Ticks

[fsa46]

I enjoy hunting cellar holes but the bugs and ticks are eating me alive.

I can use bug spray to deter the flying bugs but the ticks are awful, I have to deal with them during hunting season as well but when the foliage has fallen it isn't as bad as it is now with all the new growth. I have resigned myself to hunting open areas but would like to know what you do with the ticks problem during the Spring and Summer months if you're hunting in the woods ?

[RobW]

It's not just the woods, the open areas have ticks too

I try to give myself a good check before getting back into the car, but that doesn't always get them.

[Kimster]

There's really no way to avoid ticks. However, the precautions that I take are to wrap an elastic tie on the bottom of my pant legs below the tops of my socks, and to wear a tie shirt that I keep tucked in. The other precaution I use is to make it a habit to check the front and back of my pant legs every few minutes. Nevertheless, I had one embedded in my back last year. It was a wood tick. It's the black legged tick that carries lyme disease. It has a dark colored body and distinctly black legs. It's about half the size of other varieties of tick, about the size of the letter o here in this post. Last year I was hunting an abandoned school baseball field that had tall grass, I suddenly realized that I had five or six ticks on my pants. Upon examining them, I discovered that they were black legged ticks. I brushed them all off, but by the time I walked the 50 yards back to my truck, I had three more on my pants. I stood on the side of my truck where I could not be seen from the road and stripped, shook out, turned inside out, and thoroughly examine my cloths for ticks. I then took a peek inside my boxer shorts, lol. I drove the 60 miles home in my boxer shorts. Am I paraniod about ticks?.....couuuuuuld beeeeeee..... happydance02

[coinnut]

We deal with ticks all the time. Some places seem to have a colony of them, while other places have none or very few. These places can be right around the corner form each other I usually wear tight fitting shirts and pants that are called Under Armour. A little pricey, but worth the money. They also keep you warmer in the cold months . This doesn not allow the ticks access under your shirt or pants. I wear regular clothes over them. This allows me to put the socks over the first pair of pants. The only exposed areas then is the neck area and up. I wear some kind of hat to stop them from embedding in the scalp area. I also do a visible check and wear light colored jeans, so they stand out easier. When I get home, off come the clothes, directly in the washing machine and I take a hot shower followed by a dunk in the hot tub. (A hot bath would do the same) They don't seem to like the Chlorine (bromide) in the hot tub. lol Sounds like a lot of work, but I have found several ticks in the hot tub with me >:# If you find them embedded in you, I think you have a couple of hours before they actually can infect you. It takes them a while to get through your skin. I don't believe they transmit when they first bite you. Google it for more info on them. This system has worked for me so far. Ticks are not something you can fool with these days.

[RounderRick]

I hate ticks especially since I've gotten older I can pull one off me now and it can just barely be stuck and it will itch me for over a year.
Now I use to work cutting trees and limbs back away from power lines and when we was in areas that had a lot of ticks we would get a bottle of sulpher powder at walmart and just dust it around our pant legs and top of our socks and it really works it don't smell that great but I guess the ticks hate it.
It might not keep them from jumping out the tress on you but it sure worked good out in the right of ways with thick grass.

[del]

the ticks are awlful little creatures and i use to find them attached on my person every so often after a hunt and Lymes disease is no joke . so for the last four or five years now i've been wearing an out fit called &quotugskinz by cabelas , a shirt and pants combo made from a very lightweight , snug wearing material (its almost like a spandex material) . its light enough to wear under my usual jeans and shirt without making me to to hot (even in the humid summers we have in Ct.) it breathes an is very comfortable to wear and even if the ticks get under your jeans or shirt they can't get onto your skin. like George my only exposed area is my neck and lower scalp (easy areas to check when back at home ) . i also use bugspray with deet on my shoes and legs so i very rarely see a tick up past my waistline . i would highly recommend this as i haven't had a tick stuck on me since wearing these plus there good for chiggers and blackflies too.
http://www.cabelas.com/lightweight-c...f-mock-t.shtml

Dan

[RobW]

I usually wear tight fitting shirts and pants

lol....I just don't what to say about that lol

[del]

I usually wear tight fitting shirts and pants

lol....I just don't what to say about that lol

yet it explains alot huh Rob lol rofl lol

[RounderRick]

the ticks are awlful little creatures and i use to find them attached on my person every so often after a hunt and Lymes disease is no joke . so for the last four or five years now i've been wearing an out fit called &quotugskinz by cabelas , a shirt and pants combo made from a very lightweight , snug wearing material (its almost like a spandex material) . its light enough to wear under my usual jeans and shirt without making me to to hot (even in the humid summers we have in Ct.) it breathes an is very comfortable to wear and even if the ticks get under your jeans or shirt they can't get onto your skin. like George my only exposed area is my neck and lower scalp (easy areas to check when back at home ) . i also use bugspray with deet on my shoes and legs so i very rarely see a tick up past my waistline . i would highly recommend this as i haven't had a tick stuck on me since wearing these plus there good for chiggers and blackflies too.
http://www.cabelas.com/lightweight-c...f-mock-t.shtml

Dan

I'll have to check them out we don't have one of them stores here in Tennessee but they do in Texas so next time I visit my brothers I'll look about them I'm not much for tight clothing but if I'm going to a tick infested area I will to keep them off.

[MartinL]

Sulfur tablets. A bunch of old deer hunters dudes once tole me this over some beers, and it does work. You stink when you sweat, but it does keep the ticks off. martin

[RounderRick]

Sulfur tablets. A bunch of old deer hunters dudes once tole me this over some beers, and it does work. You stink when you sweat, but it does keep the ticks off. martin

I never heard that but guess it could work I know for sure the sulpher powder does.
I wouldn't be able to take tablets anyways found out when I was a kid I was allergic to sulpher drugs so anyone else with that problem might not be good idea to try them.

[leslie(nova scotia)]

From the land of the Bluenose....have the same problem here with tics and in fact one of my team mates on my ball team got the lyme illness and was pretty bad for about 6 months. Average 2 a year on me here. Marie does the old short arm inspection on me. <

[RobW]

I'll have to check them out we don't have one of them stores here in Tennessee but they do in Texas so next time I visit my brothers I'll look about them I'm not much for tight clothing but if I'm going to a tick infested area I will to keep them off.

Check out the Pro Bass Shop in Nashville, I think technically it's in Donelson or Madison, they probably carry the same thing or similar, it's just like Cabellas'. It's in Opry Mills...what's left of it after the flood, but they stayed open, right off Briley Parkway.

[Kimster]

An added note: As stated above by others, Lyme disease is very serious. It can be effectively treated in the first few weeks with tetracycline. If Lyme disease is present, a large red circular area around the bite area usually (not always) develops in the first week or two. This is a sure indication that you have been infected, but you can still be treated without serious consequence at this time. However, if it is allowed to progress for several months, it becomes quite serious and very difficult (sometimes impossible, as the damage has already been done) to cure. I'm do not recall all of the symptoms, but I know that there is an effect on the joints, and one's energy level. I have a friend who this happened to, before Lyme disease became a well known malady. The disease developed in her for several months before it was diagnosed. She was on 24/7 intravenous antibiotics for more than 60 days. I don’t know if this ever totally cured her ailment, or just arrested it. However, I do know that the cure was almost as bad as the disease. An intravenous antibiotic for 60 days destroys not only the pathogens in your body, but all the good stuff that you need to be healthy. She suffered for years afterward trying to get her system straightened out, and I believe after more than 10 years she still has some problems.

[russellt]

all good suggestions. for mroe in depth answes i would google it

[Shenandoah Digger]

Having had Lyme disease three times, and chiggers so bad I had to get steroid shots, I finally found the answer. You can buy Repel Permanone at Walmart or Sawyer Clothing Insect Repellent at Dick's, and it is the answer. Just spray it over all the clothing you're going to wear, let it dry, and I guarantee you won't have a tick on you no matter how bad they are. It's made with Permethrin, and ticks and chiggers die on contact. After you have applied it to your clothing, all your clothing, you can wash the clothes up to 6 times and it still works. It has very little scent, isn't nasty like repellents on your skin, and works like nothing I've ever seen. It sells for about $8.00 per can, and it'll last you for about 4 complete clothes coatings. Wish I had found it years ago. Hope this helps.

[coinnut]

Thanks SD. It is worth a try for sure. Glad you recovered from your encounters!!

[DAN03USMC]

I Hate Ticks! There is a pruduct that you can buy at Walmart. It is made by Sawyer's It has that permathrine stuff in it. ( made from merigolds) You spray it on your clothes only, and it will last for 8 weeks through six or so washings. Ticks will die and drop off before you even see them. It is in the camping section. D

[Kimster]

Having had Lyme disease three times, and chiggers so bad I had to get steroid shots, I finally found the answer. You can buy Repel Permanone at Walmart or Sawyer Clothing Insect Repellent at Dick's, and it is the answer. Just spray it over all the clothing you're going to wear, let it dry, and I guarantee you won't have a tick on you no matter how bad they are. It's made with Permethrin, and ticks and chiggers die on contact. After you have applied it to your clothing, all your clothing, you can wash the clothes up to 6 times and it still works. It has very little scent, isn't nasty like repellents on your skin, and works like nothing I've ever seen. It sells for about $8.00 per can, and it'll last you for about 4 complete clothes coatings. Wish I had found it years ago. Hope this helps.

Great info, SD! I'm going to put a can of this stuff in my truck.