I live in post-USSR country. Our parents did not care much about ticks either, USSR sprayed fields and forests with DDT which eradicated ticks and related diseases. This practice eventually stopped because DDT apparently was not that safe and now ticks are widely spread in many areas where people did not hear about them before. I never saw ticks in my childhood (I was born in 1987) despite the fact that I spent lots of time outdoors, in villages and so on. But this year tick bite me first time, so that's something new for me as well. I visited hospital and they did some injection, so I guess I'm safe, but I'm planning to get an encephalitis vaccine next year. According to local news, people are getting ill from both encephalitis and Lime disease because of tick bites.

This hyper-connected world brings new challenges every year.