Do Not Forget Bug Spray During Hunting Season
Kevin Felts 12.06.19
Hunting season and the cool weather are here. That means the ticks are gone, right? Well, not necessarily. A lot depends on location and weather. While some regions may have a blanket of snow by early November, other areas may still have temperatures in the 80s. There have been several years I was sitting in a stand on opening weekend and the high for the day was in the lower 80s.
When someone says the word “bugs,” what do most of us think about? Chances are we think about mosquitoes, chiggers, gnats, etc. Believe it or not, ticks can be just has plentiful in winter as in summer. As stated earlier, a lot of it has to do with location and weather.
Here is an example. Around 2009 a buddy of mine, two of my sons and I were on a camping trip along the Angelina River near Jasper, Texas. Temperatures had been cool at night but daytime highs felt like they were in the 60s. After the sun went down we were sitting near the campfire and I was using a single burner stove to cook a Mountain House freeze dried meal. While we were all sitting by the campfire, I found two ticks crawling up my pants leg.
Ticks are opportunist parasites. They will cling to a piece of high grass or lo tree limb in the hopes something will walk by. When we brush up against the grass or limb, the tick attaches itself to us. Chances are a lot of hunters reading this will walk through high grass, or along a trail going to the stand. Then we sit for long periods of time which provides the tick an opportunity to locate a piece of flesh where it can sink its head into.
So keep in mind that even though we had a few cold fronts push through, ticks and other biting bugs may still be out there. We would hate for hunting season to be ruined by a case of Lyme disease.
If the reader does not like DEET then maybe consider Permethrin. Permethrin does not just repel ticks, it kills them. Unlike DEET which should be reapplied every few hours, Permethrin can be sprayed on clothing every few days. This makes it ideal for hunters who may want to treat their clothing the night before a big hunt.
