Pheasants and tics - Response to comment

Sorry to whoever posted the question asking if pheasants will eat ticks. I got fumble fingered and accidentally deleted that comment.

As I understand it, gallinaceous birds eat insects including ticks. Gallinaceous birds include grouse, pheasant, turkeys, quail, partridges etc.

The downside is that the birds can also be hosts for ticks to some extent. However, there is evidence that the presence of birds will reduce the tick population significantly. You can get some info on that study from Mother Earth News

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Livestock-and-Farming/2003-10-01/Go-Ahead-Get-Guineas.aspx

Ticks up one's nose and scotch tape.

In spite of all of our precautions, I felt a tick on me while I was in bed the other day. As I sat up, the darn thing fell of my arm and onto my nostrils. For a moment, I had visions of it going up my nose. I have no idea how I would have gotten it out at that point. Fortunately it didn't go up a nostril. We have off white bedsheets so it was easy to spot.

The question now was how to execute the critter. I couldn't find my needlenose pliers and killing it with a lighter on the bedsheets was out of the question... There was a roll of transparent office tape handy. It's great for trapping a tick. You just slam it down on the critter and fold it over. It can't move it's legs, so it can't escape. Also, you don't have to handle it and incur the risk of any diseases that might be on it. Still, its a good idea to wash your hands afterwards.

Did some tick-dragging this weekend.

Tick dragging is the process of taking a piece of cloth. Flannel is often recommended, but denim should work as well as an old bath towel.

The idea is that you drag it over the grass and leaves and then count how many ticks end up on it.

It can be something very simple. I took half of an old bath towel and stapled that to a 1 x 11/2" board. I put an eye bolt in the middle since I had a broom handle with a hook at the end. It was pretty easy to drag. If you are doing your property, you don't need to use a whole square yard. Something smaller will also work.

Our property is 2 1/2 acres. It took about 30 minutes to cover a good sample of it at a slow walk.


I found a dog tick right near the pool filter. I had a deer tick on my leg a week before. Well, that area got scalped when I cut the lawn. (shorter grass makes a less hospitable environment for ticks) I didn't find any in the open, sunny, short grass parts of the property. I found one in the leaves. When I went through the woods I found about a half dozen clinging to it.

With the smaller drag, you can also pass it easily over bushes, shrubs and small trees.


Thoughts

• I have a little CO2 duster that uses the cartridges for an air gun. I've heard that ticks are attracted to CO2 so I'll try spraying the cloth before starting out next time.
• I have to read the labels on permethrin. I'm wondering if it is OK/legal to spray the cloth with permethrin. The guineas and chickens hardly ever go into the woods. I'm thinking about making up a cloth that I can tow behind the tractor and go throught the woods (about an acre) once a month or so. I just have to make sure that it is in compliance with the federal labelling. The thought is that you can get the ticks to cling to the cloth where they get a fatal dose of permethrin, but the residual that goes onto the ground should be minute.
• Our tick control is working to a degree. We were down to one guinea this year. We now have 8 adolescent guineas roaming (4 on any given day) and 4 chickens. We also use the tick tubes and have tried to keep the deer out as much as possible. There hardly seems to be any squirrels this year, but the fox does look fat. Anyway, the tick dragging, when done in a consistent manner, can provide a baseline tick cencus for you.
• It will be interesting to try this at a neighbor's house who does not have birds.

Tips

• Be careful. Ticks are heat seekers. If you are touching the cloth or wood, there is a good chance of getting ticks on you. Use plenty of repellant and keep checking yourself, especially your hands.
• Deer ticks are, of course, tiny, You have to look closely as they tend to start burrowing into the cloth very quickly
• Don't bring the cloth back into your home or shop since it may have ticks you missed.

Picked up some quail today

We picked up 20 quail today from Davis Feedmill in Richland (bucks county). There were $1.95 each. They are about the size of your thumb when you get them.

I have them in the hutch with a heatlamp. I can see that changing the feed and water will be a challenge. The little guys think they are minature roadrunners. I had three jump out just putting them in.

The plan is to keep them in the hutch until they are fully feathered out and then release them. Hopefully they will stay nearby. Quail are natural predators of ticks.

Reduce Lyme by reducing Deer

Solebury is going to pay to have the Department of Agriculture thin out the deer herd. The main reason for the herd thinning appears to be the damage to crops.

However, deer are one of the key factors in the spread of deer ticks and Lyme Disease (and other tick born diseases). If you can reduce the deer population, you should be also reducing the prevelance of Lyme.

Solebury is far enough from Philadelphia that they probably won't have a large problem with people complaining about the hunt. It's about 45 minutes from the city and is more of a rural community.

We live much closer to the city but the deer herd is very large. Last evening we were eating dinner and a large deer wandered through the yard about 75 feet from us. We've fenced in the entire 2 1/2 acres in an attempt to keep the deer out and thereby reduce the ticks. There are a couple of places that need patching. I see up to 5 or 6 deer at a time just outside the fence. Keep in mind that we are only 10 minutes outside the city.

We need to control the herd in our township. The problem is that, the closer you are to the city, the less people understand the need for deer control. Meanwhile the Lyme Disease epidemic continues to rage.

Sharpshooters
hired to target deer (phillyBurbs.com) Intelligencer:

"Solebury has inked a more than $250,000 contract to winnow its deer
population with sharpshooters.
The no-bid contract calls on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to kill whitetail deer, mostly at night, through the use of “suppressed rifles with high expansive ammunition, along with the aid of stands, vehicles, artificial light, night vision equipment and forward-looking infrared.”

The goal is to reduce crop and other property damage, as well as
the risk of disease from today's large deer population. "