NFR TICKS - The Threat Grows

Non-fishing related
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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Cause we live too long ...

But at my age?????

Too many neurological risks. DEET and permethrin work good enough
 
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Possums eat ticks...

why so few ticks in western washington state


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+6



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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.
View attachment 184630Vancouver Clinic +2
While they are expanding into some brushier lowland areas, their numbers generally remain extremely low.
View attachment 184631The 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.
    View attachment 184632Washington State Department of Health (.gov) +4
Now do Oregon
 
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?

I don't know what brand of tick the mule deer in Utah carry , but they have a lot on them . For whatever reason after they are shot ,all those ticks come to the nose of the deer , and there are a lot of them . I have gotten ticks on me from the deer , got them off before they did anything mostly on our clothes , we have to pretty careful handling those mule deer . Especially one area we have hunted for years .

Other than that I have not had a problem with ticks in Utah out fishing or hiking . Montana I have gotten a tick on me , never had it burrow in , just crawling looking for spot . :oops: Only took once , pretty careful now up there also .
 
Birds eat insects, right?
I wonder if losing 3 Billion birds has anything to do with an increase in tick populations.


The losing of 3 billion birds is a problem in its own right. 30 years ago, the Forest Service internally was looking at the decline in Neo-tropical birds.

However, I suspect the increase tick population has more to do with the exponential increase in deer populations back east.

Out West, for a long time it was "determined" that Lyme Disease did not exist west of the Divide. Now that we know that Lyme Disease does exist west of the Divide, doctors are testing for it and finding many more cases.
 
Just a note for all the people treating their clothes with permethrin: it's highly toxic to fish, so please keep your permethrin treated clothes out of the water. Pyrethroids are reasonably good at killing everything, a characteristic that should be associated with thoughtful use.


Curious, is wearing treated clothing under waders OK?

Is Permethrin actually bonded to the clothing fibers after it is dried?
 
Curious, is wearing treated clothing under waders OK?

Is Permethrin actually bonded to the clothing fibers after it is dried?
No, it's not covalently bonded to the clothing fibers. If it was, it wouldn't kill anything because it couldn't get into them. Your clothes are soaked in it, and it comes off with time and when wet and when contacted by something. Insects can't handle that exposure as well as your liver can, which is why it kills them and not you.

I am not an expert in specific insecticides, but my understanding is toxicity and absorption goes up when it's wet. So if you are a damp swampy mess.in your waders (like on a hot day, or partially soaked), maybe not?

Feels more like why do you need even need any treated clothes inside the waders?
 
Some scary chatter on the internet the past few years about the Lone Star Tick and its 3 frightening pathogens. Now it might be migrating north to parts of the PNW? Some conspiracies claim tick filled boxes are being air dropped by unknown entities that don't want you to eat meat. Bill Gates, Morrissey?? Oh yes, if you are bitten you may contract Alpha-Gal Syndrome, which will make you allergic to red meat forever. You've been warned.


Unfortunately, local tick species also carry alpha gal


I am aware of a few cases near me in western Oregon
 
I've always enjoyed that western WA is free of deadly snakes and insects. But now I'm paranoid about ticks. And I do eat red meat.

NPMA would like a word. 😉
SF

I don't like this WADOH! 1781885447721.png Tick and Wildfire map. The default view shows the data layers for every stinkin' year from 1998 - 2024.
Why create needless hysteria that could make somebody think they might just as well die and get it over with?
And even then the data is 2 years behind!
After removing the 1998-2022 and stupid "Eco Regions" layers that obscures all the location labels this is the latest available 1781886083048.png data.

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I like to hunt mushrooms in the spring around here, and boy howdy do I dislike ticks. Had one sneak into my beard a few years back and latch on, didn't notice it until the next day. Pulled it, and thought that was that. Couple days later my lymph node was the size of a golf ball, I was rocking a nasty fever. Laid me out for five days. Sweating and sleeping was all I could do. Some aggressive antibiotics got me right again, but do NOT mess around with those little bastards, they're just brutal.
 
Powell Butte out east of Portland has ticks. A high school friend of mine likes to hike there. I called her and let her know, she is aware.
 
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