Here We Go Again...

After Bootypants and I went for a walk this afternoon, I found this guy on my leg...

This is a male American Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis). We saw a couple of ticks in Missouri last weekend, but this is the first tick I've seen in northern Indiana this year. I guess it's that time of year.

Final 2009 Tick Count

I have always been curious to know how many ticks wind up crawling on me in a given year. This year, I decided to count all of them that I found. To make things interesting, Lindsay and Bootypants participated in my little game as well.

By mid-May, Bootypants had already jumped out to an early lead. She never looked back, pushing her lead to 15 by mid-June. We were still finding ticks in late October and November. With snow in the forecast tonight, I think it is safe to say that the tick ticker of 2009 is complete.


Here is the final tally...
Bootypants: 100
Scott: 80
Lindsay: 9

None of the ticks that Lindsay found on her were attached. I had a few that were attached for short periods of time, but most were found crawling on me. I don't like to use bug spray, and I've found that wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt tucked in with a thin long-sleeved t-shirt over it seems to keep most of the ticks off of my skin; I find a lot in between the two shirts. Many of the ticks we found on Bootypants were attached, with several engorged. The tick shown in the two photos above was the milestone tick, #100, found on November 12, 2009.

Check Yourself

... for ticks, that is. Just because it is almost November doesn't mean that the ticks are done for the season. I had become complacent and had stopped routinely checking for ticks after being outside, until recently when we found a few engorged ticks on Bootypants.

This tick is in the genus Ixodes, and I'm pretty sure it is a Deer Tick (Ixodes scapularis). Deer Ticks (also called Black-legged Ticks) are notorious for spreading Lyme disease. After finding several of these, I have found a few unengorged adults as well.

The photograph above is an adult female, while that below is an adult male. I found the adult female crawling up my pants just yesterday after walking our trails.

You may recall two posts (here and here) earlier this season on the tick count contest that Lindsay, Bootypants, and I were having this year. I will provide an update once I'm pretty sure we are done with ticks for the year.

Tick Update

In a recent post, I noted that we were keeping count of the number of ticks found on each of us this year. To date, the standings are:

Bootypants - 64
Scott - 49
Lindsay - 9

This is an adult female Black-legged Tick (also known as a Deer Tick), Ixodes scapularis, the species most well known for being the vector for Lyme Disease. I found this tick during my recent trip to Superior, Wisconsin. To see my plant highlights from this trip, click here.

Blood-sucking Arachnids

Lindsay, Bootypants, and I are keeping count of the number of ticks that we find on ourselves this year. I know... a little disgusting. But I was really curious who contracts more in a season... Bootypants or me. As of this evening, the count is as follows:





Bootypants: 35
(Photo by Mike and Heidi Walczak)








Scott: 28









Lindsay: 6





Most of the ticks that we find are American Dog Ticks, Dermacentor variabilis.

Female American Dog Tick

Male American Dog Tick

While in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, I found a lot of Lone Star Ticks, Amblyomma americanum.

Male Lone Star Tick

Female Lone Star Tick

While in the Indiana Dunes this past weekend, I found a Brown Dog Tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, a tick species that I'd never noticed before.

Female Brown Dog Tick

I've found Deer Ticks, Ixodes scapularis, on Bootypants in the fall in previous years, but we haven't seen any yet this year.

Neither Lindsay nor I have found any engorged ticks on us, but Bootypants has had a few. As the season progresses, I'll provide updates on the tick ticker.