When i was doing my ent degree I only meet two true acarologists, although more who were experts by way of disease ecology and medical entomology. Neither of them liked the organism. In fact I don't recall a single person who was fond of ticks (fascination notwithstanding). This is interesting because biologists almost always love their organism. Spiders, nematodes, even freaking mosquitos get love. Ticks are horrible, full stop.
You guys in New England are in a real hot spot for tick activity. Especially the notorious Ixodes spp. It's not a coincidence that's where Lyme was described. Western Michigan is real bad, too - and getting worse... climate change.
You've got 48 hours, generally (cdc tells people 24 to get them mobilized), to nab em. The bacteria multiplies on your blood in it's gut after the tick starts feeding in you. That ~48 hours is how long it takes the bacteria to reach an infectious stage after chowing on your blood.
I think probably everyone here knows this. And that most cases of Lyme are transmitted by nymphs and not the large, easy to notice adults. The larvae come off in the spring as nymphs, which is when you see these population explosions. Of course, the Ixodes/Lyme combo is only one of many tick borne illnesses
I'd rather deal with black flies than ticks, and that's saying something.
Anyway I need to shut up or this post will keep getting longer and longer and even more tldr. I will say I'm happy to live in a temperate climate. Our problems with vector-borne diseases are child's play compared to the disease burden in the tropics. I've had malaria myself, and it's not the worst thing out there by a long shot.