Is a San Mateo backyard trumpet vine hosting a nest of ticks?

DEAR JOAN: I have a trumpet vine growing just outside my kitchen door and have recently started finding a few ticks in my dog’s water bowl that sits below that vine. Is it possible that I have a tick nest in the vine itself, or in the wood overhang that the vine is growing up against?

We live in the middle of the city near a high school. Our house has a flat roof, which is part of the neighborhood racoon highway. We are honored to host them. They climb up a juniper near the vine, cross the house and jump down to a fence on the other side. Is it possible they dropped off a traveler?

I’ve always thought ticks would be found in wild shrubs, not a suburban neighborhood.  I’m concerned that one could drop onto my dog and I don’t really want that to happen.  Any advice for a search and destroy mission for these critters?

Linda, San Mateo

DEAR LINDA: If you’re finding ticks in the water dish, it’s more likely they came from the raccoons rather than the trumpet vine. There’s also a chance the ticks you see are really spider mites, which are common on trumpet vine.

Ticks have a life cycle that begins when the female tick lays her eggs in the spring. She picks a secluded spot, a grassy area or, better yet for the soon-to-hatch ticks, inside a tunnel inhabited by an animal.

When the eggs hatch, tick larvae emerge and immediately look for something to eat. They might hang out on the top of a blade of grass, waiting for a warm-blooded creature to pass by and collect them. After feeding, they drop off their host, eventually transform into 8-legged nymphs, and look for another host.

The nymphs eventually become the adults, which are more mobile and able to seek out larger hosts. As adults, they’ll mate in the fall, and then the female will eat before going into a type of hibernation, emerging in the spring to start the process again.

There are two ways of dealing with the ticks in your yard. You can blockade the raccoon highway or sprinkle food-grade diatomaceous earth around problem spots. The substance is a naturally occurring material made of the fossilized remains of tiny, aquatic organisms called diatoms. The skeletons are high in silica.

The material causes abrasions on the hard outer layer of the tick, and the silica then absorbs the oils and fats from the insect’s exoskeleton, causing the tick to dry out and die. It’s safe to use, but you need to take some precautions.

If you don’t already treat your dog against fleas, ticks and heartworm, talk to your vet about it.