Ha! Yes. to be honest I stopped allowing the neighbor chickens in the last year because I had some areas I planted and they would have destroyed it. They did a lot of eating for the years prior though. I don’t often get to see opossums but My general land stewardship hopefully makes this place hospitable to everyone. I love my snake friends (4 species so far) and they patrol in season for the little things that carry the ticks. Raptors love it here too.
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I forgot to mention this since I had lost them and need to get a new pair, but short gaiters are really handy. While tucking pants into socks helps, seed ticks can still work their way through the socks. But also it can be annoying getting detritus stuck in my boots when I tuck pants into socks, so these have the double benefit of keeping other non-tick things from getting caught in there. You can treat them with permethrin for extra security.
I use these ones from REI though I have friends who use these ones which are specifically for ticks.
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I’ve tried this. It’s sufficient for hiking around Florida where you run into more mosquitos than ticks. It’s great at repelling mosquitoes, but not ticks in my experience, especially compared to permethrin or deet.
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Good question, octobertraveler.
I admit that I have taken to using chemicals.
Picaridin seems to be comparable to DEET in its effectiveness against ticks and mosquitoes. Although both repellents help enormously, I have occasionally found a tick walking on my skin after spraying with DEET or rubbing in Picaridin. Picaridin is modeled on a plant-based compound and is generally thought to be safer than DEET, but it hasn’t been around as long.
See https://www.ewg.org/research/ewg-s-2018-guide-bug-repellents/do-repellents-stop-ticks
https://www.ticksafety.com/removal-prevention/tick-repellents/
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/insect-repellent/buying-guide/index.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/on_people.html
JeremyHussell Your tick observation was worth looking at, but kueda has a truly amazing photo I remember from last year.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13492506
This year has NOT been as bad for dermacentor ticks in the SF Bay Area, but it is the black-legged ticks that carry disease here, and I have seen more of those than I did last year.
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I feel very lucky not to have to worry much about ticks where I live. They are present but rare, so far. Then again, I live in North Bay, Ontario and we just had 4 1/2 months of snow on the ground. Black flies, mosquitos and deer flies are rather common here though – and I suspect we will have a bad year for them with the amount of water we are getting this spring.
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Rubber mud or rain boots are a very effective alternative
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Luckily I haven’t had to deal with ticks at home yet. No deer around here and almost no rabbits. I do have at least a few regular opossums. I’ve heard they’re great for ticks because they groom themselves a lot and then eat the ticks before they reproduce.
Mosquitoes are my main nemesis. They really really like me and my body reacts pretty strongly to their bites. A single bite will itch intensely for well over a week even with very regular applications of calamine, hydro-cortisone, and antihistamine creams throughout the day everyday. Relief usually only comes once I’ve scratched to the point of bleeding, quite often doing it in my sleep.
I’m not a big fan of having to cover myself in noxious repellents and then having to change my clothes and take a shower when I come inside. One particularly bad skeeter day when I had to work outside I gave in and sprayed my clothes and all exposed skin with DEET. I thought it was working until I came inside and felt something most unpleasant. The little buggers had avoided the DEET by flying up my shorts and biting my bum through my underwear! I had nickel sized welts that were insanely itchy and got very irritated every time I sat down.
I’ve even tried one of those full body black mesh bug suits. That felt a bit stifling with the summer heat and humidity. Plus the mosquitoes would still bite through it on any area that got pulled tight against my skin when I moved around.
I looked at those Thermacell things for a while that are supposed to be a good mosquito repellent, but didn’t like all the warnings about how it’s toxic to other animals of all kinds. It vaporizes insecticides into the air around you! That can’t be good for anyone.
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So this is kind of amusing, kind of actually something to think about. A tick I’d missed started to crawl into my ear while I was driving down the highway and had me inadvertently swerving while I frantically tried to keep it out of my ear. I could see that having ended in an accident. I’m glad I was on a back road with no traffic.
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Sounds like it could’ve become one of those insurance company commercials where they relate the odd tale and assure everyone they covered it.
Glad you were OK.
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These days I carry “purse DEET” with me everywhere. At least 50% of my hiking takes place over lunch at work (I’m fortunate to work on a wooded campus), or on work trips, so while I have some clothing with permethrin, its not practical to prep all of my work clothes (buisness casual) with insecticide. (I’ve also ended up with more than a few bramble snares in buisness slacks… oops). Ticks are a big problem on campus- so much so that there is a standard tick warning during the “welcome to campus” talk at the start of each intern season. I usually spray my ankles, waist, arms and back of my neck. I have a permethrin treated hat, but I don’t use it as often as I should :(
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I just bought more of this off amazon for ticks and mosquitos…
https://sallyeander.com/product/no-bite-me-cream/
It’s says it’s also for black flies, fleas, and more. I’ve had great luck with it, but, haven’t been in any really bad areas with it. It helps with the itch after mosquito bites, too. For me it’s does about as well as cortisone cream, still itches just a bit.
For the dog I use…
https://www.wondercide.com/pets/dogs/flea-treatment-for-dogs
She does NOT like the plain cedar one. She tries to lick it off so I end up spraying it around her neck and above her tail where she can’t get to it (not that it’s bad for her). The only ticks on her this year where when I didn’t spray her for a few days in a row.
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i’ve used a dusting of sulfur on shoes and pants (applied using a old sock full of sulfur) when entering an area with tall grasses. that seems to keep chiggers away. if my area (Texas Gulf Coast) was known to have a greater risk of serious tick-related problems though, i might consider other options like permethrin.
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I asked a Mod (thanks Cassi) to open this old thread since I’d like to hear about the experiences of others while iNat’ing - especially in areas of the southern USA and also to share an experience from this weekend.
I live in Central New Jersey and am exposed to ticks every day when temps are conducive to their activity (~above 30’s *F) due to our house being surrounded by native flower beds and lots of warm-blooded critters. However, since we erected electric fences around the beds to keep the deer away, I’ve found the tick numbers have dropped dramatically. In fact, this year, I’ve not seen a tick on our property since the spring. Two weeks ago, I took a trip to Northern NJ in search of Salticids and I spent multiple hours in open field habitat with plants 1-3’ high. Zero ticks found. I started to think that this year was different and overall numbers had dropped dramatically - not just around our house.
September 26, I took off to Southern NJ, again in search of Salticids. On my way home I found a small tick (~2mm) attached to my arm. I didn’t think much about it since I spent ~6 hours bushwacking though forests, fields and low brush (probably blueberry bushes). While hiking, I also noticed a few smaller ticks crawling on my skin. I made a mental note to ensure I asked my wife for an extra-thorough tick check when I got home (typically done after outdoor hikes anyway). Prior to my shower, I noticed one of the smaller ticks attached to my skin and called for my wife to bring our IPA-filled ‘tick jar’ & tweezers up and to show her how small they were. It didn’t take long for us to realize we had a serious problem. After 2.5 hours with both of us armed with tweezers, we finally felt that we got all visible ticks. We’re guessing that there were 200-300 ticks on me (both attached & not)(& possibly many more). The next morning, we removed 17 more (11 attached & 6 ‘runners’). Another inspection before bed last night produced 4 more (all attached). Today, one more attached tick was removed. Photos of a few of the removed ticks are over here for anyone interested.
I have tick-treated clothing and typically tuck my socks into my pants when I know (or suspect) I’m venturing into infested habitat. Based on my recent experiences, I opted not to use any of those protections (yes - I know - what an idiotic choice!). I’ve been previously treated for Lyme’s three times (two bullseyes and one confirmed test without a bullseye).
Obviously this was an extreme case, exacerbated by stupidity. However, my wife and I are planning to soon start exploring other areas of our country and would like to hear from those who wander off-trail what we can expect. I believe this was an extreme example but I have heard of similar locations in the South and would like to know if those stories have any validity.
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That’s crazy! 200+ticks from a single outing!😵💫
I use Baby Organics herbal insect repellent, but I don’t go out into grasses that much. Becausr my last tick left a scar, I’ve been motivated to enjoy nature from the trails and limit bushwhacking to momentary forays.
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I have found ticks to be a jackpot type of critter. You’ll either run into none to just a couple or you’ll brush into seed ticks and need to break out the duct tape. I’ve been out in the field when I picked up 3 and a colleague finds hundreds. I haven’t heard anything to tell me NC is having a good or bad year tick-wise.
Ticks are annoying and a potential disease vector but chiggers are distilled evil.
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Good heavens–I would have been horrified to find that many ticks. I’m shuddering even thinking about it. Interestingly I’ve picked up most of my ticks up North in Bradford County, PA. In fact, most have come from the backyard, which is frequently mowed and well tended, but not treated with anything. We have deer year round in the yard, and last year after 4 feet of snow in one blessed day (really an overwhelming amount of snow even for that area), we left some feed out for the local deer until the snow levels dropped. We had about 30 deer–the large number surprised us. That explains the ticks. I’ve also picked up one or two in the state park up there, though I tend to stay on the trails. I went off trail into heavy brush with a friend up near Buffalo (we lost the trail), and we walked away without a tick, but we were wearing a lot of Picaridin. In Delaware, I’ve picked up fewer, maybe 5 over the past ten years. I think most times were when I’ve wandered into grass without the requisite Picaridin (I prefer it over DEET). I suspect it would be much, much worse if I went off trail for long periods in any of these areas. Delaware is swampy, so mosquitoes are also a real concern.
(PS I don’t remember a tick ever from childhood, and we lived in northern and western PA then and frequently went walking through the woods with my dad who never bothered with trails because he had an unerring sense of direction and a love of the woods.)
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Earlier this year, me and my uncle went on a trail through the woods with his dog, and the undergrowth was pretty dense. My uncles dog came home with nineteen ticks, and I came home with a deer tick in my bellybutton. I don’t really like chemicals, but I wouldn’t mind a good method for keeping ticks away because it seems like their population has spiked.
I don’t use anything. Permethrin is toxic to cats so I don’t want to risk it. DEET can work against mosquitos somewhat but I don’t want to repel cool bugs that I’d otherwise observe. It doesn’t work against ticks, anyway. I wear leggings and high socks and boots so ticks can’t crawl up my legs and then remove the rest with duct or packaging tape.
My least favorite bitey bug are the horseflies. They hurt and I itch terribly afterwards. What do you all do for those?
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