Tick SOP's

[Tim.243]

A tray would stop them better than doing nothing at all, as has been mentioned by a few people

Better the tray has a fine mesh lid than "boil in a bag"
Any way do you know what winter beans look like now!

 

[SHARIF]

You sound a bit paranoid.
How many ticks did you find on your body after the guided stalks you went on? Probably none. Certainly I doubt it was enough to justify going to such extremes.
You pick up ticks from vegetation, when they are "questing" in search of a host. As another poster has said, you're just as likely to pick them up while waking the dog as you are when stalking.
Some people seem to attract ticks, and some don't. What type are you?
I've worked all my life in a tick environment, every day. And handled a lot of infested cattle, sheep, deer and goats. So far, I've had just one tick on my body. Yes, you read that correctly, just one, in a lifetime. And I don't take any precautions to prevent them. In fact, I don't even think about it.

I would say, be aware of the risks, see how it goes, take proportional precautions depending on how attractive you are, and don't over think it.

I actually got my first ever tick on my first ever stalk! In fact, it was technically before the stalk while doing some pre-stalk marksmanship coaching! But I take your point Thank you

 

[VSS]

I actually got my first ever tick on my first ever stalk! In fact, it was technically before the stalk while doing some pre-stalk marksmanship coaching! But I take your point Thank you

Ok, so they obviously like you! Perhaps some precautions are justified!

 

[SHARIF]

Having had Lyme disease, you absolutely should be concerned about ticks.

Its a multi pronged attack.

1) treat your stalking clothing with Permethrin Spray. Life systems does a good one and since I attract very few ticks.

Buy several tick hooks, cards etc. have them in the bathroom and in your kit

2) use a good insect repellent- I use Smidge - on my skin - particularly hands, arms and around your ankles, waist and neck.

3) have a good anti nitts, hair lice and insecticidal shampoo. Failing that good old fashioned coal type soap.

4) when stalking try and avoid the deep long grass and bracken. Often sitting is a more productive option any how. If you do sit, sit on a log, seat etc. or the game bag inside a roe sack.

5) choose your shots wisely and don’t be in a rush. Let the deer come into the open and shot to drop them on the spot. This makes things very much easier. Trying to extract out of deep timber, bracken etc is bloody hard work. Sitting and waiting is not. I would far rather sit and wait an extra 20 minutes than spend 2 hours in the dark in deep woods and bracken trying to find a deer.

6) on an initial inspection look at the deer carefully. In my experience deer with a heavy parasite load are often in very poor condition - skinny, showing signs of mange etc etc - question whether you actually want to put it into the food chain or just dispose of it.

7) I see no issues in skinning in field. In UK you will get many nay sayers, but it is common practice elsewhere. Do have some good breathable game bags - old pillow cases to protect the meat from getting grubby. And get the meat cooled sooner rather than later. Skinned quarters will cool quicker than a whole carcass in skin. If you want to sell carcass it has to remain whole and in skin.

8) have a couple of bin bags in your pack - use these to remove skin and remaining bones etc if needs be.

9) wash your hands, arms etc as soon as practical after gralloching etc

10) a plasterers bath, trugg or old fishbox all work well in back of a car or SUV transport a carcass.

11) once finished shower and use the insect repelling shampoo all over, especially in the parts where sun doesn’t shine. And do this again a few hours later. And check for ticks. If you find any remove them with a tick card, tick hooks etc.

Ticks need to be sttached for a while to pass across the Lyme Boreallis bacteria. If you remove quickly you will few effects. Worst is to leave them and then try and tug or burn them off. They will vomit into your blood passing all the bacteria.

12) be very aware of Lyme disease symptoms - more details

Lyme Disease Action — Lyme Disease Action: The longest established UK charity working on Lyme disease and tick-borne diseases. Accredited to the UK quality mark PIF Tick for trustworthy information.

Heym, I like the way you think! I am absolutely willing to put more effort into prevention than deal with issues later. I've heard some horror stories about Lyme and am in no rush to experience it or have my family get it. I hope you have fully recovered Thank you for your very helpful advice and perspective on skinning in the field. It does seem to be standard practice in many other countries.

 

[SHARIF]

Better the tray has a fine mesh lid than "boil in a bag"
Any way do you know what winter beans look like now!

I was thinking about that too... maybe a sealable box but cut a 'window' into the lid and cover with a super-fine mesh.

 

[jcampbellsmith]

I've worked all my life in a tick environment, every day. And handled a lot of infested cattle, sheep, deer and goats. So far, I've had just one tick on my body. Yes, you read that correctly, just one, in a lifetime. And I don't take any precautions to prevent them. In fact, I don't even think about it.

This is a fascinating point that bears further investigation. My father spent nearly 75 years working with sheep, cattle, deer and forestry. He didn't seem to get bothered by ticks either. Whether it was exposure to sheep dips or not, we will never know. However his spaniels did pick up ticks.
Regards
JCS

 

[Tim.243]

I was thinking about that too... maybe a sealable box but cut a 'window' into the lid and cover with a super-fine mesh.

If you can fit a plasters bath in the back I would get some mesh curtain 2/3 long bungee cords or a length of catapult tubing and make a big rubber band to seal the mesh over the bath.
No tick burden my neck of the woods but I can assure you I would have something in place other than a bag....
I would have an ally frame with a fine mesh screen or take the mesh curtain and get my niece to run my up a cover with heavy duty elastic in a "hem" to fit. It is not hard just you need to work out what works best for yourself.

 

[VSS]

This is a fascinating point that bears further investigation. My father spent nearly 75 years working with sheep, cattle, deer and forestry. He didn't seem to get bothered by ticks either. Whether it was exposure to sheep dips or not, we will never know. However his spaniels did pick up ticks.
Regards
JCS

I think, after a lifetime of pouring various chemicals onto my sheep to control ticks, I'm probably pretty well impregnated with the stuff!
(When my kids were at primary school,and always coming home with headlice, I never used to catch them either).

 

[Heym SR20]

This is a fascinating point that bears further investigation. My father spent nearly 75 years working with sheep, cattle, deer and forestry. He didn't seem to get bothered by ticks either. Whether it was exposure to sheep dips or not, we will never know. However his spaniels did pick up ticks.
Regards
JCS

I did have the people behind Smidge as clients for a while. Their whole business is on insect control and prevention of insects spreading disease. They did a lot of work with students and midges, whereby the put students in a room full of midges. With some students thrre was no response whatsoever from midges, with others midges swarned all over but hardly got bitten, and others were eaten alive.

My father spent a large portion of his working life as irrigation engineer in the tropics. In and around water with lots bilharzia and malarial mosquitoes. He never got bothered by either. Yet malaria is one of the biggest killers. Others such as myself seem to be very attractive to such things and I had bad malaria in my early 20’s, then picked up LYme disease about 12 years ago. I did get over both and got back to high levels of fitness.

There seem to be a number of these long term fatigue inducing illnesses. They have rather been overlooked by modern science, yet can be truly dibilitating. If you go back to early literature there is a lot of reference to the laziness of the locals, whether it was higland scots or rural African or Indians. The suspicion is that they were just riddled with lyme, bilharzia, malaria, lived with it and then died in their 30’s or 40’s as most did before the age of modern medicine.

 

[gelert]

Cases seem to be on the rise in certain more prevalent parts of the UK. Interestingly, most mammals can also contract the disease, dogs and horses being very susceptible.

 

[Shootingspark]

You sound a bit paranoid.
How many ticks did you find on your body after the guided stalks you went on? Probably none. Certainly I doubt it was enough to justify going to such extremes.
You pick up ticks from vegetation, when they are "questing" in search of a host. As another poster has said, you're just as likely to pick them up while waking the dog as you are when stalking.
Some people seem to attract ticks, and some don't. What type are you?
I've worked all my life in a tick environment, every day. And handled a lot of infested cattle, sheep, deer and goats. So far, I've had just one tick on my body. Yes, you read that correctly, just one, in a lifetime. And I don't take any precautions to prevent them. In fact, I don't even think about it.

I would say, be aware of the risks, see how it goes, take proportional precautions depending on how attractive you are, and don't over think it.

Have to second this, can count with my one hand the amount of ticks latched on over the years and most of them have come from activities other than stalking.
Flicked 00's off my hands/arms when skinning but never had one latch on from this. Almost as if they aren't seeking a host after just unlatching from one?

On the contrary have a friend who seems to get them every other hunting trip so not really sure what makes them latch on to one person more than others

Picture attached waking up to a tick just below my eye.. after walking Ben Lomond with the dog the evening before

 

[Overlay]

Most easy thing to use is a small covered trailer, nothing in the car, none on you, you could skin it over the trailer then onto the block or in the chiller
Nothing brave about tick bites, ask my three mates who contracted it, it makes them ill and will continue to do so

Keep the little buggers as far away as possible

 

[bbell]

To echo a couple others, there is no issue skinning in the field. Just pay attention to what you’re doing and have some sort of bag to put the quarters into. Pillowcases work fairly well and are cheap.

 

[TundB]

Some areas I stalk in have good numbers of tick. If I find too many ticks on a deer which is quite common on CWD, I skin it in the field and nothing wrong with as long as you do it suspended and hygenicaly.
People says they couldn’t climb over smooth surfaces but I see them walking all over the plasterer’s bath up and down with no problem at all.

 

[Camelfarm]

if you going to put the carcasses in your car you will need some kind of tray either plastic or metal, to stop blood seeping into your boot, if its smooth surfaced then it should stop ticks from climbing out.. much like a spider in a sink. if your really paranoid you could always put the carcass into a carcass bag that zips up for added protection but probably a waste of time due to the extra handling it would cause at both ends. you could always spray your boot area with permethrin as a bit of a barrier?

As I have to use my ordinary estate for everything I have a permethrin treated bedsheet that I lay out in the boot before I put the plasterer's bath in - I have found a few dead ticks on it after a long drive but not many.

It's so easy to overthink all of this and everything else to do with stalking - hence why, every couple of years, I strip out about 2 3rds of the kit I've been carrying and go back to basics, pockets only plus a small bag for food and drink. Life suddenly gets a bit easier.

 

[Cyres]

If your stalking roe then it will go inside a tall plastic box with no issues. Get a lidded one.
I don't think I ever had a tick out shooting but and a very big but I was given a Dorset sika stag head in the flesh to prepare. Next day I found 2 ticks on my lower arms. No bulls eye rash but took pics Dr not interested. Since then my general health has deteriorated but tests for Lymes disease negative. I still have nagging thought I might have Lymes.
D

 

[slider]

This is a fascinating point that bears further investigation. My father spent nearly 75 years working with sheep, cattle, deer and forestry. He didn't seem to get bothered by ticks either. Whether it was exposure to sheep dips or not, we will never know. However his spaniels did pick up ticks.
Regards
JCS

Like VSS I have only ever had one tick latch on, and that was earlier this year. Having farmed hill sheep up until 15 years ago I regularly saw ticks on the sheep and had often had sheep with tick borne diseases. I always thought my tick immunity was down to frequently being in contact with dips and pour on insecticides - although these certainly didn't help my health in other ways!!

 

[SHARIF]

As I have to use my ordinary estate for everything I have a permethrin treated bedsheet that I lay out in the boot before I put the plasterer's bath in - I have found a few dead ticks on it after a long drive but not many.

It's so easy to overthink all of this and everything else to do with stalking - hence why, every couple of years, I strip out about 2 3rds of the kit I've been carrying and go back to basics, pockets only plus a small bag for food and drink. Life suddenly gets a bit easier.

That's a great idea, the treated sheet. Cheers!

 

[25 Sharps]

Spray your clothes when out and personally if I’m stalking in an area with lots of ticks (my ground fortunately isn’t too bad) I put deet on arms, neck, legs and midriff. If I was doing this regularly I’d probably think twice about it but don’t stalk tick infested areas very often. Clothes tucked in, trousers into boots, shirt into trousers etc.

With all deer I wear long disposable gauntlets for the gralloch, more for the ticks than the blood, same for skinning if there’s a heavy tick burden but long sleeves either way.

Transport, lucky enough to have a truck so not an issue but the game bag and tub sounds a winner to me. If not skinning I’m the field, which is perfectly acceptable for home use- I did one myself yesterday as shot 3 fallow and only have chiller space for 2. Suspended and handed to a buddy to place into bags.

Totally get your paranoia about ticks, first on I ever saw was on my 4 year old’s back, must have come home with me! I’ve been very careful ever since but still had a couple, hence the above precautions.