# Ixodes warning



## cathead (May 14, 2022)

It's wood tick season again and it appears there will be lots of ticks in the woods this year at least in Minnesota, likely elsewhere too.  
A friend and I took a short walk in the woods and I had several Dermacentor"dog" ticks found on me and my friend had an Ixodes scapularis
crawling on him which is responsible for Lyme disease and several other scourges as well.    


The left photo is the common dog tick and the photo on the right is an Ixodes scapularis tick.    It's important to be able to recognize the difference between
them!  Another thing to note is that the nymph stages may be VERY small and virtually undetectable so check yourself well.  

These are the most common ticks at least in the upper midwest.  I am in Minnesota.


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## mmcmdl (May 14, 2022)

Only one thing I HATE worse than ticks ......................................black flies .  My property in the Adirondacks is loaded with both .


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## FOMOGO (May 14, 2022)

Pulled one off of myself last week. Not horrible around here, but definitely tis the season. Mike


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## Winegrower (May 14, 2022)

Supposed to go to Minnesota in August for a family reunion, but it’s not even my family.    Is fear of ticks an adequate excuse?


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## markba633csi (May 14, 2022)

For me it would be lol


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## savarin (May 14, 2022)

Think I will stick with our spiders.
and snakes
and sharks
and scorpions
and drop bears
and box jelly fish
and stone fish
and blue ring octopus
and crocs (not the shoes)
and sand flies, I hate sand flies.


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## woodchucker (May 14, 2022)

savarin said:


> Think I will stick with our spiders.
> and snakes
> and sharks
> and scorpions
> ...


Charles, you guys have quite a collection of things that can paralyze , and kill you. I am amazed at how beautiful Australia can be, and deadly even in the home.  I have watched many videos of paralysis ticks on dogs eventually killing them, and spiders and snakes in homes that can do the same to a human.. No thanks.. more power to you.


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## savarin (May 14, 2022)

We love to spruke them up but no denying some really are deadly but feed your dogs the tick treats and they are not a problem.
My biggest hate is sand flies, you dont feel them bite you but some time later when the itching starts its horrendous and for me it lasts 4 or more days. My treatment is to scratch till they bleed (actually You cant stop) then pour alcohol on them. The intense pain from that is better than the itch.
Mind you when a large huntsman runs across the floor your heart does miss a beat or two.


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## benmychree (May 14, 2022)

About the worst thing we can claim here are black widow spiders and rattlesnakes; we have it quite easy!


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## RJSakowski (May 14, 2022)

I had a deer tick embedded a week ago.  I managed to get it all out which is usually not the case.  I took two 100 mg doxycycline capsule's ans a preventative against Lyme disease.

Usually, an embedded deer tick bite takes four to six months to heal for me. Several friends and neighbors have contracted Lyme disease with severe consequences.  Once it reaches an advanced stage, it is nearly impossible to cure and can lead to permanent disability or even death so it is to be avoided at all costs.  Nasty!


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## woodchucker (May 14, 2022)

I've had Lyme's twice, both times I had Bells Palsey from it, and I could not see out of my eye... it would not focus, close... massive headaches from unequal muscle tension in the head, could not eat or drink normally.  Nasty little buggers.


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## markba633csi (May 14, 2022)

Charles may have drop bears but we have the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus!


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## mmcmdl (May 14, 2022)

I've watched that guy on TV with the River Monsters show for years ! Nothing he has found beats the boneless brown trout down Balto City near the treatment plant . Nasty things they are .


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## woodchucker (May 14, 2022)

mmcmdl said:


> I've watched that guy on TV with the River Monsters show for years ! Nothing he has found beats the boneless brown trout down Balto City near the treatment plant . Nasty things they are .


you sure they are brown trout, and not brown turds?


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## lordbeezer (May 14, 2022)

I’ve had Rocky Mountain spotted fever 3 times. Hard to get over. Around here the bad ticks have white dots. Don’t think there’s any good ones.


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## rabler (May 14, 2022)

While no fan of ticks, if I had a choice I think would do away with stink bugs first.


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## woodchucker (May 14, 2022)

Stink bugs don't cause death and disease like Ticks do.  Stink bugs are not parasites. My wife would agree with you, she hates them, I don't mind them. They are just a minor annoyance.


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## markba633csi (May 15, 2022)

Fleas, yuck. Mosquitoes, double yuck.
I had a pet stink beetle once.  It only stunk when I tried to pet it


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## cathead (May 15, 2022)

rabler said:


> While no fan of ticks, if I had a choice I think would do away with stink bugs first.



While there are a lot of insects I am not fond of, a lot of them are disappearing most likely due to the
overuse of insecticides.  Our lives depend on the subspecies beneath us so one must not be too
quick to exterminate them.  This area used to have tons of frogs but now they are not often seen.  
They are environmentally sensitive for one thing and also likely are being starved out since they
feed on the insect population.  I'm not a tree-hugger but it is best not to interfere with nature too much lest
we eradicate ourselves in the process.


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## Flyinfool (May 15, 2022)

I spend a lot of time in Villas County WI. Villas is one of the hottest spots in the USA for Lyme disease. To that end my doctor recommended a Lyme's disease vaccine for me. It was a series of 3 shots, 30 days apart. The vaccine is supposed to be good for life. Zero after effects from the shots themselves. I have been bit by many ticks over the years with no ill effects. When I asked if it really works, My doc said that if I never get Lyme's I will never know for sure if it worked or not, If I do get Lyme's then I will know it did not work. Not every tick regardless of species carries Lyme's, even in a Lyme's hot spot. So you could get bit by many and never get Lyme's, especially if you are in an area the not known for having Lyme's. 

There was one time we went for a short walk in a section of woods we had never been in before to scout for deer. It was only a half hour walk. When we came out the black and white dog was mostly brown. I thought she found a mud hole as that is a common thing for her to do. I started to clean her before she could get back in the truck and realized it was ALL ticks. We spent the next 2 hours cleaning literally hundreds of ticks off of the dog and each other. Every single one of those ticks died that day. We never went back to that area of the woods.

And then there are the Mosquitos that we grow hear in Wisconsin.....


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## cathead (May 16, 2022)

Did you mean mosquitos that we grow _*here* _in Wisconsin?


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## Jubil (May 16, 2022)

When I was a youngster, ticks were a good size problem in our area. We had about 5 different kinds along with chiggers (we called them red bugs) Seed ticks, yearling ticks, large speck back ticks, speck back ticks without the speck, and dog ticks (which were probably over filled speck backs).
The only ticks that I have seen in the last 20 years or so have been on the belly of an outdoor dog. I’ve been told that another pestilence that moved in is responsible for the reduction of ticks and the near elimination of our quail. Known as the Imported Fire Ant.  Not sure which is worse ants or ticks.
I guess there is some sort of critter everywhere that causes problems.


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## Flyinfool (May 17, 2022)

cathead said:


> Did you mean mosquitos that we grow _*here* _in Wisconsin?


Stupid auto correct......


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## cathead (May 18, 2022)

Flyinfool said:


> Stupid auto correct......


Maybe consider not using it...


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## cathead (May 18, 2022)

The latest annoyance is Asian beetles.  While not harmful, they are not very welcome in the house.  How they get
in I have no idea.  My neighbor has a lot more of then I do thankfully.  I'm sure the chickens are eating them so 
in a way I am eating since I have eggs for breakfast.  It's all good protein.


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## SLK001 (May 18, 2022)

If you want to control your tick problem, just get some African Guinea Fowl birds and let them clean up the tick mess (also grasshoppers, flies, crickets, etc.)


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## cathead (May 25, 2022)

SLK001 said:


> If you want to control your tick problem, just get some African Guinea Fowl birds and let them clean up the tick mess (also grasshoppers, flies, crickets, etc.)



That's a good thought, however it would only work for the immediate homestead area.  My activities of wood cutting and
things like morel hunting or metal detecting takes me miles from home.


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## rabler (May 27, 2022)

cathead said:


> The latest annoyance is Asian beetles.  While not harmful, they are not very welcome in the house.  How they get
> in I have no idea.  My neighbor has a lot more of then I do thankfully.  I'm sure the chickens are eating them so
> in a way I am eating since I have eggs for breakfast.  It's all good protein.


I haven't driven the Chevy in about a month due to the price of diesel.   Here's the accumulation of stink bugs on the dash in that period.   (Yes, the windows were up).  They are an invasive species with little natural predators, but apparently skunks eat them.  My wife and I joke that this is how the skunks recharge their spray  


We have considered guinea fowl for ticks.  The deer run the old fence line by our house, as that is a path between wooded areas,  and that keeps a high tick count between the house and the shop.   That fence line was at one time a property border between farm fields and was quite overgrown as is common for farms.  Don't want to cut out all the trees as it gives a nice privacy barrier on the east side of the house, but I've been working on cutting out the underbrush so I can keep it well trimmed.


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## mmcmdl (May 27, 2022)

They are back in full force here also Rab ! I used to swat them with a badmitten racket but it attracted MORE !


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## rabler (May 27, 2022)

mmcmdl said:


> They are back in full force here also Rab ! I used to swat them with a badmitten racket but it attracted MORE !


I save the badmitten racket for the carpenter bees.


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## mmcmdl (May 27, 2022)

rabler said:


> I save the badmitten racket for the carpenter bees.


We have them too ! They just showed up , but they are some biggins and need the raquetball rackets .


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## cathead (Jul 14, 2022)

The wood tick can be VERY small in the nymph stages.  I just removed one that was embedded under the skin and was
visible only as a tiny dark spot.  I would never have noticed it but for the itching.  It was about 1/4 the size of the head
of a pin, probably about .010 inch or so.  So far I have been unable to determine if it is an Ixodes tick or a Dermacentor.
I will take a better look with a microscope and see.  Also I will monitor the area where the tick was attached and watch
for any complications.


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## MikeInOr (Jul 14, 2022)

I have a new German Shepherd and I am concerned about protecting her from ticks.  How many people use FrontLine Plus or equivalent on there dogs?  There are a lot of deer around my place.  My understanding is that deer are a major distributor of ticks?






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## woodchucker (Jul 14, 2022)

MikeInOr said:


> I have a new German Shepherd and I am concerned about protecting her from ticks.  How many people use FrontLine Plus or equivalent on there dogs?  There are a lot of deer around my place.  My understanding is that deer are a major distributor of ticks?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Used to use Frontline, then went to another product, now I use Soresto collar. Good for 6months.


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## Flyinfool (Jul 14, 2022)

Yes deer do spread ticks. but if there is no Lyme in your area then the deer ticks will not have any Lyme to spread. I live in an area that has a lot of deer but has not had any signs of Lyme so the ticks are safe as far as Lyme is concerned. On the other hand the area I very often visit is one of the hottest Lyme spots in the country. The dog and I take a lot of precautions when we are there.
For the dog I use Simparica, a once a month chewable tablet. All of the ticks I find on the dog after a walk in the woods are already dead.


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## RJSakowski (Jul 14, 2022)

We use Brevecto on our dog.  In more than four years, I have only found one tick that bit him.  The trouble is, he will collect them and sometimes they don't drop off before he comes inside when there is a good possibility they will end up on me.  I have only had three bite in in the past four years.  I treat topically with iodine when I remove them and get a prescription for doxycline from my GP.  So far, I've managed to avoid Lymes.


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## woodchucker (Jul 14, 2022)

we used Frontline, then Vectra before Soresto... the 2 previous only worked once they were on him, but we found live Ticks using Vectra on him. The doc said it was supposed to prevent them to begin with, but it didn't... so we went with Soresto which appears to keep them off of him.  I like the preventive, vs the kill them after.


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