near patios and play areas, and put a buffer, like a strip of gravel or wood chips, between the lawn and the wild edge. Keep play equipment and seating well away from the brush line.

The second is the brown dog tick, which can complete its whole life cycle indoors. In a home with dogs, it can settle into dog beds, cracks, baseboards and the backs of furniture, and an indoor population can build quietly. If you keep finding ticks on your dog or around the house when nobody has been hiking, that is the one to suspect, and it usually takes a coordinated approach: your veterinarian treating the dog, and a pest control treatment of the home and yard.

That is where our flea and tick control service fits. We look at where pets spend their time, inside and out, and treat based on what we find, with kids and pets in mind. For an ongoing problem, recurring service is usually more effective than a single visit.