Tick season lasts longer here than most people think.

In much of the country, tick season has a clear start and stop tied to hard freezes. Virginia's winters are mild enough, particularly in the Hampton Roads area, that ticks can remain active well into fall and sometimes reappear on unseasonably warm winter days — which means the "tick season is over" assumption often kicks in weeks before it should.

Where ticks are actually waiting

Ticks don't jump or fly — they wait in tall grass, brush, and leaf litter along the edges of yards, particularly where lawn meets wooded or overgrown areas, and latch onto anything that brushes past. Hampton Roads' mix of wooded neighborhoods, marshland, and yards backing onto undeveloped land creates plenty of this exact habitat throughout the region.

Why pets are often the first sign

Dogs and outdoor cats typically encounter ticks before people do, simply from spending more time at ground level in yards and on walks. A few things worth checking regularly during active months:

• Running hands through fur after outdoor time, checking especially around ears, neck, and between toes
• Watching for a pet scratching or licking one area repeatedly
• Checking bedding and resting areas for ticks that may have detached

What actually reduces exposure

• Yard treatment targeting tick habitat specifically — tall grass, brush, and the wood-line edge of the property, not just open lawn
• Keeping grass mowed short and clearing leaf litter and brush piles near where pets and kids spend time
• A veterinarian-approved tick preventative for pets, maintained year-round given how late the season runs here — this is the pet owner's responsibility and works best alongside yard treatment, not instead of it
• Prompt tick removal if one is found attached, since disease transmission risk generally increases the longer a tick remains attached

Yard treatment and pet prevention are genuinely complementary, not redundant — treating the yard reduces how many ticks are present to begin with, while pet prevention protects against the ones that get through anyway.