Crazy. Can’t win. No snow and none die back, snow and they’re insulated?!
Ha. It gets a lot colder up here and the ticks don’t seem to care. It was normal snowfall here and a litle BN on temps and they seem angrier and hungrier than ever. I’ve already had 7 on me and 2 that latched on and we aren’t even at leaf out yet.
I wish there was a “sorry” button.
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It doesn’t help that we have a lot of deer or similar mammals that the ticks latch on to and no predators to tamp things down.
We don’t even have possums like we used to eat the ticks themselves.
My dog had a tick crawling on it I think a week ago probably. I was like geesh ! Already!?!
Nah it’s okay. I don’t even worry about them anymore. If I see one on me outside I just fling it back onto the ground alive. I just try to wear shorts and sandals outside as much as I can and wear light colored clothing so I can see them easier. I’m more worried about transferring them into the house.
I used to think a cold or snowy winter may make a difference, but I always seem to see more and more. We have a lot of wild turkeys and opossums, but I have no idea if they make a difference.
Our dog also had a tick a few days ago.
Remember Mother’s day as the peak tick season for us. I won’t forget, I got Lyme disease on a Mother’s day hike with my family around twenty years ago. Super not-fun.
I find ticks highly seasonal, there’s several weeks (i.e. now) where there are zillions of them and other times of the year they are uncommon.
Re: fruit drop @comish83, I have a fair amount of fruit damaged in the big freeze of quite a few days ago and they are starting to drop now. I am also noticing damage on even some apples and pears, I’ve never gotten any freeze damage on them ever before. My guess is your drops now are also from the big freeze. On the plus side my Shiro plum which always has the most ridiculous fruit set took a lot of damage and looks like it will be about perfectly thinned once all the unhappy fruitlets drop.
The possums eating lots of ticks is an urban legend
Birds, particularly fowl, are a good predator.
I think having uncontrolled deer and rodent population are a huge factor. As are the milder winters. Like Scott said they tend to peak in spring and are much less common by summer.
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Don’t forget ground foraging birds. The birds are the biggest vectors for the spread of the bacteria. I do tick tubes in early spring and early summer and always thought they were helping. The mice and birds do seem to take the cotton. But this Spring I actually found a deer tick attached to me for the first time. I usually only see dog ticks in the summer and wear long clothing so usually avoid bites.
I went and got a prophylactic dose of antibiotic before 72 hours expired. Probably unnecessary because it was still fairly flat, and I generally try to avoid using antibiotics unless absolutely necessary, but I don’t mess around with Lyme after seeing it destroy a family member who never showed symptoms until it was too late.
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Got home today from the muscadine pick up meeting to see a freeze warning for tonight! So my new plants (and the figs in pots) will be moving inside.
As of a few days ago I noticed pretty much everything had dropped off. I assumed mine was from freeze damage. I think also that even though some peaches looked like they set, I think they had damage internally and weren’t going to actually form. I had a freeze in the last week of March that might have doomed the peaches.
I have one tree that looks like it might have apples, but I’m a bit skeptical. I think it might just be pretending.
After the freeze on April 21st/22nd most of my pears turned black and fell off within a few days. Also, all the fruit that had set on the pawpaws. Also, all the pawpaw and mulberry leaves. Also, every black walnut leaf in my neighborhood. It was a little creepy driving around and seeing all these black droopy leaves like some sort of post-apocalyptic landscape.
It made everything look like it had fireblight too. A bunch of new growth tips froze and turned black and brown. I was pretty worried until I noticed it on random trees on the road and also lots of things that don’t get fireblight at all.
Good to hear the tick tubes work, given our summer mouse population, I’ve been really considering it.
On the topic of biting pests, has anyone tried tougher than tom mosquito traps? If so, can you confirm whether they do or do not trap things other than mosquitos? Supposedly it’s a yeast concoction to act like a CO2. I had a CO2 trap maybe 3 years ago and felt it only dramatically increased the amount in my yard and attacking me, but desperate enough to try again
I do the mosquito death buckets. 5 gal buckets around half filled with water and grass clippings. Put in a mosquito bit every month.
In other news I just ordered a cara cara on flying dragon im going to attempt to grow in a pot and indoors. Wish me luck lol
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My Cara Cara was the least upset about indoors, low humidity winter: it didn’t drop leaves or get much scale despite touching all the others that cycled through heavy infections. I think it’s the prettier than the limes, lemons and mandarins with its massive shiny leaves. Good luck!
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For ticks, I’ve gotten in the habit of spraying 4 outfits (long sleeve shirt, pants, socks) with permethrin every 6 weeks that I’ll always wear if I’m doing anything in the garden. And I’ll put a little picaridin on too if I’m doing anything more tick-prone (high grass, stuff in the woods/edge, etc.). So far that has kept them off me. Last year I tried to quickly pull a few weeds when I wasn’t in my permethrin gear and I got swarmed by a tick bomb; I’ll never be caught without some form of protection now.
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Yeah ive made my peace with permethrin and will just wear treated clothes when gardening now. I’ve always had some but very rarely wore them up until recently, thinking I could just rely on long sleeve fishing shirts and linen pants.
yes you inspired me LOL. And millenial gardener. WHat kind of indoor lighting do you use?
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I adjust the chains as they grow. This is because I have elevated ceilings in this room. I bought another 10 pack of these lights off of crapazon and I plan on mounting them directly to hooks in the ceiling for another room this winter. I think the lights are 4’ 6500k each. I ran them for 13 hours. I was told to run them for as long as I could afford… Honestly, they’re super bright — like migraine-inducing bright —and it was just obnoxious to have them on more.
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I’m pretty sure all my fruit trees at my parents house dropped everything cuz of the freeze booo ! Black berry and all the currant/GB and goumi look fine tho.
I had to read that a couple times to figure it out .. “bit” is Bt, right? Thats also what I do but no grass clippings. The containers are already filled with gunky water but maybe adding some “food” would be a good idea along with the Bt donut..
its a brand ! but yeah its the BT bacteria that kills them.