Co-worker hunt FYI

[DeanoB]

FYI -- my co worker got back from hunting today, he was around Hill City I thik somewhere south of Grand Rapids. He said the wood ticks are in full force, picked no less than 100 off his clothing, and driving back last night, his knee was hurting so he pulled over, to his amazement tick was burrowed right in, said he had no matches or lighter (non smoker) so he had to use the knife and some rubbing alcohol, pretty nasty hole in his knee. Oh and he shot 2 deer, a button buck and "muley looking" 4 pointer. His were the only deer taken sat-mon out of 4 people, sounds like there will only a handful of other deer seen by his group.

[BobT]

That's weird. Didn't see such a thing in the Hibbing area. Find it hard to believe they'd be active with the cold nights.

Bob

[DeanoB]

thats what we all said, I thought they were done at first frost, thought was strange, and aren't they dormant by now? who knows I guess, the little blood suckers have figured out there are hunters out in November.

[c&amagn]

I pulled off two deer ticks to this past weekend off my clothing. Pine River Area!!!

[NELS-BELLS]

They were thick East of Fort Ripley. Especially if you were walking in the thick swampy areas with grass. Plus they are so dang small that you cant hardly see them. The deer that we shot were covered with them.

[89Bronco]

I picked one off on Sunday afternoon. I'm in area 175 on the Iron Range. First time I've ever had one during deer season.

[RBuker]

A knife to remove a tick????? Wow. Hope he had a bullet to bite on.

[B@ssmaster]

I picked off two as well after a walk on Sunday.

Here's a story. A few years back remember when opener was butt cold? I took a nice 8 pointer that last weekend of the season in Zone 1, snow had been on the ground for a few weeks by then I think, but anyway, it was covered with ticks! And I mean covered. The second day of hanging in the garage I went out to start processing the deer and its hide was literally moving there were so many ticks on it! Without their blood supply they were coming off of it by the hundreds. It was horrible. I got that thing skinned and the hide disposed of as quick as I could, then I got the propane torch fired up and started killing all the ticks running around on the garage floor in a 10 foot circle, and there were a lot of them! Luckily they don’t move too fast when it’s that cold, and they didn’t get far from where they fell. Point being there was snow on the ground for almost two weeks and some major below freezing temps and the little buggers were still out in full force.....

A friend was just telling me that his taxidermist told him that it takes something like 10 days of -10 degrees to kill the ticks, so he puts all his furbearers in a special deep freeze at -30 for two weeks (or something like that, I forget the exact numbers) before he works on them. He thaws the hides then shakes the ticks off like shaking a rug outside....

I know being on a warm animal in those conditions is different that being out in the woods on some grass blade waiting for dinner to walk by, but still, I thought that was pretty impressive. They are tough little buggers.

So, I am not surprised to find a few running around this year, it hasn't been that cold yet.....

[sticknstring]

Wow. No wonder I've still been finding them on the dog... I figured a night with temps in the teens would've gotten rid of them but apparently not. Tough critters...

[fishermn]

Yeah, I can confirm that, we were in the area north of Emily two weekends ago, and we all ended up with ticks. One had to be surgically removed, several others were partially embedded. First time I have ever encountered deer ticks like that... I have been hunting a lot around home and have had no problems at all...

[vermilionwally]

I hunt area 175 too. Didnt find any ticks this weekend though. Or earlier this year grouse hunting either.

[analyzer]

couple of deer ticks in lanesboro.