Is there an app that can alert me when I'm in a tick-infested area? I don't think about ticks living in CA and I'm deadly afraid of being on a vacation and going on a hike and getting bit.
I live up north and my county is a bit of a hot spot actually.
If you do get bit, don't panic. Typically the tick has to be attached for greater than 24hours before you are at risk since transmission usually occurs when the tick has to regurgitate digested blood back into you.
I've been bit too many times to count while surveying and doing site visits to hike creek beds in the spring. Never came down with Lyme. Always found the tick before it'd been on for too long.
You also learn to feel them and pick them off before they bite.
Ok now i hate ticks even more
Of course that has mostly only helped me when going into areas I know are full of ticks from past experience and can navigate without using trails.
You should be cautious but not "deadly afraid."
Checking for ticks isn't that hard, and bring sharp tweezers if you go out for a day hike or a camping trip. Just make sure you grab it from the head/mouth and don't squeeze the body. I was always told that if you catch and remove it within the first ~24 hours you are reasonably safe.
Anecdotally, at least half the people on the street I grew up on in Massachusetts had it (and this was before the idea of long term Lyme became widely known, these were acute infections).
If you do get bit though, the bite is very obvious and you'd know. If you catch the tick, you can send it in for testing, although it might be easier just to take the doxy.
I was bit by a tick in Marin a few years ago (I caught the tick as well), got very nervous about Lyme and researched it thoroughly, was much less concerned after consulting a few folks in the Bay Area. Lyme seems rare here (UCSF estimates 2-15% prevalence in ticks but its far less common than on the east coast).