In all the years and places I hiked in So Cal up to Sequoia NF I only found one tick on me. That was in the NF around Castiac Lake.

We have chiggers here too and I'll tell you walking into a nest of those little boogers is way worse than ticks. The bites itch worse and you can get dozens of them. They love getting you on the ankles when you wear socks and the waist band of clothes, and the worst is in between your fingers and toes. At my age I can barely see them without 2x reading glasses.

Clothes treated with permethrin are the only thing that work to keep them from biting you. Bug spray helps but it doesn't last long enough in the summer heat and humidity.

This year we bought a bag of diatomaceous earth and spread it around the walkways and berry bushes around the house and so far I've not seen any of them there yet. Last year they were vicious when I picked our black raspberries, but there were none this year. The blackberries should be ripe in about 2-3 weeks but I've not seen any there so far either.

I'll be using more of that next year for sure. I've read you have to dust with it in early spring just as things start leafing out for it to work, and you have to do it during a dry spell. I did that, and so far so good.