Ticks

[gatheringsheds]

I live in Colorado, most of my days shed gathering are at about 8-9000 feet of elevation. I've been scraping lots of the little buggers off my horse. I've been using permethrin on my gaiters and some deet sprayed on my pants. I'll still find a few charging up my leg regardless of the chemicals I'm using. How do you deal with these potential fever carrying parasites?

 

[bonepicker]

Well I have a pet cattle bird that rides on my shoulder and he flies around and picks the bugs and ticks off of me.

No, I just pick them off my clothes by hand (you can see them real well on light brown Carhartts) and wash my clothes right when I get home. I still have had a few tick bites over the years but I usually find them the next day and can just pull them off before they can really get burrowed in. No Lyme disease yet

 

[BLooDTRaCKeR]

What Bonepicker said. I have come home with a few over the years as well. Wife hates when I go shed hunting because of a experience I had a few years ago. I came home and walked in the house with some elk sheds not really thinking about ticks. I took my clothes off inthe house and layed my pack down in the living room. The next day there was a tick on my 1 yr old boys forehead, another in our bed, one burrowed into my leg. I went out to my truck about 4 days later after it had been sitting out in the hot sun and found a ton of dead ticks on the seats and floor of the truck! Wife was not happy with me that year. I have since learned to take care of my clothes outside and come into the house naked! I leave it all on the back porch for a week!

 

[bonepicker]

Haha! That happened once and that's when my wife said that the clothes go directly from me into the washer and I go directly to the shower. She's not a fan of ticks, to put it mildly. The system works well, we haven't had a tick in the house since, quite a few in the dryer's lint screen though.

 

[SoleSearcher36]

>Haha! That happened once and that's
>when my wife said that
>the clothes go directly from
>me into the washer and
>I go directly to the
>shower. She's not a fan
>of ticks, to put it
>mildly. The system works
>well, we haven't had a
>tick in the house since,
>quite a few in the
>dryer's lint screen though.
>

Great suggestion bonepicker......hafta try that system myself!

 

[hunts2much]

When I hunt turkeys i used to come home with ticks all the time. The wife did not like ticks in the house to put it mildly. I tried different things no great success. I tried no stinking ticks spray and I have never found another tick on me.

 

[toughshed]

> I have since
>learned to take care of
>my clothes outside and come
>into the house naked!
>I leave it all on
>the back porch for a
>week!

Hahahaha...bet your mother-in-law is surprised when you come strolling in from the garage...hahahahaha

I worry alot more about the little kids than full-grown kids. Tick fever can devastate the little ones fast and easily mis-diagnosed. Check your kids REALLY good after those shed hunting trips.