Ticks

[Carl Fowler III]

The military wanted something to repel ticks and their parameters were to place a tick in the middle of a one square foot of cloth and kill the tick before it could crawl off of the piece of cloth...permethrin won hands down! Makes one wonder what affects it will have on humans in 20 years! :idunno:

 

[flyfisher76544]

There is a military study out there,,
They use Permethrins on their clothing in infected zones and all they say is it's still effective after "several" washings.
I use Pemactrin II and mix it to an ounce in 2 gallons of water and treat outer garments and the tops of a few pair of socks with a pump sprayer, then hang them to dry.
I'll also bring the same mix and spray the perimeter areas of an extended camp.
I don't think I'd spend extra money to buy treated clothing when I can do it myself and repeat as needed.

The one they gave us was the type you put your uniforms in a bag, add so much water with the prem with it. Let it sit for like an hour an hang em out to dry. I get the stuff in a spray bottle and soak my hunting clothes down and let em dry outside. The only issue I have had lately is that they like to climb up my boots. Some were soooo small they went through my socks and attached to my legs. Lil red buggers, guess I will have to put deet on my boots.

 

[roundball]

Years ago while driving home after a turkey hunt I noticed a tick crawling on the dash so I assume it hitchhiked a ride with me back to the car.
Since then I soak everything I can think of that is going into and back out of the woods with me...for example, during turkey season I even spray turkey decoys that I'm going to be setting back inside the vehicle.
I don't spray my Flintlock but I do wipe it off with an oily rag as best I can before putting it back inside the vehicle and snap/shake the rag before putting it back in a ziploc.

 

[gjr902]

Here is my tick theory. In Vermont back in the 70's, 80's and early 90's, the state use to spray all the State Parks, and some state lands for bugs. People use to have the tree companies spray their yards, surrounding trees and area to keep the bug population down. In the 2000's, its no longer allowed.

late 90's into the 2000's there was a drastic increase in bugs in VT. Many of these critters carried lots of nasty diseases amd parasites.

My conclusion is that we chemically killed the small amount of bugs in those years, and now that we have stopped, they have rebounded with a vengence.

The Permethrin worked wonders for me during the VT and SD spring turkey, and all the fall seasons in 2012. I'll keep using it until it stops working

 

[buford87]

I can remember my dad telling me that in the early twentieth century the people were trying to find a way to control the ticks and they started burning the forest understory, whether this was for ticks or to provide more grazing I am unsure. Then later to stop people from burning the woods off every year the fence law was passed which meant you had to build a fence to keep your livestock up, before that if you grew a crop you had to build a fence to keep everyone's stock out. Nowdays if there is a wild fire every govt. agency springs into action to stop the fire as soon as it starts.............................watch yer top knot...............

 

[hanshi]

I can remember my dad telling me that in the early twentieth century the people were trying to find a way to control the ticks and they started burning the forest understory, whether this was for ticks or to provide more grazing I am unsure. Then later to stop people from burning the woods off every year the fence law was passed which meant you had to build a fence to keep your livestock up, before that if you grew a crop you had to build a fence to keep everyone's stock out. Nowdays if there is a wild fire every govt. agency springs into action to stop the fire as soon as it starts.............................watch yer top knot...............

There you have it! No longer using control burns.

 

[Baxter]

Lyme disease is carried by the White Footed Mouse and, possibly, by other rodents. The "deer tick" gets the bacteria, usually in the tick's nymphal stage from feeding on the White Footed Mouse - get rid of the mouse and the disease will decrease. Deer do NOT carry Lyme Disease; they simply provide a host for the ticks to feed on and to multiply by laying some 3000 eggs after a blood meal. More deer do mean more Lyme Disease. So does the increasing movement of people into deer/White Footed Mouse home territory - look at the number of new homes being built in "deer country". Increased intrusion into Deer Tick territory = increased disease. Permethrin has indeed been proven to be protective and safe if applied to clothing. As close as one can get to 100% Deet on the skin is also useful but DEET can carry some problems in high strength or repeated applications.

 

[hanshi]

I have read that other animals serve as the 2nd stage for transmission. In the west a particular lizard fills in for mice in some areas. Ever heard anything about this? There is lots of information and misinformation and sorting through it all can be nerve wracking.

 

[Spikebuck]

http://nsf.gov/news/special_reports/ecoinf/lyme.jsp

Neat short "article" on the life cycle and also reveals that "fragmented" forests may be part of the cause for the increases we're seeing as fragmented forests have fewer predators, hence a higher number of deer mice.

http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/ The CDC also has good info.

 

[Little Wattsy]

http://nsf.gov/news/special_reports/ecoinf/lyme.jsp

Neat short "article" on the life cycle and also reveals that "fragmented" forests may be part of the cause for the increases we're seeing as fragmented forests have fewer predators, hence a higher number of deer mice.

http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/ The CDC also has good info.

Just a quick note of Liberal hippie logic... "Fragmented Foersts" have nothing to do with fewer predators, our cities are filled with cyotes, bobcats, coons, hawks, etc... The fragmented forests DO however offer more open spaces wherre food grows; Fields, clearcuts, and yards are the smorgusboard for wildlife. Mice eat grass seed(s), grasses grow wher forests are not.. Fragmented forests = more food = more mice as well as deer, little birds, etc.

 

[Steve_K]

Permethrin works extremely well. It will last for a few washings as well. Best of all it doesn't smell, so I use it on my early season deer camo as well. We have a pretty high number of ticks and I pulled a few out of me every year until I started using the Sawyers Permethrin spray. It lasts for a while so I haven't bothered mixing a bulk batch, but if you want to you can even spray your lawn with it.

As a side note, when I get a deer I try to skin it as soon as I get it home and tie the hide up in a plastic bag right away.