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.