As the weather begins to warm up and more people begin to venture outside with their pets, its time to start watching out for everyone's favourite pest.

Ticks are once again out and about, lurking in long grass and bushes, waiting for our furry friend or our pant leg to pass by so they can latch on for a free meal.

Doctor Melissa Smith works with the Bellamy Harrison Animal hospital in Moose Jaw. She says while ticks are definitely a worry here, lime disease doesn't pose too much of a threat.

"We have a lot of ticks in the Moose Jaw area. Luckily for us, most of them aren't the lime disease bearing ones. But if you travel with your dog, especially into Manitoba in the late summer, early fall, you could encounter them there. We're expecting with changing weather patters that we may get those ticks more regularly in the future. But the ones we have here are more of a pest."

Doctor Smith says there's lots of products out there that help prevent ticks, including a pill that can cause the tick to let go once it burrows into your pet. Though she recommends giving your pets daily tick checks if you take them out for walks. 

When it comes to removing the tick if you find one latched on, there's a few things to remember. 

"You don't want to do any of those things like twisting them or burning them. If you irritate the tick a lot they tend to regurgitate saliva and other products that are really irritating to the dogs skin. Just grabbing it as close to the skin as possible and pulling it straight back out is the best."

The easiest way to avoid your pet getting an unwanted guest though is sticking to sidewalks, walking trails, and avoiding long grass and bushes.