Question For TICK experts????

[Bullfrog 1]

HOw can areas in the same county that have the same deer( A LOT) population and one area will be loaded and the other is not. Both have the same type of folliage. This is not just a one time thing either but year after year? Any thoughts? Thanks.  BILL

[Broken Arrow 1]

I do not know the answer to your question however a good way to keep them of is to use flea and tick collars from your local pet store. They have no smell and will greatly reduce the number of ticks you will get on you.

[BrianfromTulsa]

I hunt a river bottom area here in Oklahoma and while not scientific..... I have summized that one area where I hunt frequently floods and seems to have alot less or even no ticks while similar areas nearby but a little higher in elevation are full.

[Whip]

I wonder if it varies from year to year somehow.  At my hunting propery ticks used to be a constant problem.  It wasn't unusual at all to find 5 -10 on me every weekend I went up there.  They were terrible!  During the past few years, they have been noticably down.  I think last year I saw maybe two ticks all year.  Yet I here from others that hunt that part of the State that they still have problems.  
Doesn't make sense to me, but I sure like it better without them!

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

Fire.
Areas that haven't burned in several decades seem to host the most.

[ozy clint]

last what i was thinking before i read your post juan. fire

[saumensch]

Some research round here seems to found out that they prefer a special kind of mineral structure in the ground for their nests because of egg development or so. I dont remember the exact research, but I think it said something like that. However, if the exact same vegetation is growing both areas I doubt that the minerals in the ground  differ alot.
I´ll see if I can find that research again..

[Benny Nganabbarru]

I agree with the fire theory. I know one awesome piggy-wiggy spot which is absolutely infested with them (grass ticks, a.k.a. kangaroo ticks, a.k.a. seed ticks). It hasn't been burnt for several years. It is the only spot like it that I've encountered in quite a few miles in the bush. Of course, we find the odd one elsewhere, but in this horror spot, a fellow can look down at his trousers, and recoil in abject terror as he spies literally two-hundred-plus of the little buggers. The next five days and nights are hell!

[Douglas DuRant]

I think many times ticks when full drop from the animal while it is bedded, and so bedding areas often seem to have more. As do areas with lots of game and small rodents. I have also found that after winter when the weather gets warmer in spring that the ticks in my area are much worst, but after a month or so they aren't a problem since they have hitched a ride on some poor animal host.

Fire can be a reason for areas with low tick numbers, and I suspect that flooding as suggested may be too.

[Kip]

The post about flooding and ground cover seems logical in my two areas I hunt.One is solid palmetto no briars unless logged and floods a lot no one tick in app. 20 years.The other pine and hardwood mixed area we have a few and the deer have them also but in the palmettoes the deer have no ticks.Kip

[Deadsmple]

Bullfrog 1,here in the northeast the white footed mouse is actually the primary food source of the deer tick (Ixodes scapularis). I would suspect that the rodent populations are different between the two areas of the county you mentioned.

[DeathBringer]

I don't know your answer, but I know it happens.  There are no wildfires in my area.  I have NO ticks around my house, but have been covered just a few miles away.  Same type terrain, same deer populations.

[Jeff Strubberg]

Could be fire.  Don't overlook predator populations, either, i.e. birds.

[GingivitisKahn]

Did you say... the TICK?

 

[KSdan]

I notice similar things with deer themselves. . . one deer will be covered- while another deer from the same exact area will have very few.  Interesting to me. . . I suspect it has to do with their bedding/living habits.

[Running Buck]

They might be called deer ticks but, mice and chipmunks carrie more ticks then deer do.

[Pat B]

What about coyotes?

[Don Stokes]

Generally such things relate to overall population density of the host. However, tick populations do fluctuate over time, like most wildlife. We've had some really bad years, but the last several haven't been bad at all. Whatever the cause, I'm for it!

I'm not a tick expert, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express once...

[wapiti]

We have Rocky Mnt Labs here in the valley. That's what they do is work wih ticks and the diseases they carry. I asked one of their biologist why so many ticks in one area and not in another. He said they really don't know. We are just now understanding all the crap they carry and transfer from one critter to another. That includes us!

[acolobowhunter]

Even after turkey hunting and sitting my DB blind I have had them on me.  I have also seen them crawliing on the blind itself.  I like to catch them and put them on a dry leaf and hold a match under the leaf and roast them until DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!!!