NFR TICKS - The Threat Grows

Non-fishing related
Whitetail deer carry the lone star tick, and their population has exploded in recent decades. Maybe more hunting is a partial solution to the tick crisis?
 
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Evan B said:
Yeah my boss got it last year in Wisconsin. They caught it early, but I want no part of that, ever.

The thing about ticks being worse when our winters aren't as cold.... Not sure how that works. Anyone who's ever spent time in the woods in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, or really anywhere in the northern midwest to northeast knows just how bad the ticks are there. Like, guaranteed tick on you if you so much as step off a trail into some grass. Those places freeze way harder and longer than here.

I was in Wisconsin last November. It was in the 20s and I got a tick on me.
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I also question that. Those areas are Fargo cold in winter but ultra tick country.
 
Ok, this was in my YouTube feed. I haven't searched ticks in my Google or my YouTube. Is PNWFF selling my info to the man? :ROFLMAO:

Pretty funny...although, Lyme disease is not.

 
skyriver said:
Ok, this was in my YouTube feed. I haven't searched ticks in my Google or my YouTube. Is PNWFF selling my info to the man? :ROFLMAO:

Pretty funny...although, Lyme disease is not.

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Google probably has a tracker on you. Google, Facebook, and some other bigguns will track your browsing so they can adjust your algorithm. You have to use something like uBlock Origin to get around that.
 
Evan B said:
Yeah my boss got it last year in Wisconsin. They caught it early, but I want no part of that, ever.

The thing about ticks being worse when our winters aren't as cold.... Not sure how that works. Anyone who's ever spent time in the woods in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, or really anywhere in the northern midwest to northeast knows just how bad the ticks are there. Like, guaranteed tick on you if you so much as step off a trail into some grass. Those places freeze way harder and longer than here.

I was in Wisconsin last November. It was in the 20s and I got a tick on me.
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It may be related to overall warmer temperatures, not the coldest temperatures. There may be complicated interactions between ticks and other aspects of local ecology that favor ticks as temperatures warm.
 
skyriver said:
Ok, this was in my YouTube feed. I haven't searched ticks in my Google or my YouTube. Is PNWFF selling my info to the man? :ROFLMAO:

Pretty funny...although, Lyme disease is not.

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When I look out my window
Many sights to see
And when I look in my mirror
So many small black thingsI see
I'm scared, so scared
It's very scary to me
You've got to pick off every tick(gonna be)
You've got to pick off every tick(gonna be, gonna be)
I think I found one on my dick
Oh no, must be the season of the tick
Must be the season of the tick
Must be the season of the tick
 
Tics tend to survive cold winters just fine. They have natural antifreeze and become dormant under the leaf litter, which is very heavy here in the Poconos and Northeast in general. Heavy snowpack also helps insulate them. Cold is no problem for the little buggers.

We don't work around the property without a good spray of permethrin on the outerwear. Also a heavy dose or DEET. At my age I'm far less concerned about the chemical exposures than I am of tic or mosquito-borne diseases.

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If cold killed them it seems like they'd be far worse on the wet side of the Cascades. Makes me wonder if a (relatively) mild climate somehow represses large population swings. Not sure of the correct ecology term, but basically similar to how the arctic selects for high populations of limited species diversity. Begs the question of what preys on the nasty little bastards?
 
Possums eat ticks...

why so few ticks in western washington state


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+6



Ticks more prevalent in Washington this year, state says ...
Western Washington has significantly fewer ticks than the East Coast or Midwest due to long, cool, wet winters and its specific ecosystem, which lacks the dense brush and specific mammal populations that ticks thrive on.
1779481952528.pngVancouver Clinic +2
While they are expanding into some brushier lowland areas, their numbers generally remain extremely low.
1779481952550.pngThe Columbian +1
  • Weather Patterns: Ticks are vulnerable to cold and desiccation. Western Washington's heavy, prolonged winter rains and mild, dry summers do not provide the ideal sustained humidity and warmth ticks like.
  • Lack of Primary Hosts: The most common ticks in the region (like the western black-legged tick) rely heavily on the western fence lizard as a primary host. Because these lizards contain a protein in their blood that kills the bacteria causing Lyme disease, tick-borne illnesses are exceedingly rare here.
  • Vegetation Types: The dense conifer forests and shaded canopy floors of Western Washington differ from the scrubby, tall-grass habitats that host large tick populations in other parts of the country.
    1779481952569.pngWashington State Department of Health (.gov) +4
 
I picked up a tick bite on the Lower SF Skokomish trail a couple months ago. It developed some dermatitis after 2 weeks and I freaked out, went to urgent care and got a Lyme test, negative. Doc said that it didn't look like the typical Lyme rash, gave me a steroid cream and it was back to normal in 3 days. I hate the bastards.
 
skyriver said:
Ever fished Quail Lake? One of our fishing partners brought his springer. He was actually a pretty good fishing dog (which I RARELY say), but the poor guy had like 20 ticks on him by the time we were done. Between that and all the ticks on us his owner ended up buck naked in the uncovered bed of his truck right there in the parking lot. :ROFLMAO: Tick check!!
I thought the draws and canyons east of Goldendale had high tick numbers. Quail was on another level.
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The Columbia basin is tick center for the world.

I was hiking into Bobby's Pond (next to Nunnally) about four decades ago and as I passed a sage bush, I noticed it was moving. I thought it was moving in the wind, but it was totally covered in ticks that were moving. Between the dogs and myself, it took a month to rid the HOUSE of the ticks were carried into it. I told my wife, that the dogs needed to stay in the garage, but it was cold and wet and she felt sorry for them!!!

I just quit fishing the basin after May 1st. That works.

Lyme disease is nothing to fool with. A friends wife had it in the 1990's and it basically ruined her life health wise. Not a good outcome for an outdoors person.

Hey, American ticks are pretty minor leagues. I went to the Russian Far East on business and had a Siberian Tick embed in me. One in four result in encephalitis.

When I got back, my doctor gave me his personal phone number and said, "if you get a headache in the next 30 days, call me right away". I asked what the treatment was and he said "the diagnosis starts with a spinal tap". That gave me a clue as to the treatment.

Worse yet, I had to give up drinking for a month. Not a chance on getting a hangover.

The other good news is that Federal government is concerned about saving the taxpayers money. All the Americans working in the Russian Far East for private firms got the vaccine.

The Federal government refused to do so for Federal employees (that was pre-RFK in 1996). I did file with HR for a workplace accident for the tick bite as soon as I got back in the office. Just wanted it on my record for a workers comp claim just in case I ended up in the hospital.

One in four odds are not good.
 
This thread is making me curious about eating one of Rigby's Simparica Trios. Why can't there be a chewable for people that prevents tick bites for 30 days?
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