Hi, I’m also a central NJ resident and yes, the north isn’t so bad for ticks whereas the Pinelands are replete.
200-300 larvae? This is not an extreme case! This is life in the Pinelands. People call them chiggers but they’re not; they’re larval lone star ticks. What I do is remove them with tape. They’re also susceptible to isopropyl alcohol.
Permethrin is synthetic, but its based on pyretherum (spelling) derived from Chrysanthemums. Supposedly keeping mums on the patio discourages mosquitoes. I don’t know if a pocket full of crushed mums would have any effect on repelling ticks, but they do have a strong scent.
I live down in South Jersey about thirty minutes outside of Wharton State Forest and it is not unusual for me to have days like this a few times a year. Even when there aren’t “seed ticks”, I can accumulate close to a dozen ticks just from hiking nearby trails.
Thanks for this tip! We have a place to get them tested in DE, but who wants to pay for that every time you go for a walk in the woods?
Climate change is making ticks in my part of the world (Northwestern Ontario, Canada) a much more serious problem. About four years ago, our regional public health unit confirmed that ticks here are now carrying lyme disease. This was not the case previously. My understanding is, warming winter temperatures are allowing organisms like the lyme disease bacteria to survive this far north. While I’m not a fan of -45C before wind chill, there are some upsides to extreme winter cold.
My most reliable tick counter measure is just avoidance: I stay out of long grass, and most of the time the ticks do not find me. They also have a short season here. I rarely see them before late May, and they’re usually done by August.
200+ ticks from one outing are common here.
In Alabama a lot of doctors like to deny lyme exists here, but I’ve had it multiple times (confirmed, in fact my friends and I one year made our county realise there is an ‘epidemic’ now, if only docs would read the county health dept releases) - once undiagnosed for years and I can confirm it f’ing s*cks and gives you long term damage that will not fix, even after being lyme free. Funny thing - the veternarians here know it exists and often recommend dogs are vaccinated if you are in the woods a lot (the human vaccine for lyme was an early fall to antivax movement, good news there are few new ones in stage 2 trials one of them is in the US!).
Running in a nymph nest is a super easy way to get 200+ in an outing. These are actually the MOST LIKELY to transmit lyme and other tick borne disease. (I’ve also had/have: babesia, rocky mountain spotted fever, and alpha gal). ticks are just getting worse and worse with climate change; every summer seems worse than the last.
I do k9 wilderness search & rescue on top of biology fun in field, and the best combo that keeps me pretty tick-free even in the worst of our summers:
Last summer after starting this (yes, a lot of pre planned work) combo I only got a few ticks if I break a barrier by accident. This whole year, only got maybe 3 ticks, except the time my arm somehow got a ton of nyphs (that was a new one for me!). And semi-scientific, often with friends who took varying ranges of precautions but the most ‘match’ is permithrin pant & shirt. My partner and I who do our method outlined above, come out clean, and others come out with ticks, same areas and everything. Many adopted our methods this summer after seeing how well it worked last summer, and they are also the happy ones now and notice the same differntial with their other friends.
But if I get nymph nest attack, i whip out my mini travel deet, deal with the stinging on my direct skin from that if they’re on my skin, and then take the paper towels i keep in my pack and wipe them all off along with the excess deet.
So far…no re-exposures, no crappy diseases again.
Protip for those us who drop pants to pee - have someone check your pants especially the backs of legs and around the waste band FIRST, most the time when I get an accidental tick it’s on back of my thigh from squatting it got onto my skin from pants.
Permethrin is only toxic to cats when wet. when it dries, it’s fine. if you have cats like I do, just make sure to spray and let it set well for 24-48hrs and keep stored in closet away from cats, and wear them when going out into the woods not when lounging around the house when maybe a silly cat will lick your pants or something.
HAAAA i wish sticking to trails worked to ‘not get ticks’. Makes no difference.
Lone Stars here have the nickname of ‘tree ticks’ - they’ll drop out of trees to land on you so if you are under a tree you’re in trouble especially june-july. Gotta stay away from any grass or leafs on ground if you don’t want the black legged or nymphs. So…staying inside or in a concrete jungle is the only way to not have ticks in summer here :(
Or…you actually spray clothes and take a ton of precautions with ‘chemicals’ (in quotes, as everything is chemicals, even that eucalyptus oil that doesn’t actually work at all at least here insert roll eye)
If I remember right, Permethrin can also be toxic to bees while being sprayed so the brand I buys says - while spraying your clothes - to avoid areas of the garden/yard where you’re trying to attract bees. I can’t find confirmation, but I believe it may remain toxic even after drying on your clothes. In our case, I’ve only rarely have a bee land on me and I don’t get all that close to them so as to brush against them.
We have clothes marked that we keep treated with Permethrin. We strip out of them as soon as we get home and I take a shower with a scrubbie before bed.
But we aren’t bushwacking. (or very minimally) My husband tends to pick up a tick when he just steps off the pavement in rural areas so he’s very cautious about bushwacking. A lot of parks will mow 3 feet on either side of the path to let people walk without encountering longer vegetation. But ticks are common here (Minnesota) and one always has to be prepared.
This is one reason my plant pictures are often blurry. I’m taking them from a distance instead of hiking off the path/road to get a closer look! :-)
Several sources say 15 to 30 percent DEET is best. Less is not enough and more is overkill.
I knew an old man that spent a lot of time in the woods before DEET was well known.
He used Lysol spray. He would roll up his jeans and spray the underside of his jeans and his socks, roll his jeans back down and then spray the outside of his jeans.
A quick followup to my original post …
Well, that was a gross under-estimate. While the tiny larval ticks are almost invisible, the red welts they leave are definitely not! To get a rough idea, I counted the welts on my right ankle: 84 on the inside & 108 on the outside. Adding in the other areas of my body and then all the ticks that weren’t yet attached … yikes!!
The Lone Star ticks are very unlike the local Blacklegged ticks (Deer ticks) and Dog ticks which I’ve found attached on me many, many times over the years. They leave only a tiny red mark that goes away somewhat quickly. The Lone Star tick welts are still with me today and ~10 of them decided to blow up and form water filled blisters (which, of course, then broke & blah, blah …). In addition, these welts itch like poison ivy - the gift that just keeps giving!
Several years ago, I covered myself with ‘strong’ DEET and headed out to very tick-infested fields. I watched as the ticks marched up both the Deet-covered clothing and my skin, seemingly oblivious to it. Because of those observations & it’s plastic-melting wonderfullness, I’ll stick with the pesticide-coated clothing. At least with that, I’m not directly coating my skin itself with chemicals.
I did go back the following weekend (dressed appropriately) and although I spent somewhat less time bushwhacking, I came back with zero ticks. I suspect this is more from the fact I probably didn’t stroll through the seed tick areas than my clothing but hey, it was a win.
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A few weeks after my trip to Southern NJ, I spent time bushwacking in some local open woods (lots of ferns, etc). At one point, I counted over 20 larvae ticks (suspect Black legged) on my pants & socks. While watching, several just fell off my pants. When I eventually got back to the car, I could see none crawling on me or my clothes. My wife found none on me in an inspection upon arriving at home.
Yeah i mark my treated clothes, and we spray in the garage, we hang out a line in the garage and set all the clothes out, don gloves and a facemask since enclosed space, spray everything down, let it sit 48 hours, and call it good. Never had issue and we have lots of animals including a cat :)
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