As a child, I spent many of my summers in Manitoba visiting family. My days would be spent running around outside, playing in sprinklers, helping at the family tree nursery, horse back riding and playing hide and go seek in the trees. During all of these activities one thing was always on my mind, drilled into me by my mother - watch out for ticks! To this Alberta girl this was a terrifying prospect because we didn't have ticks at home - you mean there is actually little bugs that will drop from the trees and bite me and get stuck to me and need to be carefully taken off?! It was straight out of a horror film in my mind. I can honestly say I got lucky and never had a tick on me ( boy did I shower every day and check!) Unfortunately, this is not the case anymore. Ticks have come to Alberta and are becoming more and more prevalent. ​