My TICK experience!!!!!!!!

[Bullfrog 1]

I cut a path with a weed whacker behind my house Saturday. Maybe 75 yards in and back. The woods are dense but nothing earth shattering. I had long kahki colored pants on(thank God). Upon coming out I looked down to "check" my pants. I noticed the lower legs on both sides half way from my knees down were discolored and than I noticed movement. There were literally HUNDREDS on tiny ticks on my pants. I have been in and around the woods for 40 years and have never seen anything like that. Makes me sick to think of a couple kids or somewhat for a stroll through there. I am really freaked out and think Iam just going to stay out of there till November. That would of been a good test for Permethrin.   Bill

[achigan]

[nineworlds9]

Hate the suckers.  Might be time for a controlled burn?  I have done some reading on the subject and they say the numbers are increasing for various reasons across the country...now mind you I believe nature is cyclical...things such as warmer climate nationwide, increased deer population density, reduction in natural predators of the ticks (birds, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals etc).  Lots of potential reasons.  Seed ticks suck, literally, and are hard to spot, you can easily mistake them for a mole or grain of dirt/chaff.  Check yourself well and employ a significant other  :D   Treated clothing via dips or spraying around cuffs, neck etc prior to going out is vital.  Dont worry about the scent, better to not get Lyme or worse than worry about being busted by game.  Play the wind instead.

[Bullfrog 1]

One thing I have always tried to figure out. I hunt another very similar looking area not really that far from where I was and have not had a tick on me from that area in 5 years??  Bill

[Pointer]

There definitely seem to be more of them than ever before...I spray every single thing I take out there other than my bow. Cold weather knocks them down some..the first frost around here really gets them heading underground. Unfortunately, that first frost seems to come later and later in the lower portion of NY. Last season I was out in shirt sleeves on Halloween.. I'd love a real cold snap for a few days in mid October this season. I just doubt we'll get it

[Jake Scott]

Permethrin (sp) works wonders!!!  

Jake

[Izzy]

Get you some chickens!

[LongbowArchitect]

I backpacked into my hunting area in a Colorado Wilderness area a week ago last weekend to check out my camping/hunting area. Super high vegetation like I've never seen there due to all of the rain Colorado has been getting this spring and summer. I needed a machete to get more than a couple hundred yards off the main trail. It's going to take a good freeze to bring most of that vegetation down. Hopefully that happens before we head in for a week long hunt last week of September.

I have read that the tick population has exploded in Colorado due to the increased rain. I returned home Sunday and when I showered I found a tick buried in my right thigh. I carefully removed it with needle nose tweezers. It came out intact and I disinfected the bite area with rubbing alcohol. Tuesday night I started feeling sick and by Wednesday at 3:30am I had severe flu-like symptoms. I called my doctor at 8:00am and he was able to get me in to his office at 9:00am. He told me I could have one of the following from that tick.
1. Lyme Disease- Bacterial infection. Highly unlikely in Colorado. No confirmed cases ever.
2. Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever- Bacterial infection. Highly unlikely as only a couple of confirmed cases in Colorado ever.
3. Colorado Tick Fever- viral infection. Highly likely. No cure for it and it needs to run it's 120 day course.
My doctor prescribed a 14 day supply of doxycyclene, an anti-biotic, as a precaution. Death can occur if Lyme Disease or Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever are not treated promptly. Most people don't realize they've been bitten by a tick and think it's just a bad case of the flu. Severe consequences as a result. I lucked out and found the tick.

So far I'm feeling pretty good but I'm sure interested in finding out what the blood test shows.

[TRAP]

Originally posted by LongbowArchitect:
I backpacked into my hunting area in a Colorado Wilderness area a week ago last weekend to check out my camping/hunting area. Super high vegetation like I've never seen there due to all of the rain Colorado has been getting this spring and summer. I needed a machete to get more than a couple hundred yards off the main trail. It's going to take a good freeze to bring most of that vegetation down. Hopefully that happens before we head in for a week long hunt last week of September.

I have read that the tick population has exploded in Colorado due to the increased rain. I returned home Sunday and when I showered I found a tick buried in my right thigh. I carefully removed it with needle nose tweezers. It came out intact and I disinfected the bite area with rubbing alcohol. Tuesday night I started feeling sick and by Wednesday at 3:30am I had severe flu-like symptoms. I called my doctor at 8:00am and he was able to get me in to his office at 9:00am. He told me I could have one of the following from that tick.
1. Lyme Disease- Bacterial infection. Highly unlikely in Colorado. No confirmed cases ever.
2. Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever- Bacterial infection. Highly unlikely as only a couple of confirmed cases in Colorado ever.
3. Colorado Tick Fever- viral infection. Highly likely. No cure for it and it needs to run it's 120 day course.
My doctor prescribed a 14 day supply of doxycyclene, an anti-biotic, as a precaution. Death can occur if Lyme Disease or Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever are not treated promptly. Most people don't realize they've been bitten by a tick and think it's just a bad case of the flu. Severe consequences as a result. I lucked out and found the tick.

So far I'm feeling pretty good but I'm sure interested in finding out what the blood test shows.

I would also have your doctor run a test for erlichiosis.  The prescribed antibiotic may be enough but erlichiosis is often off the radar screen when it comes to tick bites but it's a possibility.  Pretty sure symptoms are similar to influenza

[Russ Clagett]

I hate a tick.

[Car54]

Russ,  run over to Gaddy's and grab yourself some Permethrin, it wil be your friend.

[Sam McMichael]

Ticks are probably the most dangerous things most of us will encounter in the woods. They carry many terrible and potentially fatal diseases. I don't hunt at all without thoroughly spraying my clothes with permethrin (sp) . I just hope they don't evolve like some insects do. Lice have shown up in about 25 states that are not affected by it.

[Jason Kendall]

My son has youth season so I use a lot of Permethrin in September, before he started hunting I didnt go in the woods until the end of October, I hate those things!

[galadriel]

After you treat your clothing w permethrin, buy a bottle of flea and tick spray for dogs/cats and take it with you in woody areas.
Flea and tick spray for dogs/cats contains pyrethrin from the chrysanthemum plant. When you see a tick (or several) on your clothes, spray them with the f&t directly- point blank range and watch.. A tick will take a few steps the begin to turn in circles and walk downwards before falling off your clothes.. Fun to watch with a feeling of retribution too.

[Stump73]

Ive got an idea from a friend to make my own. Go to the feed store and buy some permethrin for cattle and mix a certain amount with a gallon of water and pore the mix in a spray bottle.

[bowberry]

I grew up in southern Maine with no ticks.Zero that I remember.

 I came back to Maine years later and  it was infested with ticks. Dog ticks mostly, not the lyme disease deer ticks. I think they are fairly harmless, But still very gross.

I tried my brothers dirtbike out across the field and back and had like 50 ticks on my pantlegs.

6 years ago I moved 3 hours north and havn't seen a tick in 6 years. I'm not saying there arn't some around, I just havn't seen any.

[sticksnstones]

I crawled into an observation post in the dark one morning in 1996 and when light cracked I could see a few hundred of them crawling all over me. I taped off my cuffs with duct tape and waited until dark before crawling out. That night I found only four had actually got into my clothes and bitten in. I got them out right away.

You're right, an experience like that will stay with you for a while! The good news is it doesn't get any worse than that  
Thom

[Whitetail Addict]

Check yourself well, and all over, to make sure none have bitten you.

Bob

I take some organic apple cider vinegar with mother  every day, it is great for heart burn, digestion, blood, gout, and arthritis, I have not had a tick attached to me in years.  I don't know for sure but just maybe.  Forty years ago there were as many ticks around as there is now, maybe more.  I was almost ready to get a monkey or maybe a couple of tick birds from Africa for pets, the rhinos seem to like them.

[Doc Nock]

I've shared this before...Happy Jack Kennel Dip at various locations, TSC was mine...

Water based...the cattle stuff is mixed with fuel oil type stuff and STINKS ---forever....I have some I won't use!

I got ticks in 20* temps when the weather took a 1-day warming trend( to 20*)...seed ticks may have hatched on the warm front, but it freaked me out in dead of winter hike!

Don't count on frost to kill them...permethrin all the way... commercial or home made...the home made may NOT withstand washings and last very long in a container...