Ticks & Chiggers--a study


Aaaarrrrgh! They're back! Started finding a few ticks on me, the dogs or the furniture one day last week. This after months of no discernable activity. So far, only medium to full size deer ticks, no nymphs.

Looked at the video teegate posted the link for; gross but great detail. Anyone else noting recent reappearance of the beasties? I live in western Cumberland County on a rural road; time to keep the grass area around the house mowed as short as possible.
 
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Boyd

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There are plenty of them in my woods (not far from the Cumberland County line in Estell Manor). They have been out in earnest since late March, as I posted elsewhere. But I saw them here and there throughout the winter.
 

manumuskin

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Aaaarrrrgh! They're back! Started finding a few ticks on me, the dogs or the furniture one day last week. This after months of no discernable activity. So far, only medium to full size deer ticks, no nymphs.

Looked at the video teegate posted the link for; gross but great detail. Anyone else noting recent reappearance of the beasties? I live in western Cumberland County on a rural road; time to keep the grass area around the house mowed as short as possible.
Speaking for southeastern Cumberland County the ticks are doing well.I"ve already fed several.
 

johnnyb

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Ro picked up a nymph less than pinhead size on Wednesday in the grassy swale between our back door and preserved woods maybe 75 feet away in northwestern Leisuretown, off Rte 70 in Southampton, Burlco. She posted on Facebook a tick article in "Over 50" health newsletter.
 

46er

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Mar 24, 2004
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What I find amazing is how they can expand to the size they do without bursting when they are engorged. Their skin, or whatever you call it, must be extremely pliable

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Boyd

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Somewhere I read about a technique that involved soaking fabric such as towels in permethrin and wrapping them around tree trunks. The idea was that deer would rub against trees to scratch themselves and the permethrin would kill the ticks.
 

bobpbx

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Somewhere I read about a technique that involved soaking fabric such as towels in permethrin and wrapping them around tree trunks. The idea was that deer would rub against trees to scratch themselves and the permethrin would kill the ticks.

That one sounds dubious. I've never seen a deer do that, and on a man-made material soaked with something that smelled funny? Hmmm.
 
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Sue Gremlin

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Bob, I think it's kind of a brilliant idea. I just advised my sister to get a bunch for her yard in Connecticut, they have a lot of black-legged ticks and are in the heart of Lyme territory (just east of the town of Lyme). I think they absolutely can be valuable to reducing the populations of ticks that feed on rodents as larvae but you won't get that instant gratification, especially since Ixodes ticks have a 2 year life cycle (or more!). Mostly larvae feed on rodents and this is where they pick up Lyme disease. The danger to humans is mainly nymph stages, so no larvae = no nymphs.

Boyd, my knee jerk is that I wouldn't think that permethrin on a tree would have the staying power necessary to remove or repel ticks, but I have never heard of anyone doing that and don't know anything about deer behavior. Do they spend enough time rubbing on trees to get enough exposure to the permethrin? I would think rollers or cattle rubs would be much more effective if the deer would use them.
 
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manumuskin

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Now I have seen bears stand on two legs,lean back against a tree and do an up and down dance scratching their backs and butts. But i fear it's deer and not bears spreading ticks around South Jersey.
 
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