ticks

Sue Gremlin said:
I saw for myself what the tick situation is down there. It's not good! Geeze Louise. I picked about 50 off of myself and my husband today. The picaridin we sprayed ourselves with didn't do a thing. Between the ticks, mosquitoes, blackflies and greenheads, we're both anemic. I hope the chiggers were merciiful. We both scrubbed our legs with a stiff soapy brush just in case.

We also saw the devastation that the gypsy moths wreaked on the hardwood trees. There are adult moths EVERYWHERE. We spent the day in the Atsion Lake area.
Click to expand...

Oh geez, I didn't even think about chiggers.

We saw adult moths everywhere we went yesterday. Millions of them.
 
I've seen very little evidence of moths down here in Atlantic County. Earlier this spring I noticed a few trees that had been "nibbled" on my land, but nothing too serious. So they've either been spraying around here or else the moths haven't made it this far South...
 
If there was heavy rain then that's certainly what we benefitted from. I didn't see anything but spitting on the way down the turnpike, and there didn't seem to be much standing water (other than the permasinks) on our route.
 
Another tick lesson by request

As for when we can expect to get rid of this season's crop of ticks, frost will kill them off if it's sustained cold, but if it's not, some or most will survive. The ticks of all stages will burrow into leaf litter that tends to ferment and therefore stay warmer than the air for a longer period of time, so you really don't start seeing them die off until it gets cold for days at a stretch and the ground freezes.

The ticks will generally overwinter as larvae and survive, that's how they come back in the spring. (I think some nymphs and adults may survive the cold too, but not as many). Eggs are the most vulnerable stage.
 
Sue Gremlin said:
As for when we can expect to get rid of this season's crop of ticks, frost will kill them off if it's sustained cold, but if it's not, some or most will survive. The ticks of all stages will burrow into leaf litter that tends to ferment and therefore stay warmer than the air for a longer period of time, so you really don't start seeing them die off until it gets cold for days at a stretch and the ground freezes.

The ticks will generally overwinter as larvae and survive, that's how they come back in the spring. (I think some nymphs and adults may survive the cold too, but not as many). Eggs are the most vulnerable stage.
Click to expand...

Thanks Sue for further elaborating on these vampires.
 
wow! Thats alot of tick talk. Thanks for the info.
I probally won't get to the pines until the fall this year after bug season. I have been camping out on the Rappahanock river here in VA for the last three weekends and still have not seen one tick. We have horseflys down here however that can rip half your arm off. I guess the bugs are just the price of admission to the great outdoors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back