Ticks on game?

[BumbleShot]

How often do you see ticks on your game animals?  I'm especially curious about hares, and g-hogs.  Or deer and the deer tick for that matter.

Do you folks worry about ticks on the carcasses?  Lime disease?

Ever find 'em on you under your socks or elsewhere?

[SDale]

See em all the time. Less  in the winter.

I don't worry about em too much. Most, if not all of em kinda make their way off the carcass after a half hour or so when it startes to get cold.

[longislandhunter]

I see em all the time too, but like Sam said most of start to leave the body once it starts to cool .  As for do I worry about them??  No, not really.  I roll up my sleeves and as I skin the animal I am constantly checked my hands and arms.  If I see a tick I get rid of it immediately.  I skin the animal as quickly as I can and dispose of the pelt.  Once that's done you don't have to worry about the ticks.  I also do 2 other things,,,, the first is at the end of the hunting day I will check myself thoroughly just in case I missed any ticks, the second thing is that every 6 months I get a blood test for lymes disease.  Getting tested just once is not good enough as it's possible to have lymes and yet have a blood test show negative, you need to get tested periodically.

I also do a couple of things in the field that helps also.  I use a tick repellent with as high a concentration of "DEET" as I can find and spray my boots, socks and lower pant legs.  I also attach a flea collar around each ankle under my pants (on top of my sock),,,, this keeps any ticks from getting past my ankles.  

Ticks and Long Island go hand in hand.  If you want to hunt on Long Island you have to deal with ticks, it's as simple as that.  Some areas are infested, some areas are practically tick free.  Extreme cold weather helps as they start to go dormant, although even in the coldest weather they will latch onto you if you brush up against em.  However if you take the necessary precautions your chances of actually getting lymes is significantly less.  

Jeff.  

BTW..... one particularly good product I've found is called "No Stinkin Bugs".  I have like 20 cans of the stuff (there was a sale and I stocked up).  It comes in "fall" scent and  scent free versions, but I like the scent free stuff especially for bowhunting.  You can usually pick it up at any good archery shop and I think Walmart has it.  This stuff has worked phenomenal for me.  I've hunted in thick brushy areas that I know are infested with ticks and this stuff kept all the ticks off me.  I swear by it....

Jeff

[only1harry]

I see ticks and flees on the critters now & then.  You just have to check yourself frequently and most bug or tick repellents work well.

I live in an area that has one of the highest Lyme Disease occurances.  Both my wife & I had Lyme disease.  My wife caught it early on because she got really sick right away and the red rash/ring was still in the back of her leg.  1 month of antibiotics and she was all cured.  I myself on the other hand, did not get sick right away (never saw the tick), nor did I get a "rash on my skin anywhere.  Almost 1/2 the people do not get a rash or exhibit any signs of sickness for several months.  There are different types of ticks and variations of Lyme disease.  When I started not feeling like myself and had joint pains, etc. I went to the doctor and the blood test came back negative!  About a month later I went to a different doctor and he sent the samples out to a special Lab on the West coast where they culture the blood for 24-48hrs before running the tests - and it came back POSITIVE!  So not all the labs do the tests right and most doctors are clueless and ignorant that there are good labs and bad.  Most Lab companies don't "culture" the blood long enough, only for a couple of hours so they don't get accurate results.  It's cheaper for them to do so.  The doc said I most likey got bit 1yr before I went to see him.  I was on different antibiotics for about a year and still don't think I have gotten rid of it although the doc thinks I did.

In any case you just have to check yourself everytime you 're outdoors or before you walk into the house, and then check yourself once you have taken your clothes off.  The best thing to do is use a Tick repellent on your pants & shoes before you head out.

[shadow]

I do the same thing that Jeff does and when I get home I toss my hunt gear in my shop washer and head for the tub myself. I haven't spotted any tics on my harvest yet but seen those fleas moving around. Ed