If you’re not tired of the rain yet, you’re at least tired of reading about it.

The partly sunny, mostly stormy days probably aren’t helping.

Well, prepare for another blow to your summer spirits.

It’s bug season.

Ticks carrying Lyme disease have been found in all 67 of Pennsylvania’s counties; in 2017, there were almost 12,000 cases of the disease confirmed in the state.

Eleven of the 35 ticks sent to the Tick Research Lab of Pennsylvania, based out of East Stroudsburg University, were infected with tick-borne diseases, according to the lab’s website.

“Ticks are definitely out and about,” said Erika Machtinger, assistant professor of veterinary entomology at Penn State.

She added that “mosquitoes will start to pick up as this wave of warm weather comes through.”

2018 — one of the wettest years on record for Pennsylvania — saw an increase in mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection West Nile virus Control Program, there were six cases of West Nile virus in Carbon County last year, up from one case in 2017 and zero cases in 2016.

Machtinger said disease-carrying mosquitoes are definitely a concern.

“West Nile virus is always around us. It’s not like not having wet weather will make it go away. It just may not hit the same levels as it did last year,” she said.

As far as Deer, Lone Star and American Dog ticks are concerned, Machtinger said there is “a pretty strong correlation between wet weather and increases in tick population.”

In fact, the only condition the arachnids can’t survive is being dry.

“These ticks dry out pretty fast. They can’t survive dry areas,” Machtinger noted, adding that cleaning up leaf litter or mowing the lawn a bit shorter can lower ticks’ chances of survival.

“They can survive very cold temperatures and hot temperatures, but they cannot survive being dry,” she said.

In a Vital Signs report released last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the number of disease cases caused by infected mosquitoes, ticks and fleas has tripled between 2004 and 2016.

“This is a real risk,” Machtinger said. “Folks do need to protect themselves and educate themselves on how to protect themselves from mosquitoes and, especially in Pennsylvania, from tick bites.”

Ticks and mosquitoes may be small, but their bites can pack a punch. So how can you protect yourself against their sting? Machtinger said it takes a conscious effort.

“It’s not a difficult thing to protect yourself,” she said. “It’s awareness that’s really the challenge.”

Basic steps — such as wearing long pants on hikes, treating clothing with permethrin or doing tick checks — are a start, Machtinger said.

She said that if you find a tick attached to your body, you should remove it using fine-tipped tweezers. Place the tick in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer until you can send it off to a lab and have it tested for tick-borne diseases, like the Northeast Wildlife DNA Lab at East Stroudsburg. The results may be useful if you find yourself feeling ill shortly after a tick bite.

“Lyme disease in particular is very difficult to test for, so if you have that tick, it is a lot easier to get the tick tested if your results come back somewhat ambiguous,” Machtinger said.