# Spring hunting and woodticks



## buckseye

Spring hunting and wooodticks. Are the ticks as bad everywhere in the state as they are here? Last year I wrote MSU Botno about the effect of fire on woodticks trying to gain interest in some type of burning program to get back to the natural cycle of these little bastards.

Glenda sent me alot of information about how the Native Americans always used fire to control unwanted bugs and plants. It is a proven practice and needs to be looked at again. I have been studying this since the Feds come up with their burn team and are always practicing starting and putting out fires. It could very well be their calling rather than the large forest fires that require alot of experience.

Are you interested in anything like this Doug? I hope so, we are at plague levels of woodticks. Many people are at risk and many have stopped spring hunting/recreation because of them.


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## njsimonson

I usually don't encounter ticks until May 1, but then...boy do they come out in force. My buddies and I walked around Clausen springs on Memorial day and must have picked up 500 ticks between us...talk about getting "the crawls" UGH!

What we need is a winter-hardy gamebird that looks good, tastes great and subsists wholly on woodticks!


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## dleier

I actually had the Forest Service on the radar screen for a couple other topics. Thanks for the idea. I'll give them a call this AM


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## buckseye

Thanks dleier...I sure hope something can be done and I appreciate you taking time to look into this. nj those birds would be so fat they would total out our cars if we hit one.

I came across two moose that died from ticks out in the refuge last year, it makes ya feel like running the hell outa there, even the predaters stayed away from the dead moose. You just can't imagine what that looks like.

The refuge here does alot of controlled burns for various reasons. I try to do most of my hiking in the most recently burned areas I will not have a single tick on me from areas that have been burned within a year or so. Then in the second year it is only a few, but wow unburned areas are terrible.


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## njsimonson

Yeah, like we don't have a deer-car problem already...those would be some fat birds.

Ugh, it's February and I'm already getting that phantom crawl feeling. One of the weirdest feelings is waking up in the middle of the night and scratching your leg and feeling that bump, or sensing that tickle on your neck and knowing it's a tick. Parasites creep me out!


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## buckseye

Hey dleier...any news on the woodticks? I see the head honcho for the burn team all the time, but I don't know him. He works out of the JClark Salyer NWR.

Sure would be good for spring hunting and recreation, specialy for little kids, if we could get rid of a bunch of those sneaky little woodticks.


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## drayweb

I used 100 percent deet last year and had no problems with ticks. I sprayed it all over my boots and pants and was sitting in the heaviest cover imagineable. I let my dog out of the vehicle for a few minutes, and she was covered with them.


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## Chemo

I used a product from Repel called Permanone, this stuff was awesome! We did a turkey hunt in south eastern Minnesota early in April and didn't get any ticks. In the niddle of March we scouted the land and pulled a number of ticks off after scouting but a few days before hunting I used this Permanone stuff and sprayed my clothes then after spending four days hunting I didn't get any ticks.

How are the North Dakota Turkey hunts? I only get drawn for a license in Minnesota about every other year so I am looking for a place to hunt every year.


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## dblkluk

Sorry Man! No non-res turkey tags available.


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