Contributors to this thread:
I went squirrel hunting last weekend. When I got home I asked my wife to do a quick check. I had hundreds, not an exaggeration, hundreds of these things on me. We used one of those sticky lint rollers to remove lots of them and then my wife picked picked them off with tweezers. It was ridiculous.
Fast forward to today....I did some scouting for a few hours and hung a trail camera. I did this after I treated my clothes with permethrin. I came home this evening and same thing. I've got hundreds on me again. Most are like the size of a pepper fleck. I zoomed way in with my phone and could see a white dot on some of the larger ones. Assuming they are lone star ticks.
This season is going to suck if something doesn't give. I assume we will need cool or cold weather before they aren't as bad?
Hard to believe the permethrin didn't work....dang!
Wow, x2 Midwest. I'd be looking for one of those cdc suits that they use to protect against viruses and wear camo over it. Lol
Seedticks.
Either spray them with Repel while on skin, or douse yourself in a thick lotion. Shower won’t get them off.
I dope up with spray and permethrin anymore and rarely get them. But I used to get into them bad every year. I have scars on my ankles from repeated encounters with those damn things
Could be my permethrin is bad. Not sure how long I've had it but it's been a few years.
I had over 100 on me after walking through standing corn to check cameras in Kansas. Had to scrape them off with a knife and get a prescription for doxycycline after I developed body aches. After my old lab died from the tick borne disease erlichia, I stopped going to the timber in the summer. A few years later, I was hunting opening day in September and I looked down to see the same kind of ticks crawling up my pants and rubber boots that I had saturated with DEET. I quickly climbed down and sunk my pants under a big rock in the creek below my tree and commenced hunting in my underwear. If you stay out of tall undergrowth, they dont seem to be as prevalent.
Actually the nymph stage of certain ticks.
My personal strategy is to spray clothes with permethrin and let dry. Get dressed. Tuck pant legs into boot tops, and then duct tape that area to stop invaders. Spray boots and lower pants with high-percentage DEET just before going in the woods. When finished, undress and leave clothes outside...take a good shower immediately. If I follow this routine I get essentially no ticks or chigger bites ever.
Just returned from Ks dove shoot. Walked through quite a bit of knee to waist high weeds. Had zero ticks. My clothes had the peretermin treatment a week prior. I do that religiously and it seems to work for me.
i have problens with red bugs at times
Not sure deet bothers ticks. I buy the 'picardin' based stuff and it specifies that it repels ticks. (Actually I use all three including permethrin, depending on what's biting...)
We use permethrin infused clothes for the kids after one of them got a target lesion from a nymph. It was so damn small we thought it was a freckle.
I do what Kevin does. Treat clothes, tuck pants into rubber boots and duct tape boot tops. Anytime I don’t do that I get hundreds of tiny ticks as well here in MO. Counted over 400 one time…
Deet works very well for ticks. Even as low as 45% formulas keep them knocked off pretty well. Go above that it works better. 100% feet is very difficult to find nowadays. Ticks are an everyday part of life here. I've had millions on me and hate them but chiggers are the worst!
Had hundreds on me when skinning the velvet buck I shot this year in Nebraska. Have never experienced that before.
I religiously treat my clothes once a year with permethrin and rarely ever get a tick plus we live in tick city the plateau is covered in ticks. I have been doing it close to 25 years.Those seed ticks are a big pain in the ass.Good luck Lewis
Bringing this back up. SEED TICKS!!! GRRRRR!!!!
I was scouting a small tract of property yesterday. I mostly walked on old two tracks except I took a detour back to my truck through some taller grass and weeds. I didn't think anything about it and went home and started messing around doing a few things. After I ate I got in the shower. I look down and it looked like someone took a pepper shaker and covered my feet and ankles.
It took over 3 hours of adhesive lint rollering and my wife picking them off me with tweezers. I can't even begin to explain how many I had on me. I really think I had at least a thousand. When I have had them in the past I would normally just have them on my legs. They were all over my body. She even pulled one out of my eyebrow.
I'll never step foot in the woods this early without some repellent or spray again.
What seems to work best for these things?
Holy crap. That is horrible. I don't know if I would ever go into the woods again, period.
Holy crap. That is horrible. I don't know if I would ever go into the woods again, period.
That is terrible. And I feel like an idiot for not wearing any spray while mowing and working on deer stands at my woods the last couple of weeks. Guess I've been fortunate to not find any on me. Good luck to you and thanks for the heads up!
Hey y’all this isn’t hard to control I posted earlier on this thread just go to a co op or hardware store get a bottle of 13.5 permethrin mix 7-8 oz per a gallon of water put it in a pump up sprayer saturate the clothes you are going to use let dry and you’ll be good for the year and it still protects through several washing.Here’s the original formula that Sawyers used around 20 something years ago until they figured out they could make a lot more money by putting it in aerosol spray at I think that was why.Good luck
Nymphs. Haven’t had their first blood feeding yet (usually on mice) so no where near as dangerous as ticks after their first feeding. That’s where they pick up the bad stuff.
Used to get them like that in Goochland County VA years ago. I don't miss hunting in the pines
A friend in Texas that’s a taxidermist had his wife doing things in the shop. Two years ago she got Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever at the same time. She has never recovered. Constant joint pain and depression.
I use permethrin and have not had a tick on me in years. And I’m in the woods often.
Permethrin works. But you need to SOAK your clothing in it. It's not like a light misting over the clothes. You have to soak them and make the clothes very damp.
They say "don't put permethrin on you" but you put it on your dog?
Actually permethrin dissipates on your skin but don’t go crazy just saying Lewis
Be VERY CAREFUL of the Lone Star tick with the white dot. Several years ago I got Ehrlichiosis from one. Said it was 10 times worst than lyme disease. Was in the hospital in a coma for 5 days. Since then, I don't spray my clothes but rather SOAK my clothes in permethrin. Then hang up to dry. Works for me.
For some reason I can walk through the same ground behind my husband, and come out with a thousand seed ticks, and him without a single one. Every.single.time. I always keep an outfit of permethrin soaked clothes hanging in the closet that are my hunting/working clothes for out in the brush, but don't always think to put them on. As a result I often come home covered in seed ticks...too many to scrape off...so came up with the following solution; Just go to the local pharmacy and buy a bottle of Nix Shampoo and scrub down with it in the shower. It's probably not the safest solution, but is quite effective nonetheless!
~Cheryl
Lone Star nymphs. They itch like crazy and will last a month. I've had good luck with spraying clothes with permethrin and use ryno skin clothing and tuck my pants legs in rubber boots. Just like Kevin stated above, I change outside then a quick shower. Clothes go in dryer on hottest setting for 30 minutes.
Where is this? thank goodness not in PA or OH. yuk!
A female tick can lay up to 8000 eggs in one nest. If you walk into a nest your going to have a lot of ticks on you.
Yeah, I just got home from brook trout fishing, weather is cold, but I am in the UP. Have not seen a tick since July. Colors changing, brooks are spawning....love it
Could not deal with them, good luck. Let us know if the Permathin works. I can start on grouse and squirrels this Sat.
Hunts_with_stick,
It is in KY. We never had these when I was younger. If you don't have them I assume you will.
Ok I surrender I guess it doesn’t work Good luck Lewis
In parts of South Africa they have Pepper Ticks, which are just as you describe. The PH would have them all over his legs, and I never found one on my Permethrin treated pants.
From a guy who’s had Lyme disease, do what you can to keep them off you. I’m not sure if sees ticks are ticks that carry Lymes disease. But, there’s lots of other nasty stuff that comes from other ticks.
My farm in Kansas is infested with them. I got over a hundred on me walking through the corn to check cameras one year. One county to the west, I rarely see any.
I agree Thornton, depends on where you are. Sometimes when I'm scouting on Long Island I'll see them on my light colored pants and other areas not a one. Thankfully the larva don't carry Lyme disease since they pick up Lyme feeding on the white footed mouse and then after their first blood meal turn into nymphs.
I really dislike permethrin but since realizing it KILLS ticks with 30 seconds of contact, I have treated several sets of clothes.
In the past, I have used BugSkinz with great results against ticks and chiggers.
We used to call them rock lice we I hunted in the Uhwarrie Mountains in NC. They look just like a tiny tick but where they is one they are thousands. But we were obviously wrong in calling them this as a rock lice live by the ocean.I have never heard of seed ticks. I was walking out about 20 years ago and had over a hundred on each leg. I have never heard of dog, lone star or deer ticks appearing in these numbers like this.
Being the first mobile stage in the tick life cycle, seed ticks are very small and often look more like a freckle, small mole or poppy seed and may go unnoticed until their bites begin to cause redness and swelling and itching of the skin that occur as the response to chemicals produced by the feeding seed tick’s saliva.
While not always the case, seed ticks generally tend to feed on the lower parts of the human body. Since seed ticks may transmit some diseases in the process of feeding, it is very important to be familiar with tick bite prevention and removal procedures.
Exposure to seed ticks and the potential of them feeding on a person depends upon several factors. In general, the most important considerations are location and whether preventive measures are used.
Need some super cold weather or something to kill them! Those and the darn lateen flies!
Like others have said they are worse some places than others. My farm I'll pickup a few maybe a half dozen at a time. I can cross the road and walk thru my neighbors farm and have a hundred crawling on me. I try to avoid his place till it gets cold.
From this weekend in Iowa! Walked into a nest of them. Hate them!
Great thread,I quick trip to the CDC website only leaves every hunter saucing “gulp”.Learn about them and respect them.Going in without spray treatment is no longer macho!
On Bear Grease Podcast they said you can put a cup full of scope mouthwash in tub of water and take a bath. Will kill them.Yep spray.Off spray even with deet doesn't really help with my ticks,big or seed.
