Depends on where you live. Around here if you are in the woods like me all the time, well you pretty much are at risk. I never caught it but I have pulled ticks off me many times. I have had several friends that got it ... good thing in my area is docs know what to look for right out of the gate. My buddie had the first documented case in Pennsylvania ... It really made him terribly sick and in the hospital before they finally figured it out. The tick crawled up under his arm pit (a common place) for that nasty little bastard.   It can be very serious with life long consequences