First tick bite of the year. smiley_furious
And just a few days ago it was in the 20s here. Oh well, time to start applying the bug juice before venturing out. :'(
Ticks in March! YIKES!!! :o >:( :o
Yep, hardly any bugs out at all, and none of the biting kind, with that one miserable exception. It was a brown dog tick.
Emphasis on the was.
still to darn cold here and to much SNOW >:( >:( >:( >:(
Got my first one a week ago.
We had a horrible year for them last year. I hope they ease up some this year.
just saw 2 headed south with their little snowshoes and backpacks on with a sign that read deepcreek or bust! :D :D
we wont see bare ground till may let alone ticks :)
Y'all are full of Syrup......ain't no Tics out yet! ::)
I see black flies first. Or really should say,I FEEL black flies first.
Quote from: thecfarm on March 09, 2014, 07:42:14 PM
I see black flies first. Or really should say,I FEEL black flies first.
Snow fleas first ;D
Da skeeters are out too. :-\
We have been pulling ticks off the cat all winter , but no skeeters or snakes yet . Red
Had a big skunk in the flowerbeds today , broad daylight . about 4 pm , really didn't seem to concerned when I hollered at him . He should have been .
The ticks may be out here,if they are there still under a foot and half of snow. ;D there have been a few snowfleas out tho.
I'm wondering if our extended frigid temps here in Michigan has any effect on any of the insect pests. I suppose ticks are in leave duff or what ever and pretty insulated. I imagine the one thing in this are that could have taken a knock ( I hope) is gypsy moths due to the way they lay eggs. They were exposed to 20'-25° below zero a few times, so maybe that will take care of them. I wonder about EAB? We had some really cold weather. Not sure what temp they can be killed at.
I hope it killed the bad bugs,but I'm not counting on it. Slowed them down,that might happen. :) Seem like something bad you can't get rid off,but some nice flowers or shrubs die and never come back.
No ticks today but another sure sign of Spring is Pat making me trim the Crepe Myrtles. All eight of them got trimmed as per her instructions today.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/Photo459.jpg)
Today was our 4th day in a row in the 70's, and we are forecast to reach near 70° or better for the next week. I may not have to bring up any more firewood. ;D
You need to get away from the house and go saw some logs...........
Hopefully no ticks next week, just logs....Walnut Logs. ;D
Has Lyme disease spread to the ticks in the south yet?
Quote from: 21incher on March 11, 2014, 11:46:15 AM
Has Lyme disease spread to the ticks in the south yet?
Yes, from what I understand.
Worse, the lone star tick bite can cause an allergy to mammal meat (aka alpha-galactin allergy).
The Life Cycle of Hard Ticks that Spread Disease (http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html)
Oh yeah, it's been down here a long time. Not sure exactly when it came about. But I know of several people having it. One of my coworkers ex-wife got it and she is disabled. Can't work.
RE: DEER TICKS & LYME DISEASE - MAYBE IT'S NOT THE DEER SO MUCH?
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/06/12/1204536109.full.pdf+html
Deer, Predators, and the Emergence of Lyme Disease
Abstract
Lyme disease is the most prevalent vector-borne disease in North America, and both the annual incidence and geographic range are increasing. The emergence of Lyme disease has been attributed to a century-long recovery of deer, an important reproductive host for adult ticks. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that Lyme disease risk may now be more dynamically linked to fluctuations in the abundance of small-mammal hosts that are thought to infect the majority of ticks. The continuing and rapid increase in Lyme disease over the past two decades, long after the recolonization of deer, suggests that other factors, including changes in the ecology of small-mammal hosts may be responsible for the continuing emergence of Lyme disease. We present a theoretical model that illustrates how reductions in small-mammal predators can sharply increase Lyme disease risk. We then show that increases in Lyme disease in the northeastern and midwestern United States over the past three decades are frequently uncorrelated with deer abundance and instead coincide with a range-wide decline of a key small-mammal predator, the red fox, likely due to expansion of coyote populations. Further, across four states we find poor spatial correlation between deer abundance and Lyme disease incidence, but coyote abundance and fox rarity effectively predict the spatial distribution of Lyme disease in New York. These results suggest that changes in predator communities may have cascading impacts that facilitate the emergence of zoonotic diseases, the vast majority of which rely on hosts that occupy low trophic levels.
We took a tick off of Harley today. He had to get it here, as he hasn't been anywhere else.
Took 5 off me in the LeRoy area due west of you last week. Was just in and out of the truck a few times checking game cameras.