Banner Year For Ticks??

[peakbagger]

Phil Werner seems to have done the research and it lines up with other sources https://sectionhiker.com/treating-your-clothes-with-permethrin/ and https://sectionhiker.com/permethrin-soak-method-guide/
I bought the Martins 10% concentrate and diluted it down and used the pump sprayer that came with the premixed sawyer product. Note people have reported that some of the concentrated mixtures have a petroleum base and leaves a significant odor. Martins did not and It had no significant odor when applied. I prefer the spray method as I can selectively coat the clothing, I go heavy on the legs and cuffs and lighter on the upper sections.

There are some standards for clothing treatment for folks who are paid to routinely work in tick and other insect infested areas that require the clothing to be sent away to a specialist to have the clothes treated and marked on the clothing that this treatment has occurred. It is expensive but reportedly the treatment lasts longer between washes. The military does the soak method.

My experience with treated clothing has been good, wood ticks just will not attach to it. When I first started using it I had applied it to my pants but not my gaiters, I was in a wood tick infested area and found no ticks on my pants but numerous ticks in the folds of the gaiters.

The standard warning applies that cats can get poisoned by the application of the product. Once the product is dry they are not impacted by the product as it binds pretty tenaciously to fabric but if the cat is exposed to the wet product it binds to their fur and then they get a high dose when grooming. I expect people with cats should take precautions to limit the cats exposure to the area where the application occurs or consider the send away option.

Various reports are that the tick population survived the winter and will continue to do so. They are permanently established in an expanding range. I don't think its any longer the case where its a good or bad tick season as much as its a normal season. Deer are an important part of tick survival and there have been several studies that link deer density with tick density. Get rid of the excess population of deer and the incidence of tick born diseases drops substantially.

 

[Mike P.]

Pulled two ticks out of me this weekend and I did see a third that I got before he dug in. I was at a small CT DEEP property in my neck of the woods. Colchester, Lebanon CT. It was mostly field with all grass, much of it pushed over near a brook. I was in there for maybe 20 minutes. I usually find trails in the woods wide enough that I don't touch the vegetation.

 

[sierra]

Every spring they say, "Its going to be a bad tick season", lol. They have been bad and will continue to be bad every year. Kind of like, "Its going to be a tough winter".

 

[TJsName]

I haven't seen data fr 2017 yet, but this is through 2016:

https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/cdcs/lyme/documents/county2016.pdf

Of course, that's just NH, and may not include people afflicted whose symptoms developed after they left the state.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

The production of acorns can indirectly affect the infected tick population. http://www.caryinstitute.org/discover-ecology/podcasts/acorns-and-lyme-disease for example explains this link. My own non-scientific observation is that in some years, Gryffin comes back from the woods near my house (having left his twice daily DNA sample) with few to no ticks and some years he comes back with 5-10. So far this year, the most I've found on him is 2 but I changed him from Frontline to Seresto which is claimed to be both a repellent and toxic on contact (no bite required.)

Tim

 

[iAmKrzys]

I just read about a new tick-related threat - an exotic species of East Asian tick has been discovered in New Jersey and has been confirmed to survive a winter. The concerning part is that the tick can reproduce asexually, so I'm guessing it can spread to other locations where no established populations exist. No word yet if it can carry bacteria causing Lyme disease. Here is one of news articles I read about it: http://www.nj.com/hunterdon/index.ssf/2018/04/a_swarming_exotic_tick_species_now_dwells_in_nj.html

 

[Mike P.]

Pulled four off me so far this year and I have been mostly in CT Forest and Rail trails......