Problem With Ticks

[Gwynne]

I know a lot of you have gardens and can collect your eggs and caterpillars from there. I am unsure if gardens are a source of ticks, or if ticks mostly stick to the underbrush.

I really love this new hobby of mine, and I was thinking about trying to raise some eggs. I have noticed that every time I go into the patch of milkweed, that I come out with ticks. I was in the underbrush more than usual this weekend.

Yesterday I decided to try along the highway so I wouldnt be in the underbrush. I got even more ticks than usual. I had three that jumped on me that I brushed off. I found one when I went to pump gas. I shook my clothes out at home and checked my sneakers. I keep my clothes that I have worn egg and caterpillar hunting in the bathroom. Last week, I found two ticks climbing the wall. Yesterday, even after checking my sneakers, I came back to the bathroom to find a tick on my sneakers. I later found one on my toilet. I went to move my cats, food out of the bathroom and found one crawling on the bag of food! One was waiting for me in the car this morning.

I wouldnt mind so much except for the fact that I have two indoor cats and am afraid of exposing them to ticks. The vet told me to use frontline which I will pick up today. I am terrified of hurting my cats if they get a tick I dont see. I am keeping them out of the bathroom, but I am sure the ticks move about.

Does any one else have a problem with ticks? I may have to give up caterpillar hunting if I can not solve this. I cant endanger my cats because of this. And it is gross walking into my bathroom every day when I am caterpillar hunting to be confronted by ticks.

I dont know where to look for milkweed where I wont be overrun with ticks. One or two is not bad, but we are talking about eight yesterday. They are not deer ticks at least, but rather dog ticks.

I would like to know if anyone else has dealt with this problem and what they have done. Thank you.

[Farfalla]

Jeez, Gwynne that is a lotta ticks! I have never had a problem that bad.The area you are in must be is full of deer and other warm blooded critters. Ticks don't jump..They "hitch a ride" on you if you brush up against them. So try really hard not to brush up against plants. Keep exposed areas of your skin to a minimum.
Here is what my "going out in the field ensemble" looks like:
I wear light clothing,long sleeves,pull my socks OVER my pants and wear a bandanna on my head. Then I take all my clothes off BEFORE I go in the house (Luckily I am in a semi rural area so only the wildlife laughs at me) Then I check all the clothes outside before I put them in the wash.

Oh..And you should get that ticked off thing...in case on does attach itself to you or a kitty http://www.tickedoff.com/ It really works!

[Gwynne]

I got front line for my cats. After I put that on them, I cleaned out my eye from where I of course ended up squirting some in my eye! Then I went out in just the sort of outfit you described, but with a baseball hat. I actually didnt see any ticks on me. Luckily all the ticks I have seen have been dog ticks and not deer ticks, though there are a lot of deer in the area. Umm, makes me wonder about the ticks that I didnt see.

I collected 15 eggs, well about 16 or 17 but bumped one or two. I had a dark egg and this morning had a caterpillar 1/8 of an inch long. I think it was Scott who said the eggs are easier to spot than the caterpillars who have just emerged. I have two more that turned dark overnight, so I am hoping to have more little caterpillars today or tomorrow.

[Teresa]

I've never heard this problem but i'm sure it exsists. i grow all my milkweed in my yard. Interesting.

[psi_chemie]

You've just hit a couple tick infested spots. Bad luck maybe. I don't think it has anything to do with milkweed or I would have gotten ticks on me by now. The areas I go in aren't really brushy, more like tall grasses with patches of trees. The only time I got a tick on me was when I went in to scrubby, tree areas. But I think it's really random.

[Pat]

I put Frontline on my dog last year, it worked fine, but tried out K9-Advantix this summer for the mosquitos as well as the ticks. Don't know if that one has an equivalent formulation for cats but it also seems to work fine, no ticks or fleas on the dog even though she's constantly running around in the undergrowth beneath the trees. Lots of deer around here and I did get the Lyme shots when they were offered several years ago. And I don't go out in the local fields much any more, as they do seem to have a significant number of ticks and who needs that? Fortunately there have been enough eggs deposited in my milkweed-filled yard to keep us busy.
Pat

[Jim]

Be careful with the use of insecticides like Advantage and K9 Advantix around your monarchs - and be sure to wash your hands throroughly after you handle your pet...

Pesticides Used on Pets and Monarch Rearing:
http://www.monarchwatch.org/update/2004/1022.html#6

[Gwynne]

I wonder if ticks are attracted to or repelled by any color? I went out all in white the other day as I figured that ticks would be easier to see against a white background. I was quite a sight, my socks pulled over my baggy pants, a pink hat! But I didnt find any ticks on me. I was on the highway again, but that is where I got like eight ticks the other day. Yesterday I had to go out in the underbrush to get more leaves. I didnt dress in white and when I was outside pulling off those spore thingies, I found two ticks. When I looked at my clothes, I found two more ticks. Have only found one more crawling around the bathroom since I wrote this. I am more concerned with the cats than with me and I got them frontline. I hear you cant spray any bug repellent on yourself when you go egg hunting or you could harm the eggs. Jim, I didnt read the article yet, but I would bet it says something to that effect.

[Farfalla]

Thanks for that link ,Jim! That 411 is very important .

Gwynne, I know they lovvvve exposed skin.
I wonder too.. How they can tell? Is it the movement of something going by? Cool that you get less ticks on you..But be sure to look for the tiny little ones, too. Deer ticks are like the size of a pin head.

[Pat]

Unfortunately, this is a very high deer-tick area and the local reservoir mosquitos tested positive for West Nile as well, so some precautions are necessary. Haven't noticed anything unusual with the monarchs, eggs or caterpillars, but we'll keep it in mind.

[Debbie in Northwestern On]

I just googled "ticks and monarchs" because three times in the last week I have seen something horrible. First to backtrack... I was having trouble with spiders around my caterpillars....there was a green/biege spider that was killing them. (Not just a caterpillar accidentally caught in a web, but all wrapped up the way attacking spiders do. I cleaned up undergrowth in my flower garden. Spider problem seems taken care of. Caterpillars hatched and gone, but a new batch is growing. Three times in the past week, I have seen what I thought was a strange spider attached to monarch caterpillars of all stages (2nd to last instar). The Caterpillars I have found have been either dead or half dead but this bug was on the milkweed and it had like a fat web connected to the monarch or was directlyattached (as the one I found this am) to a huge caterpillar. It looks like it is sucking fluid out of caterpillar or something which was like a half alive skin. The caterpillar was fine late last night. I am watching closely because I expect to find it in a "J" any day. Anyway, I killed the predator and realized it looked more like a tick than a spider. I think the ticks are killing the caterpillars. I have seen it three times in the last week. We are in an area where there are usually no ticks. We are having an unusually hot summer and we also have never had earwigs. We are infested with earwigs in our city. Ticks too. From your emails about ticks on milkweed, I can't help but wonder if the ticks are feeding on the caterpillars. All this global warming stuff is very scary!
Debbie
Waystation 444

[Gwynne]

I never saw the ticks on the milkweed itself. I saw all sorts of predators on the milkweed, mind you, but not ticks. The ticks were attacking me every time I would go get food for the caterpillars. I have since found some other places to find milkweed and when I do have to go into the underbrush, I wear white so I can spot the ticks easily, a hat, tuck my pants into my socks. This has helped a lot, but not 100%. I had thought that ticks only attacked warm blooded creatures, but I am not going to discount what you are saying. You never know!

[MILW]

Sounds like it could be an assassin bug- can you describe the size, shape and color? I'll see if I can find some good pix on BugGuide.Net... photos help too!
Take a look at this page and let us know if it looked like any of them...

I've never heard of ticks feeding on other invertebrates, but I might have missed something!
-Scott