Mutating Ticks

[Black_Fly]

My son got Lyme last year and I’ve had several nasty bites in recent years with suspicious symptoms. Doc has given me antibiotics 3 times in as many years. It seems that ticks are more infected than in the past. In Wisconsin, I completely stopped hiking in June after removing more than 30 ticks from my body after a 2 hour hike. I missed a couple (or they attached later) and they burrowed into my skin on my back. It took two mirrors, a long sharp knife and some hemostats to dig them out in pieces. Years later my back still itches on one of those sites. I’m convinced ticks are sicker than before.

 

[dramey]

We are starting to get ticks in Alaska. Tourists brings their pets up here and we end up with ticks. Luckily, the ticks dies off in the winter. They can’t survive our winter.

 

[recped]

Perhaps this will make you feel better. While there has been a significant increase in blacklegged ticks in the immediate area around Thunder Bay, Wabakimi is still considered low risk for Lyme Disease. In another 10 years that may change and one would need to go further north to avoid them.

Everything You Need to Know about Ticks in Ontario

With the proper precautions, you don't have to let these creepy crawlies ruin your summer fun.

northernontario.travel

 

[memaquay]

I'm not convinced it is the cold winters that kill off the ticks. Rather, it is the deep snow and cold winters that keep the deer populations away. We are still in moose country, and deer are very rare, as are ticks. However, overall trends are warming, and deer have been moving into the area, they have been spotted locally, although they are still fairly rare. My chum's dog had a couple of ticks last year, first time I've seen it up here.
Thunder Bay and area are crawling in deer, and ticks. When I lived in Manitoba, ticks were thick as flies, so were the deer. Same for Nova Scotia. When we were high school kids, we went on a motorcycle/fishing/camping trip. After one walk through a grassy field to a stream, we were covered in ticks. I had to have one surgically removed from my head. My chum had one right next to his starfish, if you know what I mean. There were herds of deer in the area.

 

[Neophyte]

Ticks and lymes have certainly gotten worse here on the east coast as well. We do a camping trip every June in the mountains of PA. Despite regular tic checks I inevitably find a tic when I get home and end up getting antibiotics.

There’s one trail that we just don’t use that time of year. I’ve watch them jump on me, it’s just crazy. My childhood home was in the mountains and we never had any trouble with them.

 

[RatAssassin]

My son got Lyme last year and I’ve had several nasty bites in recent years with suspicious symptoms. Doc has given me antibiotics 3 times in as many years. It seems that ticks are more infected than in the past. In Wisconsin, I completely stopped hiking in June after removing more than 30 ticks from my body after a 2 hour hike. I missed a couple (or they attached later) and they burrowed into my skin on my back. It took two mirrors, a long sharp knife and some hemostats to dig them out in pieces. Years later my back still itches on one of those sites. I’m convinced ticks are sicker than before.

As an owner of a pest control company, in the same general region as you, I can say without a doubt that these past warm winters have not done much for keeping insects of all kinds (including the many invasives we are now dealing with) in check.
Last year, we had to treat 2 exteriors in Feb. This was for insects we should not be seeing that time of year. I never had to do that before.
From what I see in my capacity in the pest business and an avid outdoors lover, I don't believe the bug has changed as much as it's capacity to breed and and more surviving what used to be harsher winters.
I would love to see a hard frost with no snow and then some good -10* temps for 2 weeks straight. Then lots of snow.

 

[RatAssassin]

My son got Lyme last year and I’ve had several nasty bites in recent years with suspicious symptoms. Doc has given me antibiotics 3 times in as many years. It seems that ticks are more infected than in the past. In Wisconsin, I completely stopped hiking in June after removing more than 30 ticks from my body after a 2 hour hike. I missed a couple (or they attached later) and they burrowed into my skin on my back. It took two mirrors, a long sharp knife and some hemostats to dig them out in pieces. Years later my back still itches on one of those sites. I’m convinced ticks are sicker than before.

I hate ticks. Permethrin works well.
Just be careful how you apply it around your skin. Read those lables well.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I'm not convinced it is the cold winters that kill off the ticks. Rather, it is the deep snow and cold winters that keep the deer populations away. We are still in moose country, and deer are very rare, as are ticks. However, overall trends are warming, and deer have been moving into the area, they have been spotted locally, although they are still fairly rare. My chum's dog had a couple of ticks last year, first time I've seen it up here.
Thunder Bay and area are crawling in deer, and ticks. When I lived in Manitoba, ticks were thick as flies, so were the deer. Same for Nova Scotia. When we were high school kids, we went on a motorcycle/fishing/camping trip. After one walk through a grassy field to a stream, we were covered in ticks. I had to have one surgically removed from my head. My chum had one right next to his starfish, if you know what I mean. There were herds of deer in the area.

Do moose not have ticks? Or is it because there aren't nearly as many moose?

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Here it's mostly Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. A coworker of mine almost died from it. He was out of commission for a year, his formerly athletic physique had been reduced to skin and bones when he returned.

I'm extremely cautious about ticks. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to predict where and when they'll be a problem around here.

 

[Odyssey]

White Tailed Deer, Field Mice, and humans are the main blood hosts for Deer Ticks here in Ontario. But I think they will feed on any mammal .

 

[lowangle al]

Ticks are also supposedly carried by migrating birds. It's a wonder they aren't everywhere.
One time after returning to Ak. from a vacation in Pa. my wife found a tick on her head. She worked in a hospital at the time and the doctors were very interested in getting a look at it.

 

[memaquay]

Moose do and can carry ticks, but they don't carry the tick responsible for lyme disease. Also, when skinning out moose, it's rare to find ticks up here, whereas deer can be covered in them.

 

[Black_Fly]

So ticks don’t like moose blood? Discriminating lil suckers.

 

[tketcham]

Moose in New England get infested with winter ticks (Dermacentor albipictus) and there can be so many (10's of thousands) that young or severely infested moose can die from it. Luckily these ticks don't go for humans.

Winter ticks

 

[memaquay]

We are seeing incidents of winter ticks too. The moose population is declining in Northern Ontario, there is much speculation about the causes. One train of thought blames the expanding deer population and the spread of brain worm that they bring. Apparently white tailed deer can live with the brain worm, but the moose cannot. Of course, this is all caused by the general warming trend pushing its way north. We have new species showing up all the time. I have not personally seen a moose infected with brain worm or winter ticks, but I have friends who have. However, most of the moose up here are healthy, at least the ones I have seen or eaten.