Its that time of year again - Tick Season

[peakbagger]

I see fire warnings in southern and mid NH so that means dry grass and the reemergence of Ticks. Probably Lyme Disease is not a great thing to have in the days of Covid. You can either buy the expensive diluted stuff in cans that are direct apply or you can buy it bulk and dilute it https://sectionhiker.com/treating-your-clothes-with-permethrin/. Or you can send you clothes out to this company and they will treat them and return them https://www.insectshield.com/pages/insect-shield-your-clothes

The standard warning that cats and wet permetherin do not mix. They are not affected by dry product on clothes but if they get wet with it, it can kill them.

 

[Peakbagr]

Ticks come out anytime there is bare ground, even in winter. They pretty much hunker down underground or under the leaf litter. What's coming out now are last year's adults, looking for a meal. Soon the tiny larva and nymphs will emerge, like the size of a tiny freckle.

 

[JToll]

Some of my worst hikes with regards to ticks have been in May going the Squam peaks.

 

[Grey J]

Side note. Over 10,000 posts between the 2 peakbaggers! You guys been doing this for awhile.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Side note. Over 10,000 posts between the 2 peakbaggers! You guys been doing this for awhile.

And yet they do not yet exceed Doug Paul. Curiously enough they are π * 100 posts shy of tying him.

Tim

 

[Peakbagr]

Doug Paul is a two-fer. Longevity and lots to contriubute. My contributions - only that I've hung around since the early Darren days and the numbers pile up. LOL

 

[Rhody Seth]

Pulled a nasty bugger off my inner thigh yesterday morning and now it's infected and swollen. Check yourself early and often folks!

 

[peakbagger]

With respect to posts, I was one of early members, I think I got the link to VFTT from Dave Metsky's site http://hikethewhites.com/. I think a lot of us made the move over when the AMC forum got maddingly over moderated.

Its snowing up in NH today and hard to think about ticks but I seem to pick them up in early season when there is still snow up high most years.

 

[nartreb]

I was wandering around Pawtuckaway on Saturday. Still traces of ice and snow in a few shadowy areas, but almost entirely dry ground. Followed the trails for half a day without incident, until I decided to bushwhack down from the Middle peak. That took maybe ten minutes; a quick check at the bottom found four ticks on my clothing and legs.

Moral of the story: have a bunch of other people (and their dogs) walk the trails ahead of you

Oddly, another bushwhack later (near the north mountain trail segment that's on the south side of the main road) caught no ticks at all.

 

[iAmKrzys]

I was wandering around Pawtuckaway on Saturday. Still traces of ice and snow in a few shadowy areas, but almost entirely dry ground. Followed the trails for half a day without incident, until I decided to bushwhack down from the Middle peak. That took maybe ten minutes; a quick check at the bottom found four ticks on my clothing and legs.

Moral of the story: have a bunch of other people (and their dogs) walk the trails ahead of you

Oddly, another bushwhack later (near the north mountain trail segment that's on the south side of the main road) caught no ticks at all.

I think if a tick female gets to feed enough it will lay more than a thousand eggs in one spot. I have suspected for a while that if one is unlucky enough to walk by an area near such nest then this person is more likely to pick up lots of ticks but this is just my guess.

 

[nartreb]

I think if a tick female gets to feed enough it will lay more than a thousand eggs in one spot. I have suspected for a while that if one is unlucky enough to walk by an area near such nest then this person is more likely to pick up lots of ticks but this is just my guess.

Not the case for me. New-hatched ticks are so tiny they're basically invisible. The ones I picked up were full-sized adults. Possibly, they all dropped off the same deer or herd of deer after their previous meal - there was plenty of evidence of recent deer activity.

 

[ChrisB]

Not the case for me. New-hatched ticks are so tiny they're basically invisible. The ones I picked up were full-sized adults. Possibly, they all dropped off the same deer or herd of deer after their previous meal - there was plenty of evidence of recent deer activity.

I picked up a mature wood tick fly fishing the Ammo in Twin Mountain on Saturday whacking along the shoreline. Discovered it before it set.

By the way, it was 72 degrees in the valleys on Friday and Saturday. Big melt underway.

 

[Quietman]

I think if a tick female gets to feed enough it will lay more than a thousand eggs in one spot. I have suspected for a while that if one is unlucky enough to walk by an area near such nest then this person is more likely to pick up lots of ticks but this is just my guess.

I am sure that is what happened to me quite a few years ago on a hike up S. Pack. I did the hike up S. Pack before work and had way more than 20+ nymphs on my legs and pants when I got to my office about 2 minutes away. I was so jumpy for the next few days whenever a felt a twitch, that I was driving my co-worker and myself nuts