You answered your question with your question. They’re commonly imported and cheap. They’re fairly easy to acclimate but they’re rather large and “unappealing” (quotes because they’re not flashy like panthers, for example).
They lay rather large clutches, so it’d be difficult to get rid of a...
We used to have a tick problem on the farm, so we raised guinea fowl and no more tick issues.
Some places I’ve been out in the woods- if you stop walking, you’ve got a swarm of ticks running up your leg. They’re terrible down here