Re: Seeing more ticks this years..

"Daniel B. Martin" <daniel88b88martin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:WZWdnbQiMKZn-9jVnZ2dnUVZ_rHinZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> me wrote:
>> "doctoroe" <doctoroe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
>>
news:6f0f186b-bff7-4936-b40b-3794a69cac1b@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>>>We are seeing more ticks this year than ever before. Lots of nymphs.
>>>Check yourself even after walking in grass. They seem to be everywhere.
>>
>>
>> No kidding. I have been using a tick drag behind the tractor on the 
>> trails around our property and the cloth has literally thousands of
them. 
>> I worry about Rocky Mountain Spotted fever and Lime (although I must be

>> immune to Lime by now)
>
> I, too, have seen more ticks this year.   I've pulled some off my
clothing 
> and
> some off my skin.
>
> Please elaborate on "tick drag."   Is this homemade or purchased?   Does

> it
> reduce the number of ticks on your land or merely serve as an informal 
> census?
>
> Daniel B. Martin
>

Hi Daniel,

To answer your question it both reduces the population (for a time) and 
serves as a census.

We share horseback riding trails cut with a bushog with two of our 
neighbors. The number of ticks on the horses, dogs and people this year 
seems many times worse than in recent memory.

When I bushog the trails, I drag a big piece of old flannel cloth spread
out 
behind the bushog (about four-five feet wide with a couple of sticks that 
form a crude frame to keep it spread out. I then either spray the cloth
with 
insecticide and use it again or on the final run I burn the cloth. It does

seem to reduce the tick population along the trails for a time. However 
after it rains we get a resurgence of ticks.

I would imagine that this method could be used in the garden too although
I 
have not tried it. The ticks seem to stick best to flannel.