Question for ya! About Ticks.......

[Al Dente]

I agree with the increase in tick population.  Share similar background growing up.  Uncles had a fruit and dairy farm in Columbia County.  Grandparents bought a house and acreage.  Spent every weekend and every Summer there.  My Dad has the place now, so I have never not been there.  Back 15 years ago, when we had 13 deer per square mile, never saw a tick.  Fast forward to less than a decade ago, with a great decline in deer population, and the ticks are everywhere.  Went and posted the property with my cousin, and I picked 13 off of him, and he got 6 off of me.  I missed one on him, he got it off his armpit during the night.

I think the fact that the Winters are not as severe has something to do with it.  While still cold, we are nor seeing deep freezing temps for several days.  Those deep freeze temps, when they continue for several days, kill off the ticks that are not attached to a host to keep them warm.  Otherwise, they can stay dormant on a blade of grass for weeks at a time, just lying in wait for a host to walk by.

I wish I knew another reason as to why they are so prolific.  Then, maybe I could do something to prevent their existence.  Until then, I will spray down with Prem, keep cuffs tight, and be alert.

[Tall Paul]

My 80-year old father grew up hunting and fishing in west Alabama and claims no one even knew what a tick was when he was a kid.  I've heard this numerous times from older folks. Now, of course, you get covered up in ticks just going to the mailbox!

One thing all these older folks point out, was that there were no deer around at all then.  If you were a hunter, you went after quail, rabbits, squirrel and turkey.  Deer hunting was just a dream.

My father also remembers applying DDT to his skin to ward off mosquitos.  DDT was legal then and no one knew how deadly it was.

[Etter]

If you live in a region where lone star ticks are present, you should be extremely careful.  I have contracted alpha gal allergy from a bite over ten years ago.  

If you haven't heard of this, it's an allergy to ALL mammal meat.  Well, except for the meat of humans and old world primates because we, and our closes ancestors, lost this carbohydrate during evolution.  This allergy is on the rise and it's entirely due to the lone star tick.  Feel free to google it.

[ron w]

Many thanks for all the imput.......

[Doc Nock]

I think John's input is most thoughtful.

Breeding conditions and the fact that we have many different strains of 'yuk' than in decades past.

I knew a gal in the early 60's who got Rocky MT spotted fever from a dog tick bite...local gal.  But it was so odd,  people just shrugged.

Now we have W. Nile virus from skeeters amd all sorts of tick borne diseases...

Hey...even the 'social' scene now has STD's we never even heard of when I was out chasin!      :eek:        

Things change... we've fouled Mother Earth and no getting around it!

[Duncan]

I think ticks increase when their primary food source increases. I've lived here since 1985 and when we moved in we only saw the occasional dog tick. Then the lone star tick showed up. Then the deer population exploded and now deer ticks are all we see with some lone star ticks. At times you can't even walk around in the yard without getting several on you. I stay bit up in the summer months.
I currently have unexplained peripheral neuropathy and was checked for tick borne disease and other possible causes but the Docs found nothing except I definitely have it. Someone mentioned diazanon being a nerve agent. I occasionally used a product in the yard that contained diazanon to control the ticks. Heck maybe the neuropathy is chemically induced by that stuff.

[HighTecRedNeck]

Here in FL I rub myself down with bug juice before I even get dressed. It does create a scent issue so I REALLY have to watch my wind but it is either that or get bit. I only wear each outfit once and put it in a big ziplock bag. Our bow season opens in Sept and it is still hotter than you know what so I wear shorts and run down with cammo

[Bill Carlsen]

The moose herd in NH is suffering a loss in population, in part due to infestations of ticks that can be so bad they literally bleed an animal of that size to death.

[Doc Nock]

Duncan,

from my own reading, there is a huge (70-80%) FALSE negative on tick borne disease testing results, meaning you can have it BAD and the tests won't pick it up.

Guy I met at a shoot claims there are only 2 labs in the country that do a test that is more inclined to find the pathogens, but the insurance companies hassle them so they don't take insurance...all self pay... and it's not cheap!

Other guys who have let it go, now get antibiotic treatments, but it got imbedded so deeply in their system, the meds can't touch the Lyme.

Nothing to mess with!

[NimRand]

I would have to agree with the consensus. I grew up in Michigan. We use to run through the fields all day and never even get a bug on you. I didn't even know what a tick was until I read about it in Outdoor Life. Seems it was some sort of plague that occurred in the southern states. When I was growing up as it has already stated there wasn't any deer around. I was 14 years old before I saw a deer in the fields behind our house in Central Michigan. My first encounter with ticks is when the Air Force sent me to Georgia. I now live in Nebraska and we have more than our fair share of ticks.

[pete p]

Ron, 2 yrs ago i contracted anaplasmosis...lymes on steroids. some of the worst pain i can remember. felt like my eye balls were being pushed on, severe headache, neck pain, terrible knee joint pain. my lab contracted it within the same time frame. one morning i woke up and found her paralyzed, thought she was dead.  i had a deer tick on me the other day  so small i couldnt believe i saw it.  i hate those things.  these tick borne diseases have serious effects if untreated....encephalapathy (swelling of the brain), paralysis, depression, ect.  my neighbor lady looks like she had a stroke, her left side of her face is paralyzed...all from a tick. scary stuff.

[beaunaro]

Interesting sidenote here about reducing the tick population.
I live in the country in southern WI. Have about 18 acres here, nice 3D range and all for the kids and I.
Like a lot of us, I spend a lot of time outdoors.
We have always had free range chickens and a few guinea hens.
I read a book on guineas entitled "Gardening with Guineas" and learned that they eat countless numbers of ticks, and other garden pests.
I've not seen a tick anywhere on my property since the inclusion of 5-10 guineas every year in the family.
Irv Eichorst
 www.truesouthadventures.com

[John Scifres]

Great idea beaunaro.  My wife won't let me have livestock (except bees)here in the burbs but she seriously hates ticks.  Maybe I have some ammo now     I really want some chickens.

[Tickbait]

Twenty years ago here in central PA, I had never seen a tick in the woods.  Today I can pick up twenty in an hour hiking in the same areas.  As for the cause, unsure.

[John Scifres]

Duncan, there is evidence of neural effects from long term exposure to even very low doses of organophosphate pesticides.  Occasional home use would probably not do it though.  Regular occupational exposure or heavy and long term residential use may.  Like medicines, there is a dose-response relationship with all chemicals.  The higher the dose or the more regular the dose, the greater the effects.  And many have chronic (long  term) effects that aren't, and may never be, understood.

[straitera]

"Pyrmethrin" (?)is available at the feed store in a big container pretty cheap. Mix w/water into a spray bottle & spray around your feet where pants cover boots, your waist & shoulder/arms. Most anywhere a tick might crawl down onto your skin. P-thrin causes ticks grief & kills them quick. I've watched them bail out when they get in contact w/P-thrin. It is way toxic to ticks & maybe humans too? But, I'll take it over ticks any day.

[ron w]

A local gun club had some chickens and G.Fowl to curb the ticks......they still could not keep the population down. I do think it is a good idea!!

[Mint]

It's not the deer population but the white footed mice population that causes all the trouble. The tick picks up the lyme spirochete from the white footed mouse and then becomes infected.

From what I read is that if the fox population is high then your tick population is low since they tend to eat mice. I'm wondering if the coyotes have knocked down the fox populations so bad that the ticks have exploded.

[John Scifres]

I suspect that coyotes eat as many mice as the fox they have displaced.  But that is a good trail that shows how interwoven our ecosystem is.  It's very difficult to tell how the change in one cog in the gear of our natural (or unnatural) world will affect the whole machine.  It's like the time I pulled the loose thread on my favorite wool hunting sweater  :(

[John Scifres]

How's that for mixing up some metaphor soup?