Tick time!

[Tony]

I was just thinking that it's that time of year again, the days getting warmer, the gras starting to grow and the Ticks will be wanting blood, it's worth protecting yourselves if you're out for a bimble or a bit of an adventure.

Here's a couple of video's about ticks and how they suck your blood... And the blood of your dog, well, anything they can get their mouths into

 

[snappingturtle]

I've not been "ticked" but I think that's due to my blood being an infusion of coffee & tobacco...

 

[woodsa]

I pulled this one out of my groin last year. It's probably the third that I've found there now. I've one in my armpit, two at the same time on my chest. I don't know if I smell like a deer?!!
Every time I go out for a weekend's jaunt I give my self a good look over when I get back now.

https://flic.kr/p/HmFr1x

https://flic.kr/p/HmFqZv

 

[C_Claycomb]

Woodsa,

That little blighter is not a tick. It is a deer ked, a louse fly of some kind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipoptena_cervi

When you link to Flikr, use the BBCode tab and copy the link for the size of image you want to show on the forum, then can just past the link straight into your post, like this:

Untitled by woodsa, on Flickr

Untitled by woodsa, on Flickr

 

[srod]

Had 3 on me so far this year!

 

[Insel Affen]

A few years back I had an itch on my scrotum. On closer inspection, I had what I thought was a little blood blister on my marble pouch. I nipped off upstairs and broke the tweezers out to puncture it so it would drain - don't ask me why I thought to do this or why I never noticed catching anything to cause such an injury - I just did!

Queue comedy moment of me pulling out my scrotum to epic proportions that Tom and Jerry would baulk at....just as the wife walks into the bathroom. Ping!!!! Out the little bugger pops and to my surprise it was a tick!. Then the wife start to ask how on earth I got that in such a place, etc. No amount of pleading my innocence would do.

After several hours of the silent treatment, she remembered that she'd been hanging out the washing and a pair of my pants had fallen on the floor in the garden and that is where it might have come from. Thank you, love of my life!!

 

[Robson Valley]

A couple of biology facts about ticks:

1. They fall off the host to do a bit of metamorphosis on the ground then they need another blood sucking ride for a year.
They are attracted to the scent of urine so you can expect to find many of them along obvious game trails.

2. To get ready to hitch a new ride, they climb up into the trail-side shrubbery and wait on the tips of branches.
The first pair of legs are spread open like the jaws of a trap. Anything brushes by and those arms snap shut like a trap.

I collected ticks for the Canadian Center For Disease Control in Winnipeg.
From Prince Rupert in the west to Jasper in the east . From Fort St. John in the north to William's Lake in the south.
I mailed out collection kits and pre-paid return mailers to every veterinarian in that region that I could find.
Most of what I got came off livestock and the vets, themselves!

Please find or buy a mirror the size of your hand.
Inspect every dank crevice on your whole body.

 

[Janne]

Wonder what a Vegan/Hindu would do? Is there a non damaging/ non lethal ( for the tick) way to remove them?

When I twist them out they always get damaged.

In the past, when I had far more hair on my head than I have today, I sometimes left ticks that were on my scalp. Once they had a solid feed they fall off.

 

[Robson Valley]

Call me vegan if you want to. I don't eat ticks. I used to pickle them in the dregs of a rye whiskey bottle.

The mouth parts are barbed like the head on a fishing spear. With fine forceps, you can get under the beak. But, you lose a little divot of flesh.

For heaven's sake, don't ever squeeze them. They vomit up a cocktail of blood and arboviruses that we don't even have names for, yet.

 

[Janne]

Canadian whiskey gets only better being infused with some well fed ticks...



Like Mescal @ worm.

 

[Robson Valley]

The tick business is pretty serious here. Some years, a few moose and the deer carry such a blood-sucking tick load over a winter than it kills them.
Besides Lyme Disease, there's Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and others.
Rabbits don't seem to be able to groom the rows of ticks off their ears.
The only place that a squirrel cannot reach is up between their shoulder blades.

Check yourselves, all over after any and every outing.
I don't know what to say about the ticks that you may be forced to work with in the office.

Ticks can swim in Alberta Premium Rye whiskey (40%) for at least 12 hours.
That means that AP won't harm you until tomorrow.
Rye & water = Logger's Lunch.

 

[Janne]

We have ticks here too. I do not know if they carry any diseases.
The Mozzies can though.

Tourists arrive sick with Zika and other exotics, the mozzies have a slurp, get infected, then the Mosquito Control people go into overdrive and spray the heck of them!

No insect borne diseases here.

 

[Trig]

Been getting the odd tick off the cats and dogs for past month or two now, but until today hadnt seen any on myself.

Went for a walk today to an area that i visited once last year and never went back as it was crawling with them, and it is again crawling with them. Not quite as bad as last year, but still pretty bad. Though i had expected less problems this year due to the colder winter, i thought that was supposed to keep their numbers down?

Would only go a few steps,look at my trousers and see 5-10 ticks crawling on them. Knock them off and go another few steps and there would be another group. Ended up walking also with my hands up in the air as if surrendering, anything i touched or brushed by just gave me another bunch of ticks.
Thankfully they seem to have trouble gripping onto my trousers which have a shiny/smooth feel to them, so they fall off while walking.

 

[Nice65]

A few years back I had an itch on my scrotum. On closer inspection, I had what I thought was a little blood blister on my marble pouch. I nipped off upstairs and broke the tweezers out to puncture it so it would drain - don't ask me why I thought to do this or why I never noticed catching anything to cause such an injury - I just did!

Queue comedy moment of me pulling out my scrotum to epic proportions that Tom and Jerry would baulk at....just as the wife walks into the bathroom. Ping!!!! Out the little bugger pops and to my surprise it was a tick!. Then the wife start to ask how on earth I got that in such a place, etc. No amount of pleading my innocence would do.

After several hours of the silent treatment, she remembered that she'd been hanging out the washing and a pair of my pants had fallen on the floor in the garden and that is where it might have come from. Thank you, love of my life!!

Strangely, the little perverts do like scrotes. Backs of knees, armpits, anywhere warm and protected. I hate ticks with a vengeance. I’ve pulled 4 from my dogs in the last week and check myself every shower I have. Haven’t had any on me yet, but a good soaping in the shower generally reveals a little bump at some point in the tick season.

 

[woodsa]

Ah, thankyou. I've been fumbling about like my Mother trying to post photos!

A deer Ked, I'll read up on them thanks.

The others were ticks, I work in a hospital and some of the consultants that I know were queuing up to pull them out my chest!

Woodsa,

That little blighter is not a tick. It is a deer ked, a louse fly of some kind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipoptena_cervi

When you link to Flikr, use the BBCode tab and copy the link for the size of image you want to show on the forum, then can just past the link straight into your post, like this:

Untitled by woodsa, on Flickr

Untitled by woodsa, on Flickr

 

[Nice65]

Ah, thankyou. I've been fumbling about..

Scrotums fella, hard place to find your way around. But make sure you do, and not just for ticks .

 

[jonquirk]

I check my lurcher regularly for passengers but it was my daughter who found one on him yesterday. It took two of us to remove it, one to hold his head still and one to work the Tick Twister to get it out. I tried to do it myself but he kept my bobbing his head every time I got the tool in place.

 

[Robson Valley]

I'll bet you all walk along foot paths and game trails. The best possible location to pick up ticks from the shrubbery.
Animals pee on trails as markers. Ticks know that. Buy a hand mirror. Use it.

 

[Wayne]

What’s the best tick removal tool on the market? My cheap eBay hooks failed miserably at the weekend to remove a large tick from a ladies shoulder.

 

[chas brookes]

What’s the best tick removal tool on the market? My cheap eBay hooks failed miserably at the weekend to remove a large tick from a ladies shoulder.

Hi Wayne
I find the Lifeventure Tick Remove Card very good added bonus has a magnifying lens which added bonus can be used for firelighting ;-)

https://www.millets.co.uk/equipment/069230-lifesystems-tick-remover.html

It seems to work really well on ticks, I also have a pair of the hooks for more awkward locations and which are often easier to use on the dog
Chas