Tick Season !

If you visit, you had better wear your "space suit" !

Many people I’ve recently spoken with don’t have much first-hand knowledge of ticks. Not to brag too much, but I have earned a Ph.D. in Tick-ology (as well as Chigger-ology).

Here in the woods, if I don’t wear my “space suit”, or “super-hero costume”¹, I’ll get 10 or 15 ticks on me in a 5 minute walk around my property this time of year.

You’ve all probably seen or had² some of those cute small little brown ticks, but have you ever seen fully-bloated-with-blood ticks? If not, you can see one in Picture 1 below.

Picture 1. My new wolf-dog, Shadow, provides me with all sorts of tick samples. In the upper part of this picture, you can see one of the cute little ticks. In the bottom part of the picture, you see a tick that had become fully-engorged with blood; it then turns into a factory producing eggs, which you can see coming out of the engorged tick’s mouth!

Now, it’s not just wolves, dogs, coyotes, squirrels, raccoons, opossums, etc. that collect these ticks; my deer friends also collect them. In the Spring my deer friends ears are fully-covered by fully-engorged ticks, as you can see with a bit of imagination in Picture 2, below (I need a better camera).

Picture 2. A white-tailed deer with her ears, inside and out, fully-covered with fully-engorged ticks (picture take 06 Jun 2024).

1. My Space Suite, which allows me to go outside and not get full of ticks (and later in the year, chiggers), is clothing impregnated with permethrin. At this time of the year, I call it my Super Hero Costume — I don it, and go battle EVIL (the Evil Crimson Autumn Olive) with my bladed-weed-wacker, long-handled-clippers, and chain saw. If you too would like a Super Hero Costume, see my Posting My Missionary Work.

2. In the Boy Scouts we were taught that if you got a tick, to light a match, blow it out, and put the coal against the back of the tick and it will release and back-out. That is total B.S. You just grab them, pull them off, and they come off with a little piece of your skin in their mouth.