Ticks remain a threat to hunters throughout fall

It’s almost enough to make a deer hunter lose their appetite.

We’ve all experienced it. We’ve hung the deer we just killed on the skinning rack. As we make the first cuts to dress the deer, we notice ticks coming off the animal in waves. There are big ticks, little ticks and sizes in between. There are also the swollen gray ticks that were soon to drop off and deposit their offspring.

It’s disgusting. It’s also why you should clean and skin your deer where you shot it instead of transporting it home and importing ticks into your yard to victimize your pets and family.

Of course, it took us awhile to get here, too. We had to load the deer onto a game cart or four-wheeler, and we might have taken some time to pose for photos. We got delayed even more if we had to look for a deer that ran after being shot. Ticks will disengage from a host almost immediately after blood stops circulating, but you will notice a lot more of them evacuating as the body cools.

Because of our temperate climate and our abundance of hosts and suitable habitat, ticks are an ever-present threat in Arkansas. They are more than just annoying. They can also carry diseases that be debilitating and even life- threatening. These include Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease and alpha gal syndrome.

For all of these reasons, Brian Anderson of Iron Mountain, Mich., hates ticks. He calls himself the Tick Terminator, and his mission is to spare the public from the predations of these horrible creatures.

I know that ticks probably serve some ecological purpose, but none that’s worthwhile. Nobody would miss them if they disappeared from the earth, but they’re probably among the few creatures that would survive nuclear holocaust. It’d serve them right, too, because there wouldn’t be anybody to victimize.

Unfortunately, among the most vulnerable are hunters and anglers, because we are most likely to come in contact with them.

“Ticks are pretty much a problem anyplace where there’s woods because they prey on us if were out there,” Anderson said. “They look for blood. They eat one time a year. All we can do is prepare and protect ourselves and try to avoid them if we can. They’re not going away.”

According to Anderson, a female tick gives deposits 1,000-5,000 eggs at a time. The eggs hatch in summer, and their first meal is usually from a mouse or, in the South, a skunk.

“They’re close to the ground,” Anderson said. “When they’re fresh born, they’re right on the ground. They couldn’t get on anything much bigger.”

The trouble starts there. “They get tick borne diseases from the host,” Anderson said. “They suck blood for couple days, drop off and go dormant. They grow a couple more legs.”

The ticks become active again in the spring. They’re about the size of poppy seeds.

They don’t have to be full grown to be problem,” Anderson said. “At that age they can pass on a tick-borne disease if they got that from a host.”

The larval ticks continue to grow. The following spring, they often attach to deer and mate. They often climb high on grass blades and extend their legs to catch a ride on a passing mammal. It’s called “questing behavior.”

After gorging on blood, the female drops off, deposits her eggs and dies. The males die, too.

Rapid intervention is the key to minimizing the effects of tick-borne illness. It’s better all around if taken precautions to prevent them from biting you in the first place. Anderson said, and I agree, that permethrin is the best preventative. It fries a tick’s crude nervous system and often kills them before they can drop off.

I treat my turkey hunting clothes with permethrin. While sitting on the ground in the spring, I’m a prime target for ticks. I’ve watched them climb onto my legs, spin around as if disoriented and die. It’s almost as satisfying as killing a gobbler.

“Permethrin is a contact repellent,” Anderson said. “It’s odorless when it’s dry. Hunters like that because they don’t want any odor in the woods. I work with a lot of pros that use it, linemen, outdoor workers and the like.”

It also remains in the fabric after repeated washings.

Anderson sells permethrin concentrate. It makes quarts of repellent for what you might pay for a single can at a retailer.

For more information, visit thetickterminator.com.