Ticks are much more common in Scotland thanks to deer population and high rainfall. Ticks prefer damp conditions to drought conditions, so this last summer wouldn't have been good for them. The damp makes it easier to survive while they are waiting for passing hosts. They also like long grass and overgrown areas.
England in comparison is much more built up.
We do have Lyme disease here unfortunately. I know someone who has it.
Yeah — you definitely get more ticks! I think everyone I know who lives in the Highlands or walks in it has been bitten, and that is one of the Lyme risk zones.
But weirdly almost all of the peak risk areas for Lyme (and the encephalitis disease) are in the south. This would suggest risk is about deer population density rather than absolute numbers.
So for example the New Forest, Thetford Forest and Exmoor have higher density populations of smaller deer like muntjac and sika.
It appears obviously worse in smaller protected forests that have large deer populations. The risk in Thetford Forest is really high.