Ticks are out in No. NH

The ticks blossomed BigTime in the snow-free grasslands of the Franconia area during the warm weather this weekend. These are the large deer or dog ticks.

Frontline Plus went on the dogs, and I began the spring regime: tuck pants legs in socks or gaitors; spray clothing from mid calf down, shoes and hat with 100% DEET; change and drop all outdoor clothes in the garage; do a full body, especially head, check twice a day or more. That gets about 75% of them.

Until about 6-8 years ago, I never saw a tick up here. They must have migrated up from ????

What's bugging us

Yes they are out and "questing". They sit on blades of grass or branches and wave their front legs in what's called a "questing mode". Early spring and summer is the worst since they all need hosts as soon as possible.

My volunteer hobby of boundary work is pretty bad for ticks since it's all bushwhacking and you're brushing against vegetation all day.

I have been treating my clothing and equipment with "Permanone" tick repellant. Pretty expensive since it costs about $7.50 per set of clothing. It lasts through a couple of washings on cold.

It does work! I rarely see ticks crawling on my clothing any more after a day in the brush.

I have two friends who pulled 140 ticks off their bodies after an overnight in CT on the AT last summer. They think that they overnighted in a deer bed. They tarped, with a quilt so they were not in a insect proof shelter.

http://bltadventure.blogspot.com/ To see their journal.

Figgy and Stitch....two awesome Left Coasters.

Time to prepare the defense..had a tick on me today at East Rattlesnake..(holderness)
and ..while I hestitate to say and this may be for a new thread

my first black fly cloud of the year..localized..not biting..but there....

Five stinking ticks on me today on Green Mountain. Nasty.

deer ticks

Southern NH: We got a handful of deer ticks on us about a week ago... just as the last bit of snow melted. But we haven't seen one since then, despite temping them by walking around though herd paths and grassy fields.

I think (hope) that the recent patch of dry weather is keeping them at bay.

Pulled the first one of the year off one of our dogs here in SE NH today. (83 degrees today (ugh), with something less than a foot of snow/ice left on the shaded snowmobile trails this evening.)

Put Advantix on the dog on Sunday. Pulled four ticks off him in the past 24 hours -- two dead, and two embedded and growing.

Ugh.

JJHikes said:

Put Advantix on the dog on Sunday. Pulled four ticks off him in the past 24 hours -- two dead, and two embedded and growing.
Ugh.

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I'm not a vet and therefore I hesitate to endorse specific products. Nevertheless, I used to use an anti-tick product called "Revolution" on my dogs. It was evidently ineffective; I did find the occasional embedded ticks on my dogs, and one of those dogs tested positive for Lyme although remains asymptomatic. After that I switched to Frontline Plus and find only dead, no embedded ticks on the dogs. This could be chance--maybe I've missed the odd embedded tick--but I believe that not all anti-tick products are equally effective. You might want to talk it over with your vet.

It's so sad that ticks have made their way that far north, especially with the intense winter we just had.

roadtripper said:

It's so sad that ticks have made their way that far north, especially with the intense winter we just had.

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Snow is a very good insulator.

And they need moisture to survive.

Doug

I had a two or three ticks drop on me during my hike on the Norwich section of the AT. They're out, much like us.

grouseking