Ashley Baker Staats, a writer and editor who lives in TriBeCa, moves out to the Springs area of East Hampton, N.Y., each summer. But unlike past seasons, when idle cocktail chatter centered on the traffic, Eleven Madison Park, kid activities and celebrity spottings, a hard-shelled, surprisingly resilient uninvited guest has become everyone’s obsession: ticks, ticks, ticks.

“They’re rampant,” Ms. Baker Staats said. Despite spraying peppermint oil on her property every two weeks hoping to deter ticks, and stocking up on pet tick removal keys, she has found three ticks this season.

Her husband is thinking about following in the footsteps of friends who bought 30 guinea fowl that all but eradicated ticks on their property. That’s not a perfect solution, though. “They’re noisy, and owls, foxes, hawks and weasels, which are abundant in the Hamptons, love to eat them,” Ms. Baker Staats said.

Loud birds would blend right in at a summer lawn party in those parts if only the guests actually stepped on the grass. Fernanda Niven, who has battled chronic Lyme disease for years, said that when she is in the Hamptons, she doesn’t stand on the grass for long and avoids dunes and woods.