PedalTrout

Has anyone else noted that the tick population seems to be smaller this year? Normally it's a full time job for me to pick them off myself and my dogs but this year I've only seen 4 on the dogs and 3 of them were dead. I really hope I'm not just imagining the decline.

I was thinking about that today when I was walking mocha in the woods. I haven't seen any on him but we're in the burbs now and don't get over to wrandees much, where I found more than one on him. I'll let you know if the situation changes out our way.

I've noticed that during the E2C I was almost tick free as opposed to two years ago when they took over my tent. Although at the Keji Adjunct some tourists have complained of large numbers on them and I've gotten at least two per day on me down there. I can't speak for the dog tick, but there is literature that shows that lyme disease and the deer tick are tightly correlated with mice populations and the masting cycle of oak trees (which don't mast every year). Could be other organisms in correlation to the dog tick creating a similar biannual (or other) cycle.

I never see any ticks. *knockonwood* I found one on the canine two years ago, but that's it. Maybe it's because I'm so ridiculously fast that they can't even touch me?

I've found 2 crawling on the dog so far this year, but none attached yet.

no problems with ticks , red ants on the other hand. pulled some rocks to do some armoring, noticed a shit load of them on the rock , arms and legs while carrying it to a spot. some made it under my clothes and snacked on me for a bit, lots of bites. let me put it this way, within 50 meters i was almost naked at full run. then i took big rocks and smashed their nest to oblivion and beyond. the black flies didn't bother me that much after that.

There has been a lot of comments regarding the lower infestation of ticks this year down this way and around Chester where I was today.