Has anyone noticed the ticks seem more abundant this year?

[BIGDADDY]

I have only been out in the woods several times this year and have found 2 ticks on me. One walking on my back and another latched on my chest which I had to pull out.
I thought this past cold cold winter would have killed me back some.
I live in Pa. Just wondering if there are worse where you live.

 

[lindnova]

I have only seen a couple. Usually I have found a lot by now.

The gnats and small flies are absolutely awful this spring though.

 

[Z33]

I was out shooting back in April and came away with 3 after about 6 or 8 hours but that's really all I have encountered this year. I would say they are about the same as years prior.

I just wish we could get rid of the mosquitoes and black flies

 

[fireview2788]

All my buddies that turkey hunt have said they were horrible. They are one of the reasons I don't turkey hunt. I can tell you the deer we killed last fall were covered.

d r

 

[Hogwildz]

I picked 3 deer ticks off me 3 separate days of splitting wood in a fairly open area.
Luckily, caught each one while they were crawling up my pant leg.
First time I have eve had them on me since living here.

 

[Cburke]

I'm in pa and I will second them being bad. Pulled one embedded and multiple crawling on me. Just found one in my garage crawling on my work bench of all places!

 

[razerface]

That's what guineas are for. My dogs have less this year then ever before. We have chickens and guineas roaming around everywhere.

 

[bobdog2o02]

I was talking with an entemologist the other day, He said that the bugs will freeze, and it doesnt matter how long. What is affectd though is the critters that eat those bugs......birds, salamanders, frogs/toads........ The long cold kept the predators sleeping or in a warmer area longer giving the bugs more time to get at it.................

 

[Tommytman]

I'm from Lyme, Connecticut so it goes without saying that there are plenty of ticks around. In the back there are deer trails and forget about it, every time I'm back there I get a couple crawling up my pants. But the rest of my property doesn't seem too bad. I would say they are about the same between last year and this year.

 

[Woody Stover]

I picked a bunch of deer and dog ticks off earlier in the year. One day, I must have gotten into a hot spot for deer ticks, had about ten crawling on my pants when I came in. I haven't gotten too many lately. The dog has gotten some, and he gets hyper when we try to get them off, but we've gotta do it; They can get tick-borne diseases too. Usually, as the summer progresses, there are less of them around.

I picked 3 deer ticks off me 3 separate days of splitting wood in a fairly open area. Luckily, caught each one while they were crawling up my pant leg. First time I have eve had them on me since living here.

I've been wearing 8" boots and pants with long inseam, then putting a rubber band around my pant cuffs and tucking them into the boots; Keeps 'em on the outside pretty well. Spraying my boots with lemon-eucalyptus seems to keep them off for a while. Can't wait 'til I'm far enough ahead on everyone to quit going out there in the summer. Hell, I can't see anything in a lot of spots anyway, the brush is so heavy from all this rain.

 

[Seanm]

Im always worried about Tundra (see my avatar). She has such a thick coat that I worry I will miss them little buggers. There is something you can buy at the vet that you dab onto the dogs skin that keeps them protected for a month. Its probably time for me to give it to her again. I dropped a lodgepole last month that had a bunch of cracks along it, when my wife and I were splitting it we noticed many ticks, fortunately they were all of the squished variety. I havent seen any live ones moving around this year but Im sure our woods are full of them.

 

[BIGDADDY]

I was talking with an entemologist the other day, He said that the bugs will freeze, and it doesnt matter how long. What is affectd though is the critters that eat those bugs......birds, salamanders, frogs/toads........ The long cold kept the predators sleeping or in a warmer area longer giving the bugs more time to get at it.................

Didn't know that. Makes sense though. Thanks for the information.

 

[gerry100]

My dog patrols the woodlot and rousts any deer into the surrounding forests where I seldom venture.

Keeping the deer density down is shown to reduce the Lyme threat significantly.

 

[BrotherBart]

They are terrible here too this year. Every time I go outside I get jumped by'em.

 

[WiscWoody]

The ticks aren't as bad as last year when I'd find over ten a day between the two dogs and I. It's the Mosquitos that are insane this year. They just laugh at 40% Deet spray. And when the dogs come in they bring the blood suckers in with them. I like having a electric swatter so I can trap them between it and the walls.

 

[Cburke]

Yea I sprayed my wood line with seven this year and has seemed to help a bit but still finding the buggers, be careful everyone Lymes disease is no joke had it twice and vow never to get it again! My gf thinks I'm crazy for having her check my back and hair for ticks when I come in from the my woods, but it will be all worth it when my new stove gets installed next month and don't have to use half as much oil this winter!

 

[Pat53]

Very few ticks this year, but the mosquitos are absolutely INSANE !!. I usually only have a few mosquitos in the spring where I live and this year they are terrible. Never seen them like this ...ever. They've been out for about 3 weeks now and they are still almost as bad as when they first popped. I have one of those "Mosquito Magnets" I bought about 8 years ago for black flies and its killing about 500 mosquitos a day, but barely putting a dent in them. Every store in the area has been sold out of bug spray for weeks.

It was a wet spring here with a lot of snow melt and rain earlier, so they had perfect conditions for breeding. In addition, I am not seeing hardly any bats flying around in the evening. They supposedly eat thousands of them every week. There is a fungus that is killing bats in many places of the country, it was confirmed in 2 counties in the U.P. earlier this spring. Supposedly came from European bats, which are immune to it. My advice.....start importing European bats to the U.S. ....... rapidly !!

Pat

 

[Applesister]

I found a tick stuck on my ribs under my arm. My sister took a blow up pic with a macro feature on her cell phone camera. After we pulled the tick out. I was missing a sizable chunk of hide. We had a mini population burst of ticks with the first warm weather. But thats been it. They ran a news flash on a local news channel one night. They mentioned Old Lyme CT. There was speculation about an animal testing facility on an island there. Chemical testing or germ warfare laboratory or something. Like radiation, there was talk about a possible germ leak. They interviewed 3 women who lived in Lyme who had the disease. Thats why they call it Lyme disease, it was first discovered in Lyme CT.

 

[Applesister]

I guess we wont know till the end of the season about the bug situation or how the weather affected the wildlife food chain hierarchy. I think theres less bugs but it feels like a rain forest here and Im having trouble keeping vegetation in check.

 

[WiscWoody]

They say a deer tick needs to be attached for a few days to transmit the disease. The tell tale ring doesn't always appear, but it will 85% of the time. I've had deer ticks attached to me and I didn't go into the doc but neighbors have just to be safe and chat with the doc. I know it can be hell to have Lymes. We don't deal with treatment as well as dogs do they say as it stays in our cartilage where antibiotics can't get to. It's technical.... I don't really understand!

 

[privatejoker75]

We don't really have ticks up here but the black flies (blood suckers) are all over the place this year, so annoying. They give my dogs red circle bite marks too, freaked me out at first because they look very similar to tick bites

 

[1kzwoman]

It's been a cool wet spring here so anticipate
a lot of hungry blood sucker of all form once it warms.
I am surprised to see so many of you "pulling
ticks off" .I was taught that would leave parts of tick imbedded in flesh. So a hot (extinguished)match head, hot needle is applied to tick body to encourage them to release. Or a thick coating of petroleum jelly which cuts air supply off , useful with kids scared of using
heat but takes a while.

 

[bobdog2o02]

It's been a cool wet spring here so anticipate
a lot of hungry blood sucker of all form once it warms.
I am surprised to see so many of you "pulling
ticks off" .I was taught that would leave parts of tick imbedded in flesh. So a hot (extinguished)match head, hot needle is applied to tick body to encourage them to release. Or a thick coating of petroleum jelly which cuts air supply off , useful with kids scared of using
heat but takes a while.

To pull them off its best to use a tweezers, grab the tick and some of your own hide and then yank quickly. Like ripping off a band-aid. Gets the whole tick without leaving the pesky head behind......

 

[mass_burner]

Yea I sprayed my wood line with seven!

seven?

 

[bobdog2o02]

http://www.gardentech.com/All-Products/sevin-concentrate-bug-killer/Overview