TICKS!!!!!!

[RollingsFarms]

is it just me or are ticks WORSE this year then EVER? i live out in the middle of the woods, my land surrounds me. theres about 3 acres that's cleared out which is my yard etc. forest surrounds me. i was out cutting some firebreaks in my woods the other day and when i finished, i noticed i was COVERED in ticks! not big ones either, the smallest i have ever seen. you can feel them crawling all over you but they are hard to spot. theyre about the size of a speck of dirt...seriously. i would take a picture, but you'd have to blow it up about 100x and then it would be too blurry to see anything. i remember hitting some limbs, so maybe the tree was covered in them? what's weird is i found them mostly on my legs.

today i was out feeding my dogs and the same thing happened! i was covered in these same tiny ticks AGAIN. i went back outside and retraced my steps to see if i could find where i had gotten into them this time, but no help...just got covered with more.

i paid Orkin $70 to come spray my yard, but i think that helped about as much as not spraying it would have. is anyone else experiencing this bad of an outbreak of ticks this year? the weather was never right for me to do any control buring in my trees this year, so maybe that has something to do with why theyre so bad. i'm tired of having to take a shower everytime i come in from outside to wash off ticks. this is crazy! going into the woods and getting them is understandable, but when i get the same kinds on me in my yard, well that irritates me!

 

[gotrocks]

Hi Robert,
I assume you can tell a tick from a flea. The size you describe and the fact that they get on you in the yard makes me think they are fleas.

I don't think ticks can jump but fleas can.

Do you have animals around in the yard?

If it itches, scratch it!

 

[Ductape]

I have a favorite favorite dog walking / hiking areas near my house. We cut through a former cornfield (now just grassy / small brush) and head into trails through the woods. About two months ago i found three ticks on me. Next day, two more. Third day walking through the field something caught my eye and made me look down. There were literally thousands of ticks scurrying around !!! Everywhere i looked.... ticks, ticks,ticks !!! That was our last walk in that area. I'm a long ways away from you, being in NH..... but see the same thing. I figured it must have something to do with our past winter. Though we had alot of snow, the temperature was relatively mild. I suspect the lack of sub-zero weather doesn't kill off the population like it should???

 

[Redbug]

Those little ticks are called "seed ticks". I have been on some of the wild coastal islands, looked closely at the ground and seen them crawling towards me. They are easy to overlook and find when attached to your skin since they are so small. I would guess that diazinon mixed in a pump sprayer would kill them in your yard. After writing this, I am starting to feel itchy...

 

[Skyco]

Ditto the ticks in coastal areas of SC- about 15 years ago we were camping at Hunting Island State Park and spent a great deal of time picking ticks off us, not really a fun trip
This year at my property in WNC we've found ticks 3 seperate times crawling on us, or more correctly ME while in bed. Why they chose ME and not the wife or the two dogs is a puzzle. We've had that property 3 years and have NEVER had ticks there before.....I blame it on the drought. Maybe. Don't really know.

 

[ragkar]

I'll tell ya what happens. Ma tick lays hundreds of eggs and as each hatches it climbs the nearest plant as high as it can. Then it waits for you to stroll by. As your pants leg brushes against the plant, it grabs your pants and then starts climbing.

There's a couple things that you can do. Keep the plants down. Tuck your pants leg into your socks. Treat your clothes and gear with a repellent.

'Repel Permanone' is a highly recommended clothing repellent that will work through several clothing wash cycles. It also repels mosquitoes as well as ticks.

Another thing, don't sit on logs.

One last suggestion, visit the Lyme disease sites and become familiar with the appearance of the deer ticks trademark 'bullseye rash'.

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

I took my buddy with me back in April to look at the land we are trying to buy. By the time we had left, I had picked off 7 and my buddy had picked off 16! All in less than two hours. We didn't get into heavy weeds we mainly stayed on the "green" paths as seen in the pics.

 

[jaybrad]

There have been a lot of stories on the news here in the northeast about the prevalence of ticks this year, especially deer ticks.

I was commenting to a friend just a week or so ago that I had never seen a tick and wasn't sure I would know it if I saw one. That afternoon when I was done with the day's tractor work and hauling brush to the dump, I notice a tick on the side of my neck. It was awkward for me to get at it, but my wife could easily remove it, and we could tell it was a nasty deer tick.

The suggestion in this area is to get in the habit of checking yourself each night before bed, since it takes 24 hours for a tick to infect someone. I now check much more often, because those things really creep me out....

Jay

 

[RollingsFarms]

Hi Robert,
I assume you can tell a tick from a flea. The size you describe and the fact that they get on you in the yard makes me think they are fleas.

I don't think ticks can jump but fleas can.

Do you have animals around in the yard?

If it itches, scratch it!

oh no these aren't fleas. they don't jump at all, and arent even the shape or color of a flea. these are very small, about the size of a small individual grain of sand. they are brown, and if you have good vision and look close enough you can see legs. if they were fleas i could easily get rid of them, but these are in my woods and my yard, and who knows where else.

other then these, i have only had 2 deer ticks on me this year. i wish i could find out some info about what kind these are.

 

[smallfarmer]

Deer ticks are very small and they may carry Lyme Disease. BE CAREFUL..
Wood ticks are larger, around the size of a match head or bigger.

 

[Egon]

Google "Ticks". Lots of pictures and advice on how to remove them.

 

[shvl73]

We've found many ticks this year and for the last 10 years. Nothing quite as small as the tiny ones mentioned though. I can't remember ever seeing them as a kid. I guess they've moved northward in the last 30+ years. I'll bet I've pulled 50+ off myself and the dogs. Monday evening I pulled 2 off one of our steers. First time I've seen them on the cows. I really get creeped out by ticks, especially when they wake me up in the wee hours crawling on me!

 

[dooleysm]

oh no these aren't fleas. they don't jump at all, and arent even the shape or color of a flea. these are very small, about the size of a small individual grain of sand. they are brown, and if you have good vision and look close enough you can see legs. if they were fleas i could easily get rid of them, but these are in my woods and my yard, and who knows where else.

other then these, i have only had 2 deer ticks on me this year. i wish i could find out some info about what kind these are.

Sounds like what around here is called 'turkey lice' or 'turkey ticks'. I've only encountered them in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky. I spent alot of time outdoors in Terre Haute in college and shortly after and never found them that far north in the state.

When I run into them there are loads of them, they look like very tiny ticks. They either bite and fall off or more likely, burrow in. They leave small bumps that itch like the devil for several weeks.

These may or may not be the same thing as 'chiggers', though people I've talked to swear they are two different things.

 

[polo1665]

My yard and surrounding land is also home to many deer, and we have run across ticks as well. I have always seemed to encounter the most problems in tall grass where deer are prevelant. A simple walk through this grass will net you a leg full of tiny ticks. Since my first experience with them I always make sure to keep a can of OFF handy. I have never found a tick on me after using it. We also talked to the Vet and were told that it is safe to use on our dog as well. As said before ticks are nothing to be messed with. I've known someone who came down with Lyme disease, not a good thing.

Mark

 

[davitk]

Makes you wonder why the don't make Frontline for people.

 

[dmccarty]

We are surrounded by ticks and chiggers. We just have to learn to live with them. The dogs usually bring them in the house. The dogs are on Frontline but that only kills the ticks after the ticks bite the dog.

This time of year I just try to stay out of grass and woods. If I mow with the DR then I tuck the pant legs into my sock and spray with something with DEET in it. Used to soak the clothes in Permethrin but have not done so lately.

I went and mowed some trails last week. Not sure if cutting up 1-2 inch diameter saplings is mowing. Besides the saplings I was mowing down brush, blackberry, and "grass". Took about 4.5 hours and I never ever left the tractor seat. Woke up the next day and had two chigger bites. On on each elbow. Somehow those things got on the tractor and best I can tell climbed up the FEL control as well as the steering wheel or gear selecters. Only way they could have gotten me.

Not sure if the ticks are worse this year or not but they certainly started earlier since we warmed up pretty quick this year. Last year we had a freeze on 4/15 which is the average last for a freeze in my area. This year we had a real nice mild spring and then the heat turned on in early June.

If you see something small like bits of black pepper those might be chiggers. Seed tick aka young ticks are a bit bigger. One of the gawd aweful things about chiggers is that you can get hundreds of bites if you hit a nest. BTDT.

We had fleas once once at the city house before Frontline wiped them out. I sprayed the backyard a couple of times which was a waste of time. I think the only thing that would control ticks/chiggers is a fire. And wiping out the deer.

We were talking to a person we are doing some business with. Her husband is recovering from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. A tick got him this spring. She said they can't walk across the yard without picking them up.

Hate the things....

Later,
Dan

 

[schmism]

one word for ya....

guinea hens

say good buy to your flee and tick problems.

Gardening with Guineas by Jeannette S. Ferguson from the June/July, 2008 issue of Backyard Poultry

 

[Champy]

We're having an awful time this year with Chiggers...maybe due to the heavy rains?

Whatever the cause its been really bad this year...everytime we go out in the fields/woods we get them, and have been using some sprays to try and limit the spread.

 

[schmism]

this is the second post about bugs this year, and to be honest, either its not a problem around hear, or my free range chickens are doing a hella job at keeping them down for us.

if anything ive noticed fewer bugs so far (ticks, mosquetos, etc)

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

Hmm.....that guy's article makes ya think.....ducks are dirty.......chickens have their pros and cons......

story.....again...

When I was a young boy, we used to go out to my great-grandparents house. I loved it out there. They lived in a very old house, and even though great grandpa had what was considered a "good" job they lived VERY primitive. They had what I thought was woods and land. They had all kinds of animals. But the ones I remember most where the guineas. I was about 5-8 and I remember chasing the chickesn, turkeys and just about any animal they let out. One time, however, I tried chasing the guineas. Well, as I learned, guineas aren't scared like chickens. That guinea turned around and attacked me and chased me all the way back to the house. I had no idea they were agressive, could fly and out-run me! I never bothered them again.....

Sounds like some real potential for rid your property of several problems. I wonder how far they really roam? This is the type of stuff I come here to read........man, I'm ready to get started!

one word for ya....

guinea hens

say good buy to your flee and tick problems.

Gardening with Guineas by Jeannette S. Ferguson from the June/July, 2008 issue of Backyard Poultry