Ticks in Alaska, no longer a mystery.

[FurFishGame]

Took my lab out today to run some squirrles for dinner, and I was skinin out the head and I found a tick in the ear.

I have found ticks in them on one other occasion, and I have shot 3 or 4 with fleas (like, COVERED in fleas, I grabbed its tail, and when I put it down, I had 20 or 30 on my hand)

[sayak]

Yeah, I've heard that people are now finding them on their outdoor pets. Disturbing.

[K Dill]

Very interesting. I had no idea that ticks lived in Alaska...I guess there are many life forms that appreciate the wildlife. I have noticed a rather severe increase in ticks and chiggers (biting mites) where I live in Ohio. They are noticeably worse in the past decade. I wonder what's behind the increase/spread of these blood-sucking creatures?

[Casper50]

More blood to suck.

[PG13]

I put in a call to the Alaska Native Heritage Program to see if this tick study is still active. I'll update this post with their response once I receive it. Either way, for "the sake of science," I would send it in and they may be able to leverage your meat collection into something more comprehensive. UAA has teamed with a National Tick Study to investigate what ticks are finding their way here and where they are.... "popping" up. Bahahaha

http://www.alaska.net/~aknafws/tick.html

[AGL4now]

The tick are a sub-species of the IRS.

[FurFishGame]

The tick are a sub-species of the IRS.

My turkey is named IRS, it stands for "I'm really stupid" My borthers turkey is 'JAG" it stands for jerkey and gravy, Another one is "FRB" which means, "for roast bird.

[FurFishGame]

I talked to the wildlife biologist, and he said that they pretty much only stay on red squirrels, and never get on humans, and rarely evver get on pets, but are somewhat common on squirrels

[Akres]

I talked to the wildlife biologist, and he said that they pretty much only stay on red squirrels, and never get on humans, and rarely evver get on pets, but are somewhat common on squirrels

The fleas, ticks or both?
I think the bio needs to get out of his cubicle and into the real world!

[sayak]

I talked to the wildlife biologist, and he said that they pretty much only stay on red squirrels, and never get on humans, and rarely evver get on pets, but are somewhat common on squirrels

A lady I know down in Homer had one on her cat a few weeks ago.

[jobobarcher]

I moved to AK 6 years ago, since then I have found ticks on 2 rabbits, I was pretty surprised the first time i saw this (about 5 years ago).

[FurFishGame]

The fleas, ticks or both?
I think the bio needs to get out of his cubicle and into the real world!

I know what ya mean.

he was talking about the ticks.

[thenarwhal]

Blessed is the land without ticks. I've only hunted Alaska a couple of times and I don't recall seeing any ticks. Be glad for what you dont have. I live in a southern state and they are almost the official state animal here. I went for a hike in the national forest last weekend, about eight miles, took a few hours, and I had dozens on me in that amount of time. I was picking them off as I hiked. When I got home and headed for the shower, I had 11 on me that were actually embedded. I guess you make up for it with the mosquitos and white socks. Tundra mosquitos there are worse even than swamp mosquitos here. My friend here don't believe me when I say that. Bad as our mosquitos are, Alaska has us beat wings down. The ticks are the trade off.

[HikeHunt]

I talked to the wildlife biologist, and he said that they pretty much only stay on red squirrels, and never get on humans, and rarely evver get on pets, but are somewhat common on squirrels

A biologist actually said this???

[stevelyn]

I talked to the wildlife biologist, and he said that they pretty much only stay on red squirrels, and never get on humans, and rarely evver get on pets, but are somewhat common on squirrels

That's probably one of the dumbest staements ever uttered by a biologist.

Do they even know what species of ticks these are or what diseases they carry?