Ticks are getting more vicious

Woodcock season opened here on 10/6. A friend told me he had seen a few about, so I figured I'd give it a try. The weather was quite warm... not a good sign.

We have a new tick in these parts called the Lone Star, a truly agressive little demon that can put the fear of God into a gunner, or anyone else tramping the woods. Dog ticks I eat for breakfast. Deer ticks are nasty little creatures, but I can deal with them. These Lone Star ticks; some of the guys around here still call them chiggers, attack en masse, and can make life miserable for weeks. The most insidious feature of these ticks is that I cannot even see them, so, they cannot be picked off. Showering doesn't help, but agressive toweling after might somewhat.. or just move them around. Ticks are exceedingly tough creatures!

I have no WC for my efforts, but I do have about forty oozing bites... Mostly on the legs, some on the belly, and a few on the arms because of the T-shirt huntin' weather.

I've never been one to care for chemical solutions on my tender body, but these ticks are bad enough to make me rethink that non-solution! Especially since Eastern Equine Encephalitis was detected in these ponds that we were hunting around. West Nile is still a big concern also.

I picked some REPEL for my clothes, and dug out some Ben's 100 (100% DEET) for the rest of me. The military now recommends a two pronged attack such as this for insect infested areas that it's soldiers must operate in.

So for those who frequent areas where these pests have not appeared yet, consider yourselves lucky, but they might just be on the way. As a kid in this area, all we had to worry about were dog ticks... How things have changed....

Chemicals take some time to poison a person, so at this stage in my life, I figure I can take the chance..