Visit our Popular Forums

sailorboy1 · 31-05-2010, 17:15

Found 2 ticks on the boat during the weekend. I THINK they blew onto the boat but..... A couple of weeks ago a had one on my back and blamed the cat.

Anyone experienced ticks blowing off land onto the boat?

**skipmac** · 31-05-2010, 17:36

I would blame the cat again. You mention a cat so assume you have one on board? Does the cat leave the boat? Brushy area or grass nearby?

sailorboy1 · 31-05-2010, 18:13

no cat on board, ever

was moored in the lee of an island

Chief Engineer · 31-05-2010, 18:14

Another reason not to have free range cats.

I hate Ticks

Deer Ticks are the worst....Lyme Disease and all that.

RedBellies · 31-05-2010, 18:35

Deer ticks are pretty bad this year. I've had 4 so far and I think one came from the boat. It is slipped in a cove with overhanging trees. If you get them off in the first 24 hours there is little chance of Lyme infection. Deet for the skin, permethrin for the clothes. I know Deet is bad but Lyme is worse.

**skipmac** · 31-05-2010, 18:59

Ok, no cat. Have never heard of ticks blowing in the wind. Spiders yes.

What has happened to me a couple of times is ticks got on my clothes when I was in the woods and jumped off in my truck. The next day I got in the truck and they jumped back on me.

So, since there is no cat, have you been walking in the brush?

Brogan007 · 31-05-2010, 19:40

Ha ha ha...you guys crack me up. We live on a farm in NC, and for 3 months each spring...Apl-Jun, we pull 6-10 ticks off our bodies every time we walk the dogs in the woods.
The dogs get Frontline and only have a few ticks each week.
We HATE ticks...but like many issues with where you live...you either put up with it, or move.
After 10 yrs or so, no disease issues, just a whole lot of scratching where the little bastards bite you.
They are disgusting.

Bash · 31-05-2010, 20:58

the deer tick life cycle progresses through three stages (larva, nymph and adult) over a two-year period. The adults latch on to prey after waiting on either grass stalks or leaf tips, waiting for the prey--preferably deer--to pass by.

They don't leap. They don't fly. They are not wind-borne.

Nymphs, on the other hand, drop off their hosts once they have engorged. A nymph is about the size of a poppy seed. If you found nymphs, rather than adults, on your boat, chances are good that it was transported there by a bird, and then dropped off. Or a raccoon?

Larva are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Chances are that if they're on your boat, you have not seen them. Not yet, anyway.

**skipmac** · 31-05-2010, 21:09

Bash,

I swear I saw a tick jump about 3" from the arm rest of my truck onto my arm. If it wasn't a jump it was a really, really fast crawl that spanned an air gap. Any entomologists in the crowd to comment?

Stillraining · 31-05-2010, 21:10

We sort of lost count after pulling 125 of them off one of my hunting dogs several years ago...It was late April in Eastern Washington and she must have went through a mass infestation of them as she was only out on a run for 30 min or less.

We first noticed two crawling up a chair in the Motorhome and then that night the dog just started shaking...we new something was up but it wasn't till my daughter screamed an hour later at a lump on the back of her neck that we put two and two together.

Kids are still freaked out about ticks to this day...Im no sympithiser of them either.

Bought and set off a couple bombs in the MH at the next town...that got em.

sailorboy1 · 01-06-2010, 03:59

These weren't Deer Ticks, just the regular little suckers. Ever notice just how tough and hard to kill they are!

Both that we found were in the cockpit. The first one we put down to having gone into the flower garden 8 hours prior to get the cat before leaving for the boat. But the next one I found when reaching for my wine glass and found it on the rim of the glass (waiting for me to drink it). I just can not figure out a way other than the wind that that second one could suddenly be on the top of my wine glass.

If it hadn't been that I had one on my back and that the spot got infected a few weeks ago I probably wouldn't be as freaked. But now of course I worry that the suckers are on the boat. Maybe time to bug bomb it just to be safe.

mintyspilot · 01-06-2010, 04:57

Sheep ticks are big suckers, especially when gorged with blood. Putting a lit match against their butts is usually the easiest way to get them off.

DeepFrz · 01-06-2010, 05:55

eeew, maybe the deadly spotted tick?

fishwife · 01-06-2010, 07:44

Hi Don,

I could write a long discourse on ticks but the essentials are that they don't jump or fly. To be wind bourne, you'd need some fairly strong winds, strong enough to overcome the ticks hold on the grass etc. and then keep it airborne.

For more than you probably want to know about ticks see Tick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

P.