As an aside, I grew up in rural New Jersey (yes, such a place exists), and as long as I can remember we've always called these "black legged" ticks "deer" ticks

As an aside, I grew up in rural New Jersey (yes, such a place exists), and as long as I can remember we've always called these "black legged" ticks "deer" ticks. Edit: as opposed to "wood" ticks (quite visibly distinctive http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification/rocky_mountain_wood_tick http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification/rocky_mount... - in spite of their name, quite common in the woody regions of NJ), which don't carry Lyme disease. In my experience, this type of tick was much more common than the "deer" or "black legged" tick in NJ.