just back from a vet conference. The tick talks were amazing.
Sounds like nothing works . Amitraz has "anti-feeding" properties, but isn't much of a repellant.The collars don't work if wet. Frontline+ works for 2 wks. Ticks we see= 0.000046% of the ticks in the environment.
Ticks do something called "questing"= they anchor themselves on bushes< 3ft high and hang on with their hind legs, wave their front arms about and wait for you to come by. If you don't they go back down into the leaf litter and huddle up, can do that over and over for 20 years. They said during times of high tick activity you should go out to damp places within 2 ft of bushes and just look, let your eyes adjust, and you can see them. Lots of them on the tips of grass and weeds.
Ticks have increased with the population of White Tailed deer. I guess where there are no deer, there are no ticks. They live on wild turkeys too.
I learned that deer were eliminated before bison with market hunting. By 1890 deer were nearly extinct. Millions of lbs of dressed venison were shipped out of Chicago in the 1860s.
There are no ticks over 5000 ft, and few in California. But supposedly they are coming.
It was fascinating.
John Vanek Webboard User Reg: 03-26-2008
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As a student of wildlife biology (have a BS and in an MS program right now), I LOVE ticks. They are SUPER COOL.
That said, they are nasty little buggers.
Ticks will live in areas with no deer, as there are many species. Black-leggged Ticks (Ixodes sp., AKA deer ticks) parasitize deer extensively, but they require small mammals (rodents, shrews, etc) for part of their lifestyle.
The Black-legged tick is responsible for most Lyme disease cases in the NE, and another species of BLT is considered responsible for the increasing number of LD cases in California.
tracey holden Webboard User Reg: 07-17-2010
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So they really have no redeeming qualities?
It isn't something I have had to deal with, (touch wood!) but I know people who shoot, and their springy is always coming back with them, the gross me out!
The talk was about the black legged tick. Not yet in California, I guess. They did say that part of the life cycle ( the larvae and then the nymph) is on small rodents. But the main host is supposedly the white tailed deer.
The speaker said it's now believed that disease can be transmitted in < 24hrs of feeding now, whereas before it was felt it took a few days for an attached tick to actually deliver enough of a bug load to make a dog or person ill.
The talk was sponsored by Merial, a big drug house. So it was interesting to hear that the flea+tick products don't work, not for long, none of them.
For humans, he recommended Sportsmans Off with 28% deet, and you are supposed to roll your pants up and spray the inside of the pants as well as the outside. This guy then duct tapes his pants shut when he goes to his research field.....His name was Dryden, from Kansas State.
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Ticks can live TWENTY YEARS without feeding
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I've always hated ticks with a passion. (Who doesn't, I guess.)
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