Ticks!!!

W

weekend_warrior

New member
Every year I get into a batch of the deer ticks/seed ticks (whatever they are, the tiny little b's that you can't see and that swarm you in the hundreds). I didn't last year because I was really careful, and I planned to be careful this year, but I didn't think the little suckers would be out this early, and I got into them while dovehunting. I only got 61 bites (I usually get a lot more, one time I stopped counting at 200) and I'm watching them close, and doctoring them.

What do you all do to avoid the ticks. Last couple years in early bowseason, after I've already gotten bites, I've used permanone, and Off! and it definitely works, but it stinks for deer hunting. I bought some No stinking bugs this year, and I hope that stuff is strong enough to deter the seed ticks, but doesn't smell and spook the crap out of deer. Last year, first couple days of the season, I wore a LOT of permanone and OFF, and had a doe with fawns cross my walking trail and never spook, and then I shot her, but I know I can't count on that. What do you use to not stink, but still deter the early season ticks???

Likewise, what do you do with your tick bites when you get them? I scratch the tar out of mine, until there is pus or blood coming out, then apply anti-itch creme, or alcohol or peroxide, and it really seems to dry them up quicker. Also, When I first get the ticks, I apply LOTS of lotion, because I've heard it drowns the ticks. I can't see them, so I apply that to hopefully kill them, but I never get all of them. I always get a few more bites after a day or two, even when I haven't been outdoors. I think I don't kill them all, and then they reattach somewhere else.

So what do you all do???

Here's a pic of a few of the bites
432279.JPG


Bake
 
I forgot to mention, I live in a lyme disease area, and two years ago I had a scare (tests were negative), so I want to avoid any more bites if possible

Bake
 
those look like chigger bites. If they itch like mad then they probably are. Prevention with a good repellent is best but once you got them, Chiggerex or Chigarid work to ease the itching. By the way, there is no place on the human body immune to a chigger
 
I dont think ticks swarm by the hundreds. I dont know about Missouri but I think ticks are about done here. Ive never gotten a tick after it starts cooling down like it has here. I could be wrong but I would think it rare to get a tick in the fall unless it comes off another animal. (like while gutting deer etc. I usually stop getting/seeing ticks this time off year.
 
These are seed ticks. They are tiny, and if you hit them right, there are lots of them. They bury their head just like a regular sized tick. They generally die after the first frost, I've never gotten them in October, only in September. Two years ago I killed a doe on September 17, and I went to grab her ear, and they came off on my hands. A lot of them. I've had so many on my legs, it looked liked my legs were really dirty. Except the dirt was moving up. They are very prevalent in areas with cattle, or where there are lots of deer

Some of these bites could be chiggers, but most of them are tick bites. I'm taking a bike ride here in a while in an area where there are probably going to be some ticks, and I'm going to wear that "No stinking bugs" and see if it works.

Bake
 
From what the Missouri Conservation Department says, these are probably tick larva. A tick's life is divided into four stages: egg, larva (often called seed ticks), nymph and adult. Ticks advance through these stages by molting, during which they shed their outer skin.

"A tick's life is divided into four stages: egg, larva (often called seed ticks), nymph and adult. Ticks advance through these stages by molting, during which they shed their outer skin. After an egg hatches, the emerging larva is about the size of a poppy seed and has six legs. After a blood meal, typically from a small rodent, the larva drops off its host, casts its skin and becomes an 8-legged nymph. After attaching and feeding on another mammal, the nymph drops to the ground and transforms into an 8-legged adult. Adult ticks are 1/16 to 1/4 inch long, or about the size of a sesame seed. When engorged with blood, female ticks might expand to 3/8 inch or longer."

Source http://www.mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2005/05/50.htm


Bake
 
Last edited:
I picked up four deer tick in s IA last spring. One attatched, the spot is still red and not normal. I think it is the anti-clotting from the tick. A coyote can have a lot of black spots on the skin, those are old tick bites. I see once the dog had one on the neck, she lost the hair there. If the yotes have enough spots you will loose fur money.T.20
 
Seed ticks suck. take an old sock and fill the end of it wit 7dust(seven dust)(Home Depot or Lowes). Before you go out beat the filled sock around your boots and pants legs. It smells like sulphur but keeps them off your legs and "Ahem" lower extremities. Here in Texas these little buggers nest in and around low growth cedar and will swarm the snot out of you if your'e not careful. Try the seven dust and I bet you'll see an improvement. Once they are burrowed into your skin you can back 'em out with a lit cigarette or suffocate them with a blob of petroleum (sp?)jelly. The only remedy for the itch is a good bottle of mescal and a pretty lady to rub callimine (sp?) lotion on your wounds.
Trashcan /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Last edited:
I feel your pain! I get those seed ticks all the time. I'm pretty sure though that the bites are chigger bites. I'll come out of the woods, just covered with those seed ticks, I take a bath in bleach water, it seems to help. Helps with the chiggers too. I have been using permetherine (probably spelled wrong). Spray it on my clothes, let it sit and air dry, and I usually don't have a tick or anything on me. Bow season starts next week, I'll be wearing it, I plan on being downwind of the deer. After last year worrying about the if the deer are going to smell me, this year I'm using the stuff so I don't get ate up.
 
Cutter has a new repellant with Picaridin in it and NO ODOR. It's working good for me. And when you get home, wipe down your body with 1 part bleach to 3 parts water and it'll kill anything that gets by your bug spray.
If you're already ate up with them, Lotramin AF kills the itch almost instantly. It's that athletes foot cream.
 
Thankfully we don't have chiggers but it was another bonus year for ticks. This year we used permethrin which is orderless. We got the liquid soak type by Sawyer from Cabela's. Once dried on your clothing it last for weeks even through several wash cycles. It must work because we never got a tick. http://www.permethrin-repellent.com/home.htm
 
We have the little devils here in Florida too, the club I am in runs woods cows too. Permonone apllied to your clothing will still kill em. Once bitten use anti itch and hope for the best, at least they won't move over and bite again. We have em here at least until frost and have the bigger ones year round. Touch the wrong bush and you have to deal with thousands, whether permonone stinks or not you can't hunt when you are scrachin.
Also make extra sure they are gone before you get in bed and they transfer em to MaMa or ticks will be your second worry
 
Forgot to mention that I recently read where the sixth person in Idaho died from west nile virus on the day mosquito spraying was to begin. The article mentioned one was a 12 year old from the east coast that contracted lyme disease & west nile virus on a camping trip there. These repellants are becoming more important.
 
Be careful! I got Lyme Disease around May and still take antibiodics for it, still feel like my joints are on fire. Now on my 3rd round of medication.

Best regards,
chalmitch
 
mi yotes i know the ticks swarm in ark. stopped one time on the side of the road to take a whiz, was barefooted and was attacked by hundreds of ticks!! the ground and my feet were covered in seconds!! that was a scary feeling and i flew back to the road and did a dance to get red of them!!lol i am glad nobody came by to see me!!! took many purex baths when i was a kid!
 
As stated before there are several stages of tick development and with each stage the ticks get bigger. The smallest is smaller than a period (.) that's what people call seed ticks. Most insect sprays will keep them off or in the case of permathin (sp?) it kills them. The best way to remove them is with a special pair of tweezers that are made for that purpose (basically you don't want to crush the body which can release any lyme bacteria that the tick has in its body). If you do find a tick get him off asap if it has been on for less than 24 hours the chance of getting lyme if small. If you get a "bullseye rash" at the area of the bite (this may take several days or weeks) check with your doctor, he can give you an antibiotic to kill the bacteria. Lyme is nothing to mess with , its called the great pretender it can be misdiagonised as may different things, it can affect your heart, joints etc. and the problem with the tests is that it isn't very accurate so its better to treat it if in doubt. Best to not get bit use whatever spray to keep them off (when I was a kid we used powdered sulfur in a sock and dusted around our ankles and waist to keep them at bay). And just because you aren't in a known lyme area doesn't mean a thing, I live in Alabama (not a lyme area) but several of my friends have had it and one has had it twice. I helped Auburn University do a study several years ago and the ticks in our area had a real high lyme level. Be careful! rugerman
 
Yep, seed ticks or chiggers, both are bad. A bleach water bath can take care of both, but what we use is just a repellant. Deer don't seem to mind it here.
 


Write your reply...
Back
Top