tick numbers question

"Let me check you for ticks"....

Dug out a good one today. Feel the Lyme kicking in already.

Pete

We are overridden with them up here right now. It's been a few weeks, and it'll be a few more yet. I usually keep the average personal tick count down to two or three, but I tuck my pants in my socks and tie up my hair under a scarf. Ticks in my hair will give my a crazy fit. Especially when I feel one crawling down my neck after it decided it didn't really find the cozy spot it was looking for for the last three hours! yeeee-eeek.

The dogs are another story. One of our dogs is so furry that it takes fifteen minutes just to check him over when we get in. I'd shave him, but I don't think he'd forgive me (*very* vain about his coat). The other is easier, but I usually get five to ten off her after a hike.

What eats them best? Chickens, guineas, turkeys? Whatever it is, that's what I'll get next spring!

And yes, the evening "check me for ticks" ritual certainly brings a couple closer together. I'd rather a candlelight dinner, but we have to take what we can get, don't we?

The typical silly old dog tick leaves a big welt that itches and then becomes a hard bump on my skin that doesn't go away for weeks.

The typical silly, itty bitty deer tick usually crawl to places I wouldn't let anyone else go until they have at least bought me dinner before they bite, also leaving a nasty, itchy welt. There's also a very real threat of Lyme disease. As much as I like a good limeade, I'll take it in a glass, not my blood, thank you.

I'm not a bit fan of being drenched in chemicals, and I wash them off as soon as I'm through working in tick-infested areas. But, I'll take DEET rather than ticks, any day. We also do what we can to keep brush and grass cut low during tick season. Guineas don't survive very long here.

... the more I read about the rest of the country, the more I like it right here... Number of ticks in the past 30 years? Zero. Mosquitoes? yup. Deer flies? only in the woods. Black flies? for about 2 weeks in the spring, but no ticks to speak of, yet, thank God.

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Of all the evils that have befallen the earth, the worst is the desire of men to profit one from another. (Book of Andy 3:1)

I got six off of Elijah yesterday front line plus isn't helping.

Andy, where is "right here"?

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I'd like to know where Andy lives too. I bet it is in Canada, north of a certain area.
Do you think the very cold winters would keep the tick population at zero?
Or did you or someone say not so?

I don't mind jumping in a hot shower after working outside and checking for ticks on myself, but I worry about my dogs. Dogs, I understand, can get LYME disease too. And it is the little tiny ticks that cause that, what they call deer ticks?

I lay them on a flat surface and cut them in half with a pocket knife. Kills 'em dead.

I was kinda' wondering where Urban Farmer lived.

It would have to be really cold. We have lots of tick here, although admittedly lots of areas have colder winters then us. Thing is, not many people live in those areas.

Pete

I pick a tick or two off the goats every night. A tick a week on the cat. And so far, no ticks on me. Very few dog ticks. Mostly they're all deer ticks.

Spent the weekend fixing my dog kennel, next to a grove of bamboo, averaged 8 per day. I hate those blood suckers almost as much as I do lawyers.

Forgot to mention I was on the TN farm while working on the dog pen...

I kinda wish the ticks would eat the fireants myself.....

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Brad Bachelor
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"Loving an old bachelor is always a no-win situation, and you come to terms with that early on, or you go away.”
-- Jean Harris