Tick Count

I don't know if there's data on this for OK, but in Iowa both blacklegged ticks and lone star ticks are reaching the end of their season in July, except for larvae. By the end of July, pretty much all you see are American dog ticks. It's likely that the season ends earlier in the southern Midwest/South where it becomes hotter and drier earlier in the year. In October, in the upper Midwest, we'll see the beginning of the second peak of blacklegged tick adult activity, but the nymphs and lone stars are done for the year. It might be interesting to see if tick numbers in OK increase again in the fall as the weather cools.

I'm in MA and am outside all day most days. From late winter to maybe early May this year, I was picking up multiple deer ticks every day. In the past two months or so, I haven't seen a single one. I sure don't remember there being a long tick-free time in past summers, but it's fine with me if that's the way it's going to be.

attached itself to my knee a couple of weeks ago, but none since. Chiggers, chiggers and more chiggers along with mosquitoes lately.

Yeah, we definitely have chiggers and mosquitoes.

That will leave a mark!!

those things off of my leg! The gasoline smell stayed with me for awhile since I was out in the middle of nowhere with my telescope :^/

delivered by a swarm of tiny Chiggers which are more mite than tick.

but chiggers out in these parts are so small, you can't see them. Wish I had my macro gear that I have now back then, so I could get a poster size image of one :^)

Ha, ha, ha, ha!!!! :-D

Apparently stuck tick heads don't seem to be an issue with me. Are you saying you couldn't get the tick itself to turn loose or are you saying you pulled it's head off while removing it? Probably the latter.
I just pull them loose and have never noticed whether it's head came with it or not and have never had any problems. But, as I've said before, my immune system seems to be on overdrive and takes care of stuff like that for me.

The vet's office where I work used to carry this thing: http://store.everestgear.com/eqtic101.html . . and it's very useful for removing engorged ticks without making a big mess. I'm not going to fuss over stuck mouthparts, they'll fall off when a scab forms anyway, but I'm highly, HIGHLY grossed out by accidentally squishing them with tweezers . . if you've ever done this, you know the result .. if you haven't, consider yourself fortunate. *shudders*

Of course, hopefully a person would realize they'd been bitten by a tick and remove it before the tick got to that state - we're mostly pulling soy-bean-sized ticks off of dogs - but still.

I have removed many ticks from my dogs by grabbing and turning them 90-180° again and again until the tick 'releases its grip' and comes out intact.

that you were able to remove mouth parts intact -- probably because you caught attached ones early before deep embedment. At any rate, I've seen enough cases of resulting local foreign body reactions or persistent tick bite granulomas to know the importance of slow/correct techniques for tick removal.

True, but my point is that I'm 44 years old, have had no telling how many tick bites in my life, and I've never checked to see if their mouth parts, or any other parts, came out with them. I rarely use tweezers. I just grab them and pull. I have never had any reaction whatsoever. No inflammation, no nothing, except the initial itching that subsides within maybe 10 minutes or so.

When I pull ticks out -- rarely, by luck -- I get an injured spot that is slightly sore or inflamed for a couple days. The first time I didn't know what I did until after. I touched the back of my leg, felt a something on my leg, pulled on it to take a look, and in the process yanked a tick out of my skin.

but my mom insisted I go to get it removed to be safe.

In ticks, there is technically no “head” that can get stuck- the head and thorax are fused into a combined “cephalothorax.” Only mouthparts of ticks and other blood-feeding arthropods enter the skin. These embedded mouthparts can get stuck in the skin if they are not given enough time to disengage when you are removing them. These creatures would rather withdraw their appendages if you pull on them, but they get torn off if they are forcibly removed too quickly. Although poorly studied, a good technique for removing ticks is to gently pull it off with tweezers. I suspect this would work with other arthropods that embed mouthparts in order to feed as well.

A similar problem can be seen in the Vespidae. People who have a very bad allergic reaction to a flying Hymenoptera sting may not know what species they are allergic to. There are pretty good tests that allergists use that can help us guess, but for those rare patients that the tests give us no clues, some allergists can do “sting challenges.” Different probable species are collected and on different days, the patient is deliberately stung by them. If a vespid species is yanked off mid-sting, it might not have time to disengage the barbed lancets, and the sting apparatus can be retained in the skin like a honey bee’s sting apparatus.

That makes a lot of sense. So it is best to remove the tick that is embedded very slowly?

Yes I know a good amount of people that are allergic to Hymenoptera stings and when I ask them the simple question of "what kind of bees" or even "are you allergic to bees, or wasps?" they have no idea at all. Too bad the public is not more educated on the subject

Well, I can't do that. I live in the country and am always in the woods.

also in Wisconsin over the years. Just came back from a collecting trip along Lake Superior shores (dry dune grasses) and got freaked out by the unexpected daily few wood ticks attached to my socks and pants - fortunately tucked in. Deer ticks too I know are migrating toward the Lake Michigan shoreline areas - unheard of several years ago. They certainly take the fun out of field collecting. It appears that the disgusting and actually dangerous "tick" is likely to be an important player in the "final days".

Ticks like the texture and hang on, easy to see against the white. Useful to check populations in different locations.