2025: Year of the Tick

[Alvito]

Please don’t use the Lords name that way. Thank you. It’s blasphemous to some of us here.

My theory is the reduction in farm land as we move away from an agrarian society further & further each year. Open farmland is being overgrown with brush & woods. Deer are overpopulating once open country. They carry a lot of ticks.

I think you're theory makes sense......this is not an endorsement.....but I heard on wbz radio Boston, this guy called...tick man dan..... several shows...who seems to know everything and anything about ticks, maybe his knowledge of ticks could help some on this site with tick information

 

[Jstpssng]

I really don't know. We've always had them of course, but this year they are PROLIFIC and unbelievably numerous. They say possums will eat thousands of ticks, maybe we need more possums.

They have since found that isn't the case.

Opossums Don't Eat Ticks By The Thousands | Field & Stream

What do opossums eat? Many think that opossums eat thousands of ticks. However, based on a 2021 peer-reviewed study, opossums may not eat ticks at all.

www.fieldandstream.com

The study cited was on animals in captivity. Just like the ancient myth of raccoons always washing their food, possums act differently in the wild.

 

[Yander]

I live in open farm land, Central Ohio, with a few large maple trees around my house. Haven't seen a tick in years. Of course, now I will walk outside and get bit by one.

 

[lman]

My dog had one a couple of weeks ago but that's all I've seen lately. Maybe they don't like the corn and bean fields around here.

 

[ponytug]

Forgot to say I even get them walk to and from mail box on gravel drive.....I rigged a horizontal pole on one side of tractor with piece of white sheet like flag to drag on grass along drive, you can't believe how many are clinging like velcro, I do it every 2 weeks, seems to help in my case, then I quickly burn in barrel

I saw a funny video a while ago about some scientists trapping and studying ticks. Their tick collection method was to drag a white cloth behind a remote controlled toy (jeep?). The ticks apparently leap on quite successfully, and quickly. If I remember correctly, they had a follow on use by dragging a white cloth treated with an anti-tick insecticide to treat the perimeter of an area to reduce the tick populations.

Good luck and stay safe out there!

All the best,

Peter

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I saw a funny video a while ago about some scientists trapping and studying ticks. Their tick collection method was to drag a white cloth behind a remote controlled toy (jeep?). The ticks apparently leap on quite successfully, and quickly. If I remember correctly, they had a follow on use by dragging a white cloth treated with an anti-tick insecticide to treat the perimeter of an area to reduce the tick populations.

Good luck and stay safe out there!

All the best,

Peter

Actually that's a pretty good idea cutting grass! I think I'll rig something like that on my mower.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Forgot to say I even get them walk to and from mail box on gravel drive.....I rigged a horizontal pole on one side of tractor with piece of white sheet like flag to drag on grass along drive, you can't believe how many are clinging like velcro, I do it every 2 weeks, seems to help in my case, then I quickly burn in barrel

Good idea. Wonder how that would work with a sheet treated with Permethrin?
Today I wore my Tick Magnet shirt to a local restaurant and a farmer there said his wife removes ticks from him but they're always dead, he believes because he's on high blood pressure medication.
Maybe someday a pharmaceutical company would come out with a pill you could take to kill ticks like that so you'd never get tick disease.

 

[Jstpssng]

Maybe someday a pharmaceutical company would come out with a pill you could take to kill ticks like that

They already have... for dogs.
With my first dog I would take 30 or more ticks off her a day, depending on where we were working. My second dog was on Bravecto, a pill he took once a month. In 11+ years I don't believe that I ever found one on him. I'm not sure what the meds were doing to him but it couldn't have been any worse than the ticks.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

They already have... for dogs.
With my first dog I would take 30 or more ticks off her a day, depending on where we were working. My second dog was on Bravecto, a pill he took once a month. In 11+ years I don't believe that I ever found one on him. I'm not sure what the meds were doing to him but it couldn't have been any worse than the ticks.

Maybe I'll take em!

 

[jyoutz]

Was at a Customer’s place years ago. ‘bout a dozen pullets running around the yard. I said “you must not have to buy eggs”. He says, “oh they aint for eggs, they eat all the ticks”.

Guinea hens are better than chickens for eating bugs. But they’re damn noisy birds.

 

[jyoutz]

Man, im especially glad i dont live in a tick area. Used to get them when i lived in calif.

Dont seem to be bothered with them here in N idaho.

I know there here, but not in huge numbers.

We don’t have many in New Mexico either, except in sage brush areas.

 

[Runner]

Maybe I'll take em!

They are $60 a pop. Too expensive for me, but Redmond gets them...

 

[5030]

Bad here in SE Michigan as well. Dog gets some soert of repellant, wish I could ass well. Possums eat them and we have a few, but not enough I guess. Nasty little basturds.

 

[Gem99ultra]

This is crazy. I know you guys are not alarmists and like me are always mentally processing and cataloging data like this to assess the state of your properties. So I know this is an actual issue not some made up boogie monster in your heads. I would be freaked out too.

Has anyone heard of this product? Seems like it is worth a shot and more of a natural deterrent.
View attachment 3510626

The Cedarcide must be mixed with something much different than simple cedar granules. We have deer that hang out around our cedar trees, creating as major hazard for me when mowing. i can get near any of those trees and find myself covered with ticks!

 

[Oaktree]

a farmer there said his wife removes ticks from him but they're always dead, he believes because he's on high blood pressure medication.

Hmmm, wonder if that's why I get relatively few on me.

 

[John0829]

Maybe someday a pharmaceutical company would come out with a pill you could take to kill ticks like that so you'd never get tick disease.

I get a few on me but not like my wife does, I think it may be partly due to the high BP meds. However I noticed a several years ago when I was told to take garlic tablets daily, forget why but think it BP related, that very few ticks would get on me but never attach. I have long since stopped the garlic and now ticks will get on me more than in the past.

 

[ponytug]

I get a few on me but not like my wife does, I think it may be partly due to the high BP meds. However I noticed a several years ago when I was told to take garlic tablets daily, forget why but think it BP related, that very few ticks would get on me but never attach. I have long since stopped the garlic and now ticks will get on me more than in the past.

Garlic has helped me in the past with ticks and mosquitoes, but it doesn't agree with everyone.

I do wonder if over time one builds up a certain immunity to ticks, and they can't get enough blood to feed, so they keep going. These days, I catch ticks crawling on me occasionally, but I can't recall the last time I was actually bitten.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ArlyA]

immunity to ticks? You are kidding correct?

 

[mllud]

The Cedarcide must be mixed with something much different than simple cedar granules. We have deer that hang out around our cedar trees, creating as major hazard for me when mowing. i can get near any of those trees and find myself covered with ticks!

Ceder trees are tick haven. Either the deer bring them in or ticks are in the trees to drop onto the deer.
Ticks are small but dangerous disease carrying land leaches.
I use Deep Woods Off but ordered one of those Tick Twisters mentioned earlier in this Thread.

Ticks seem to be more populated than years ago. The Deer population could, may be the reason. Here in Missouri the conservation commision could double the yearly harvest for a couple years. I know farmers that are taking matters into their own hands. They plant corn and are feeding 40 deer.
I have seen the damage.
I'm for conservation but....
Every deer I've taken n past 50 years has had a gut full of soybeans or corn. Why eat grass with grain everywhere. Its good eating!
I got off topic.

 

[ponytug]

immunity to ticks? You are kidding correct?

Not entirely. There is some scientific evidence for antibodies against tick saliva anticoagulants, which causes the blood not to flow into the wound the way ticks need to feed. That causes the ticks to relocate, and drop off.

Whether I have them is a different story. Totally unproven.

All the best,

Peter