When are ticks less troublesome?

[joeyfresh]

Hi all. I live in Virginia and I have a few wooded spots lined up to hunt but I don't want to get swarmed by ticks (which normally happens) but I also want to get in before hunting season. When do you find is the best time?

Thanks!!

 

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[SeaninNH]

Up here in New Hampshire the ticks are out until the snow falls.

 

[Nana40]

We have ticks around here all year. However they do seem to be less active in January.

 

[joeyfresh]

Permethrin and deet work great it's just I feel violated when one slips by the defenses

 

[mlayers]

around here they will be around until a good hard frost.......Matt

 

[Zephyr]

Even winter might not be safe. The Farmer's Almanac says there will be a bumper crop of woolly ticks this year....

 

[bearbqd]

Don't know why, but I have been extremely lucky this year with ticks. I only found one crawling on me early in the summer and not another one since. I hunt woods and fields almost exclusively and hardly ever have bug spray on me. Must be all the hot peppers I eat.

 

[deepskyal]

Not sure if there is a time they are less bothersome. When I walked my dog in Jan, Feb, with 6" of snow on the ground and temps in the teens, he'd still get ticks.
They just hang on the foliage and wait for some warmblooded critter to walk by...

Al

 

[eagles9259]

I also live in Virginia. Even though the ticks may never go away, from now until early spring is the best time to avoid the ticks. Once the ticks are out in the spring, I quit MDing until this time of year.

 

[Killer Angel]

Soak your hunting clothes in Permethrin. Keep pants tucked in socks or wear gaitors etc.

Carry a lint roller in your car and give yourself a good roll down. Better yet, have your hunting partner roll you down.

At home, all hunting clothes go in the dryer for 20-30 mins on high. That roasts the little bastards.

Some of us have Permethrin threated cover-alls that we wear in the woods. At the car, lint roller treatment, cover-alls off and into plastic trash bag. At home into the dryer they go. So you know this is for heavily infested tick areas. In these areas trail blazing hikers wearing untreated clothing have come out of the woods with hundreds of deer ticks crawling on their clothing. Dozens are not uncommon for a short hike. Permethrin knocks that down to a just a few ticks, but since it only takes one, that's a few too many.

Hard frost will drive them underground. However, days above freezing some could some out for a look/see.

They are programed to climb up. They will climb up on high grass, low branches and low scrubs. Most are located within a foot or two of the ground as that's where their hosts are. However, unobstructed they will climb higher. I've found tick infested leaves six feet off the ground. Unusual, butt?

Best prevention is to know their habitat and avoid it.

Once they've hitched a ride on you they will also climb up looking for moist warm spot to latch on.

Transmission of Lyme, if bitten by a deer tick, takes hours. That's after taking hours for it to find a place for dinner. So, if you find one don't panic. Keep an eye on the bite. Also, keep an eye on your health. Lyme takes a about a month to reach critical mass. Even if you didn't get a bullsye rash, if you start feeling flu like symtoms 3 to 5 weeks down the road, time to get a blood test. BTW, the blood test is useless less than month after the bite as Lyme won't show until it's had time to grow.

 

[mamabear]

they don't bother me when I take a bath in off. & sprayed my clothes! hate them critters!

 

[Randyd]

This works great for me: Crocodile Insect Repellent and I take a B vitamin complex breakfast, lunch (if there is one), dinner.

http://mosquitosolutions.com/crocodile.html

Besides ticks, it works against bed bugs too. First night, bed bug bites from my shorts to my ankles (the bed was small so my feet were hanging out from under the sheet, so I had put skeeter repellent on my feet. The next night I put it on all over, no more bites, everyone else was getting bit. The malaria meds made me sick, so I didn't take them, I only used the repellent, vit B's and a prayer.

If you would like to stay there, maybe I can get you a discount!

I have noticed that if I take the B's, the ticks aren't so quick to bite and sink in. they will crawl around a while and give you some time to knock'em off.

Randyd

 

[DigginThePast]

"When are ticks less troublesome?"

When they are dead!

 

[4ster]

Yep. When they're dead.

They don't seem to like me much. I've crawled through the woods in the northeast for over 40 years and I've had ONE deer tick attached to me.

Since the attached deer tick I've used permethrin and / or DEET. I've seen ONE wood tick. But that's me. Other people can be magnets to the little b!#$%^&s.

They are basically inactive in temps under 32 degrees. Hard to move when you're frozen.

 

[RGINN]

Move to about 10,000 ft. elev. like I did and you never get troubled by em. Or chiggers either, or mosquitoes much for that matter. In western Oklahoma, the tick population increased when the deer population increased. Not much problem with them when it turned off cold though. Using repellant helps some, and always check for ticks after coming in from the field. (I think Brad Paisley has a song about checkin for ticks. Check it out, could be some useful advice.)