I pulled a tick off of my neck while sitting here on the keyboard and also had a mosquito buzz by me. Wow is this early or what!

I've been swatting large skeeters for over a week now, and had a deer tick crawling on my neck tuesday.

Heck yes it's early! I have a feeling the fruit farms will be in trouble this year. All of my fruit trees were in bloom last week. That's about 5 weeks early.....

My dogs have been covered in them this last 2 weeks.

I've only seen one strange looking bug, whose life ended abruptly! and one Bumble Bee.

I hope the skeeters stay away this year, like they did a couple years ago. Although, those electric skeeter swatters are kinda fun.

Cecil, you jinxed me! I need to treat Kate with Advantage. I let her jump up on the bed here in the city, and last night I woke up twice with a tick crawling on me..... Now that I'm awake, I'm feeling them crawling even tho they aren't there.

I've seen skeeters buzzin for the last month.. Flys too, haven't had a tick on me yet..

Yeah they are out big time!! About a good month in advance if not more. Most time we don't get ticks here till about the end of April. Not this year. Everything is moved up about 5 weeks or so. This weather is crazy. Every since Japan had that Earthquake the weather has been messed up. They say the quake was so big it shifted the Earth's movement about a 1/4 of an inch and that is somewhat to blame for the stange weather. Not sure how true that is, but that's what I heard.

I did a little fishing Wednesday evening casting from shore. The mosquitoes were atrocious. Our barn swallows haven't arrived yet so hopefully things will settle down mosquito-wise when they do show.

The serious drought last year must have killed all of the ticks and chiggers. I skinned quite a few deer and one small hog. I saw no ticks and I haven't had a chigger bite in years.

Everybody in my family found at least one tick crawling on them over the weekend at our farm. We had a lot of rain late into the week and I kind of wondered if they may not have been so active simply because they were trying to escape the wet ground. In any event, the little buggers are out here.

Todd:

The local sporting clays range sprays the following combination on the foliage that lines the walking trails thru the woods once a week (if it rains) and only as needed if it doesn't rain. It works great on lilmiting the amount of mosquitoes and ticks that are there. You normally can walk/shoot the course without having to spray on bug repellent.

One ounce of Ambush or Pounce and 6 oz. of Malathion per 20 gallons of water. They spray it on the bushes/small trees that line the walkways. They're careful not to spray it anywhere that bees are known to frequent.

Ticks have been out for a week or better here. I have one to add.....Saw 2 big junebugs buzzing around a bit ago. At least 2 months early.

I can handle the ticks, mosquitoes, and chiggers..... it's those freakin' gnats that push me over the edge. I expect to be inundated with them at any time.

You say that now until you get Lymes disease. My dad said he stopped out to my land this week (first time this year) and got a tick on him already. Check yourself for ticks. Lymes is no joke.

There is an effective permethrin soak available to treat the clothes you'll be wearing outdoors. I believe that there is also a soak that the military uses supposedly good for up to 50 washings. Do your research on the internet.

Be careful using Permethrin if you have cats. Permethrin exposure can be fatal to cats (dogs are fine).

Thanks for the heads up. No cats either place. If they are there, then they came from over 3/8 mile away.