>"I find most people are naive of the problem especially in the west coast states, unless they spend a lot of time outdoors either recreationally, or landscaping, gardening, ranching, farming, hunting, etc."

Right but those different groups of people would have also existed 15 years ago so this is not really relevant. I'm just asking if the group that does care about it is more vigilant and careful than before, and if that could explain it.

>"You certainly want to check yourself after going out, but for dogs and animals the difference is just very outwardly obvious as you will see them crawling on their fur, on their beds, or you feel the lumps on their skin once they embed if you are petting them. Anecdotally this was not something I ever found 15+ years ago in the exact same environments."

Ok, so the answer is that the level of vigilance required to notice a difference is so low that it can't be the primary explanation? Regarding the dog anecdote though. If it is 15 years later the dogs are either much older or different dogs, so they may be rolling around in different areas, etc. Still interesting but that is why anecdotes are anecdotes.