I’m north of where dirtbag calls home and we get ticks even when the snow hasn’t completely melted in the spring. I had a big whopper sitting on my mesh as a wake up greeting this late April while the trail still had snow at the edges.
I love the idea of tarp camping and have one but can’t bring myself to use it. Ticks scare me much more than bears (which I ran into again yesterday so bears aren’t an abstract concept up here).
I never met anyone attacked by a bear but I hear many stories of friends of friends battling Lime.