Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Why no wood ticks this year?

Last year was terrible. We had wood ticks in the midwest, big time.
This year...nuthin'. We have been wading thru the weeds, tall grasses, and woods all year and have yet to find a single one.

Brettski...

It's the ones you don't find that get ya.

Brettski,
Not sure what part of IL your in but Im at the very bottom of the state and would be happy to ship you a few hundred. Should only take my dogs about a week to round them up. The deer ticks down here are high this year as well. Many cases of RMSP going on.

We had a bumper crop o' ticks this year as well (IIRC Brettski and his Ohio Rep Bill actually picked up 3 between them when he was here in May). Fortunately they "faded away" in the latter half of July this year, same as always.

We had ticks bad this year. I got a couple just waling to my pond and taking the dog out. Wherever you are in IL you are lucky not to have them.

I think I only saw one this year up here in northern Indiana. Really scarce this year up here. We had a late cold wet spring which may have had something to do with it.

This spring I averaged 2 ticks every time I walked through the woods to the corner of my property. Like Theo said they thin out later in the year. I did end up with a few of them attached. While showering I discovered one attached up near my armpit but it was dead as a doornail. I'm not sure what to make of that!

Well if your underarm is like my underarm it's that odor emanating from parts there of!

I guess because they all moved down here.

I've went years in a row without seeing even 1. This year, I have already found 4 crawling on me.

I try to burn 1/3 of my property every year as recommended by the conservation dept. The 2 main reasons are to prevent too much undergrowth in the pastures from preventing quail, turkey, and rabbits to go forth and multiply..... the second is for the forested areas to prevent fuel from building up and creating a MAJOR fire hazard. The benefit I have found most beneficial is that I will only have ticks in the 3rd year of each cycle.

I never saw a quail for 4 years and only saw 3 rabbits in the same time span. This year, after 5 yrs burning, and going down to our place less often, I have a 20 bird covey of quail and jump up rabbits regularly.

4 ticks IN A YEAR?

4 per day is nuthin', here.

You're living right Brettski! This year, in this area, the ticks and horseflies are the worst I can ever remember them being. I heard of one person who reported finding over 200 ticks on him after a day in the woods. Another said that they found over 20 on their daughter. My wife and I have consistently found some on us each time we went to the wood this year.

I do believe you are right, Ranger. To date, not a one....and I have definitely been wading thru the jungle all year. I just don't get it.

...I hear a Brad Paisley song comin'

Geeze, you guys got me to really wondering.

I just realized I haven't had a single tick this season. I still haven't weed-whacked the edge of the pond, which I walk at least five times a week. I've spent a fair amount of time in and around my garden. I've cut a lot of firewood from my woodlot.

My current flock of chicken didn't start free-ranging until mid-July. I don't have any ducks, geese, or guineas this year either -- just a family of about 15 wild turkeys that visit two or three times a week. I don't have any green sunfish.

The grand kids haven't had any ticks -- at least not while here on most weekends.

The cat hasn't had any.

Very, very unusual. We should have found dozens by now.

We've probably had above average rain, and below average temperature this summer.

Did we do something wrong?

Ken

not many ticks here either.....but it was also driest wet season on the County books......

Ticks like dry weather. An abundance of small mammals like rabbits & mice help them along too.
We've only seen a modest amount this summer & that was early in the season. Haven't seen one in 3 months.

"Mud on the Tires"?

ric, that must be it, left coast critters like wet weather.....our small mammal populations were way down this year too. in wet years theres ticks all over out here....at least on my property.

We must not be doing something right here in the southern tip of Illinois. We don't have all that many wood ticks but we more than make up for them in deer ticks. Hell, I can't even sit at my picnic table for 10 min without plucking a few of them in the nymph stage off my legs. Between our county and the one to the east we have had over 30 cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever since July. I make my kids spray with bug juice just to go outside and play in the yard and they still get one or two one them. Never thought I would look forward to the first good frost.

You can spray your clothes & shoes with Permanone (Repel is a brand name) & they will die when they crawl aboard. Read the instructions & be sure to let it dry before wearing & not recommended on skin. It seems to still work even after one washing.
I don't believe deer carry Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Dog ticks do. Deer ticks can carry Lyme disease.

Jeff, I'm in Southern Illinois too, Hardin County. The ticks have been terrible this year. One of our nieces was visiting us this June. She wanted to go on a walk to look for box turtles after it rained. I told her to put on a pair of my wifes cowboy boots and tuck her pants in them. Since she is 13 and smarter than me, she left her pant legs hang over her boots. She sprayed them with repellent but after walking a ways she noticed her legs were covered with ticks. There had to be at least 20 or 30 on each leg. We got them off and walked another 50' and she was covered again. She started freaking out because she thought that if you got bit by a tick you got lyme disease. We didn't go on anymore walks in the woods after that.

Ric, sometime in July, I started treating my clothes with a permethrin repellent, Sawyers brand. I haven't had a tick on me since. And the only chigger bites have been on my arms. I watched a tick that was on my pants a few weeks ago, I saw it when it was just below the knee. By the time it got to mid thigh, it fell off. I don't venture far from the house now without my treated clothes on. It is supposed to last for 6 weeks and upto 6 washings.

Jeff

It's good stuff Jeff!

Ric,
I know about that stuff (I used to treat uniforms with it in the military before field excercises). Great stuff, but I don't want to treat my entire wardrobe just so I'm covered when I go outside to my grill.

In the western United States, the bacteria is carried by the wood tick, and in the eastern U.S. it is carried by the dog tick. However, other ticks spread the infection in the southern U.S. and in Central and South America.

It's hard to tell as a large part of what I am seeing is in the nymph stage and I don't have a microscope or a entomology field guide anymore. I do know we have a reported large outbreak of RMSF here lately. Either way, I keep a pair of old, freshly treated cammies to slip on for my adventures around our pond.

Jeff244.
Howdy, neighbor. I live next door in the NW corner of Pope County. The upside if these are deer ticks is our deer hunting should be pretty good this year