USE TICK SPRAY GUYS ...

[harbour]

I got complacent and was diagnosed with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever a month ago. Just plain dumb on my part. Broke out with raised red spots and went to my doctor asap. Put me on Doxcycycline right away. Blood test confirmed RMSF. The rash is gone and no further symptoms. I will be more diligent in the future and would encourage others to do the same.

[Huckleberry91]

I swear by Permethrin! I spray my gear down fairly heavy a few days before season and then my hunting buddy and I always keep a spray bottle in each truck so we can "freshen up" before each hunt. Didn't pick a one off me this year and they were heavy in my neck of the woods!

[HFultzjr]

Some nice info here and has links inside for more info:
Make sure you read the comments and check out some of the links........Lots of good info.
https://sectionhiker.com/permethrin-soak-method-guide/

[Spurchaser88]

Must have

[mhamby]

Tick-borne illness is some bad stuff. I've encountered folks with the red meat allergy in the field working as an EMT. The bad part is that anaphylaxis due to Alpha Gal is often delayed several hours and folks don't know why it happened by then, or think it's from something else.
I've also suffered through Lyme Disease, it's bad stuff. Being allergic to the antibiotics used to treat it made matters even worse.

I have a spray and remove routine that I practice religiously now.
I spray/pre-treat my clothing with Permethrin, cover my skin in safe to use repellant, upon returning my truck or camp, I strip down and change clothing.

[rakkin6]

I agree

1. Always use unscented body wash, typically leftover from deer season. Same with any clothing.

2. I wear 2 leafy suits throughout the season. Both get sprayed twice through the season with permetherine.

3. All base layers under leafy suit sprayed down with deer, arms, head, boots sprayed down with deet also. I do tuck base layer in boots but leafy suit stays outside. 

4. Little too for you guys that wear leafy suits. I wear OD Green doctors scrubs under mine. Most comfortable thing ever, you may laugh but they work great.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[76chevy]

https://sectionhiker.com/permethrin-soak-method-guide/

great info

[Turkeyman]

https://sectionhiker.com/permethrin-soak-method-guide/

Well, I use the 36.8% Martin's permethrin concentrate and dilute to .5% or generally .7%. It contains petroleum. I dampen all my turkey gear with my garden sprayer. Well...if there's any petroleum present I can't smell it...and that's good enough for turkeys...or deer in IMO. I've been doing this for several years and have yet to get a tick.

[lunghit]

I have been using Martins 10% Permethrin for many years now and the stuff works great. Today I was patterning my turkey gun and saw a tick crawling on one of my paper targets I had on the ground. For fun I picked it up and put it on my Permethrin treated boots and that thing couldn't get off me fast enough. Fell off one time and I placed it back on and that was it, fell off again and was on it's way out for good.

[TTG]

Today REALLY made me a believer. I've used it for a few years now and really haven't found ticks on me since. However, today was a true test while I had .05% Martin's mix and my buddy had nothing.

Buddy and I went to a new spot today, had a mile and a half walk in to the back of a big chunk of public. Most of it was through varying grasses, from ankle high to stomach high. We sat down at our first setup and in the span of about 10 minutes I watched him pull 6 or 7 off. Throughout the morning, he was constantly pulling them off his neck, arms, and legs. Get back to the truck and we pull 6 off the outside of his shirt, 7 off his back and stomach attached to skin, and 2 or 3 on the car ride home. Overall, I would confident say he had 25 or so on him.

Now, the whole morning I was paranoid. Yes I've used this mix before and have had good results. But with the ridiculous number of ticks he pulled off him this morning I was fully expecting to still find a couple. Get home, strip and do a good search...0 ticks. Never saw one on me all morning either. I honestly was shocked but super excited to see that first hand. I did tuck my shirt into my pants and my pants into my socks which I'm sure made a big difference too. Color me impressed.

[scattergun]

I know I'm the odd man out, but I had no luck with Permethrin at all. It must have been Sawyer, I bought a yellow spray bottle, and sprayed all my clothes and boots. Didn't do anything. I still had ticks. I tried really getting my clothes soaking, and dried them. No change. Maybe the stuff works the same day or two, but it sure doesn't work a week or two later. It doesn't do anything for mosquitoes except make sure they bite you in the face.

About the only stuff I've found to work for sure is 99+% deet bug spray. The only problem is that stuff melts things it shouldn't Shirt graphics, plastic, camo on your shotgun. There ain't no chance that the stuff is safe to put on your body (even if you try and get it on clothes only). I don't care what the short term studies say, anything as volatile as that will kill you eventually if you use it every day. It's better than west nile, so I use it when I have to.

The only bug repellant I use anymore is a Thermacell. They are a godsend. They aren't 100% on ticks, but it sure seems better than permethrin to me. Maybe it's just me, but unlike the guy who claims to have been bitten by ticks 35 times, as if that's a lot, I have no clue how many I've had. I pick them off when I feel them, and check myself when I can. No big deal. Ticks have the ability to carry nasty things, but I've not seen anything that shows they are as bad as mosquitoes. I've known one person to get Lymes, and while it looked like it hurt for a few days with some medicine, that was that. I have no idea how that guy earlier in the thread can claim to have some after effects 30 years later. West Nile on the other hand is bad news. Best case you are diagnosed with a test, and recover on your own eventually. The first time I heard of a spinal tap was from a west nile case.

I don't mean to downplay the horrible diseases you can get from ticks, but what are the actual odds of catching them? 50 to 1 vs a bad mosquito disease? A quick search shows there are somewhere around 20-25 cases a year of this AGS disease, and something like 2000 of west nile. Which one am I more worried about?

As bad as AGS sounds, it looks like symptoms go away in time. West nile has a shockingly high motility rate.

[Notsoyoungturk]

As an ER doc, tickborne illnesses sit high on our radar during the season.  Here are a few facts about tickborne diseases that you can use to make your own decisions about tick protection.

1. Cases of tickborne illnesses are at a record high and have doubled in some locations over the last 2 decades.  Cases of Lyme disease have tripled.  We don't know the exact amount because a large portion of cases go unreported or unrecognized.

2.  Over the last 2 decades, 7 new tickborne germs have been found that cause disease and more are on the way.  We are also finding new tick species in the US.  These germs will eventually explain disease processes for people who have had tick exposures but test negative for Lyme, RMSF, Erlichiosis, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Tularemia, etc...

3.  The range for ticks causing disease seems to be expanding.  Part of this expansion may be increased awareness of tick diseases, better recognition of disease symptoms and increased testing.

4.  Alpha-gal allergy - I hunt in an area where tick bites can cause alpha-gal allergy.  Affected people become sensitized to alpha-gal and can have reactions to beef, pork, lamb, gelatins, certain candies and milk.  These reactions can range from mild to more serious but some people have to almost completely avoid these products.

Everyone has heard the old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; these illnesses fall into that category.    Good hunting and stay safe.

[DMTJAGER]

Bit of a tic report.
Just finished five days of IL's turkey opener hunted southern portion of the northern third of the state and 90% of the time temps were in the low 40's one day in the 50's and one day in the mid 60's and yes the tics were active. Found 3 on my person and picked off over a dozen I found crawling on my legs or forearms.

[Turkeybutt]

Used Sawyers for years but since reading various input here about Permethrin I now use it and mix my own. So much cheaper!
I still keep a can of Sawyers in the truck to touch up my boots or hat before going into the woods.
It pays to be safe!

[kayl]

I turkey hunted for the first time this spring and sprayed my stuff, never ran into any ticks, but it was pretty cold out. I don't normally treat my deer stuff, do you guys and have you noticed any odor issues?