Ticks!!

[O/U]

Jumpin' George!

I hunted in Mass for the first time a couple of weeks ago looking for grouse at the William Forward WMA. No flushes, but literally HUNDREDS of ticks. I have never seen anything like it. It was actually was the first time I didn't enjoy my hunt. In Vermont, we just don't worry about ticks, and I can tell you that I have never had one on me to my knowledge (and I grew up there)!

So how do you guys cope with the incredible tick population? Do they die off in the winter?

I'd like to hunt cottontail as I've heard this state is great for rabbit hunting, but honestly I'm a little hesitant to hunt in this state again. Is it the North Shore, or is the whole state infested?

 

[JonJ]

"Massachusetts: A parasite's panacea."

After hunting today I pulled one deer tick off me and when I showered 3 more went down the drain. CT and NY are even worse. A deep freeze will usually take them out.

 

[Len-2A Training]

"Massachusetts: A parasite's panacea."

Yes, but many of those are elected!

 

[MrsWildweasel]

"Massachusetts: A parasite's panacea."

After hunting today I pulled one deer tick off me and when I showered 3 more went down the drain. CT and NY are even worse. A deep freeze will usually take them out.

Yup, and we usually go over the dog after a day of hunting also.

 

[dixidawg]

I live just a few miles from Bill Forward WMA. After a morning's pheasant hunt it is not uncommon to comb 50 of the little buggers off the dog.... They have truly infested the area. I have no idea how or why,,,, I don't think anyone has. Nor do I think anyone has any idea how to get rid of them.

20 years ago, I never saw a tick and wouldn't know one if it bit me. They first started showing up around 15 years ago. My first lab, Dixie (the grandmother of the pooch in my avatar) became very ill and the vets couldn't figure it out. She almost died before they discovered it was Lyme. She was one of the first in this area diagnosed with it. Now my vet's favorite saying is that around here there are only 2 kinds of dogs: those that HAVE Lyme, and those that WILL have Lyme.

 

[JAMMIN]

My wife and my dog have both had lyme disease.

 

[JonJ]

Bring back DDT!

 

[dbhn]

Scouted the back yard of my parents house on T-day for 15-minutes and found one on me later that night. But, I also dug out my hunting clothes from the attic that night prior to finding it. I was wondering if it could have been a stowaway from last season????

When it is still warm like this late in the season they are very active. A few years ago it was warm like this. We hunted in t-shirts one Saturday, shot a small buck that was absolutely covered in them.

Be sure to check yourself really well. I got Lyme D this summer and never even knew I got bit. I argued with the doctor saying there is no way I got bit and didn't know it. Then the test came back positive and the rash showed up and I was eating crow. Evidently they numb the area they bite so most people don't even feel it.

 

[O/U]

So what do you guys do? Spray, or is vigilance when you get home enough.

They're incredibly tough. I tried to squash one against my car, and he just kept on goin. Whew! Tenacious little fellers.

Dixidawg, I didn't flush a single partridge in 2.5 hours in the Bill Forward WMA. Maybe this is a topic for a separate thread, but is there anywhere to go on the North Shore for grouse and woodcock (for next season)? What about cottontail?

 

[MrsWildweasel]

One of my cockers also has had Lyme. There is no rhyme or reason to the ticks. We just go through the dog after she has been out in the field. I do get them vaccinated for Lyme.

 

[Admin]

I'd like to hunt cottontail as I've heard this state is great for rabbit hunting, but honestly I'm a little hesitant to hunt in this state again. Is it the North Shore, or is the whole state infested?

I've been in areas of MN where I've looked at my feet and have seen easy 50+ ticks on each ankle. We used to pull our socks over our pant leg bottoms and duct tape the sock/pant line.

They were easy enough to brush off when we were done walking the field and I never had any make it to my skin.

 

[MrsWildweasel]

The one and only time I got the he be gee bee's from tick, is when we lived down by Devens and we had gone walking down by the Ayer Pheasant farm and Glenn and I came back literally covered in ticks from head to toe.

 

[Chris]

We have a lot of grassland in our property. We use both a tick collar and a skin applied solution (yes, they ARE compatible if you use the proper products - at least our vet approved them)

Even with this, we do daily "Tick Checks" on the pooch and usually find one or two.

Before we used both products, it was not unusual to find him with as many as 20 ticks in a night.

We are looking into a product we can spread around the property which is supposed to 'treat' the rodents and rabbits (tick breeding grounds) similarly to the way our pooch is treated to help cut the breeding cycle down. But it's expensive.

We have not yet found any on us, but then we don't go crawling in the tall grass.

Ticks suck.

 

[depicts]

I walk the woods every day with my dog. The frontline takes pretty good care of her. I might see a tick or two on her, but they soon jump off if I don't grab them.

On the other hand, almost every time I go, except dead of winter, I'll be laying around later and feel one of the little buggers crawling on my neck and shoulders. I'm not crawling through brush, but we run into a LOT of ticks above us in Pine trees, and they drop on me.

I don't think I've been bit yet, but every time I feel a sniffle coming on or an aching muscle, I think to myself... "have to remember to tell the Doctor I've been around ticks."

Where I go we get Wood ticks AND deer ticks, and I wouldn't eat a rabbit from this are, or skin it, for anything. That's why they have Purdue Chicken in stores.

Doctors are getting better at recognizing Lyme desease, but people I know have been sick with it for long periods.

I have no solution. I'm not taking Lyme shots.

 

[GOAL]

I use frontline on my bird dogs but that doesn't stop them from biting. Since the formula only kills the ticks when they bite, it doesn't much help the dogs. This year, I actually used a flea and tick spray when hunting. I would spray the dogs just as they came out of the truck and spray my wife's and my pants and it really helped alot. When I did this this year it really made a difference, when I didn't the poor dogs suffered.

 

[O/U]

Where I go we get Wood ticks AND deer ticks, and I wouldn't eat a rabbit from this are, or skin it, for anything. That's why they have Purdue Chicken in stores.

Could one catch Lyme by skinning a rabbit infested with Lyme-ridden ticks?

 

[Martlet]

I use frontline on my bird dogs but that doesn't stop them from biting. Since the formula only kills the ticks when they bite, it doesn't much help the dogs. This year, I actually used a flea and tick spray when hunting. I would spray the dogs just as they came out of the truck and spray my wife's and my pants and it really helped alot. When I did this this year it really made a difference, when I didn't the poor dogs suffered.

I spray myself. I picked up biospot spray at PetSmart and spray the pup before we hunt. It works very well.

dixidawg mixed some flea/tick shampoo with water and sprayed his pup with that. I think that worked well. Plus, he turned me on to the flea comb. I run that through Maggie after a hunt and it gets just about all that the spray won't keep off.

 

[30CalRifle]

Ticked Off

Yes Bill forward WMA had the worst tick infestation out of all the phesant areas I hunted this year.

My pooch is vacinated for Lyme, but you can't get it if your human.

right know I am waiting on a bite to my side to see if it goes to a bulls eye. This was from opening day this week in Georgetown.

I wish it would hard freeze soon.

 

[MrsWildweasel]

Just so you know even though your pooch is vaccinated for Lyme they can still get it. I know one of my cockers now tests positive for Lyme, and I also just took Alan's weiner dog to the vet today and he now has Lyme.

 

[Wildweasel]

If you suspect you have been bitten by a tick get thee to a doc and have them test/put you on antibiotics asap. One of the guys at works wife has a case of it that they didn't catch for a long time, (tests where neg) and she has been suffering from it. she is now on IV antibiotics for over a month to try to get rid of it.

 

[boomerang]

I got two quail and six ticks at Francis Crane and I got one pheasant and no ticks at Martin Burns. Because I was paranoid about the ticks from Crane, I used that Pyrethrum spray all over. Those damn things don't want to let go.

I looked up some info on ticks. It's not likely that someone will get lyme unless the tick has been on the person for over 24 hours. Ticks don't die from freezing, they just go dormant. About half of deer ticks carry lyme.