Posted on 08/12/2021 4:47:31 AM PDT by servo1969
How polite!
Yet birds are but one of the necessary intermediate hosts for tick nymphs that grow up to spread Lyme.
I have deer everywhere here and haven’t seen a tick all year.
Why?
The birds who usually frequent my backyard are not there because I stopped feeding them out there.
Figured out several years ago, the bird/tick connection.
Used to have to spray the yard after every rain to keep the dogs safe.
Never spray it now.
Deer saving a fellow furry critter! You go, deer!
I’ve witnessed a deer and a turkey moving together down one tree line and then another and then returning. They Covered a distance of about three hundred yards. The doe and the turkey were never more than ten feet apart. It looked like they were pals. Perhaps they were taking advantage of the deer’s superior sense of smell and the turkey’s superior eyesight. This was on the edge of Northport, Alabama near the Black Warrior River.
Knew a guy in high school that gut shot a deer with last bullet and killed it with his knife. There wasn’t a place on his arms and face that you could cover with a fifty cent piece that wasn’t marked. Suspect the rest of him was the same too.
Then he lost his hunting privileges for several years for poaching. Yes, the guy was an idiot.
Somebody tell Disney that their push to turn cartoons into reality movies is getting a little out of hand. Cinderella...ok. Bambi...no.
Can you explain the bird/tick connection? I’m not following what you mean.
“Suddenly, I heard the most horrendous and horrific “screaming”. This went on for about 30 or 45 seconds until all fell quiet again.”
I heard similar noises near my in-laws house after my then-young daughter and her cousin came running into the house to report the disturbance. A snake was coiled around a young rabbit and was constricting it to kill it. It was an amazing bit of nature up-close but those little girls did not appreciate the nature show.
I believe it.
There are lots of videos of animals displaying cooperative/mutually beneficial behavior, if you look for them.
Crows and Ravens are probably the pros at it.
There are more things in heaven and earth.....
:)
Ticks go through multiple stages in their development, each one very specific and any interruption of the “right” sequence determines whether or not a tick goes on to spread to Lyme.
They’re not born infected, they get infected and then they hitch rides on whatever they can.
For whatever reason, the birds were the big issue, here.
Once I stopped having them congregate at feeders that was the end of the tick issue.
I had a really good site that explained it in great detail but for now, this should help, until I find the other site.
I still feed them, mostly in the winter when they need it, but only in the front yard where the dogs never go.
Birds?
I know they carry a lot of parasites, but I’ve read that the main hosts for the Lyme/babesia/anaplasmosis/erlichiosis carrying tick of the Northeast are mice, deer, and other rodents.
Not arguing, just fact gathering.
Incidentally, I’m recovering (I hope) from a dual babesia/Lyme infection. Never knew I was bitten, no rash. So I assumed it was a summer virus for several weeks before getting checked out. Dumb.
Staged.
God, I am really vey sorry for you.
I hope you can get it controlled.
:(
The newly hatched ticks MUST find an infected host at a particular stage, yes, generally rodents, however, they will crawl onto anything that they can manage to, after that and then step off in a better place for large animals passing by.
The dogs always got ticks on them every time they went up near the blackberry thicket that many birds sheltered in.
I cut down the thicket and moved their food and no more ticks.
They have other shrubs for cover in the front yard and have since moved out there, instead.
There’s lots of possums out there so I reckon the ticks don’t have much of a chance, anymore.
OFFS.
Now we’re supposed to put masks on deer?
Some of those does are tough customers. When we used to have a deer feeder at our river property, I saw a doe head butt a
buck with antlers off of his feet. He gave her a wide berth after that and only went to the feeder after she was finished.
The reason I asked is because I feed the birds right by my house so I can birdwatch out my office window (along with my 3 cats ha!) and haven't had any issues (that I've noticed).
I let one of my cats, a manx, go outside periodically. He gets out there and rolls around and generally hangs out in the yard and never seems to get any ticks. Of course I treat him monthly with a topical so I'm sure that helps.
Anyway, thanks for the additional information. I'm still not quite clear on any connection though.
Either that was staged....
Or the bunny was in on the takedown.
The one thing many of the previous comments - that try to explain the deer’s behavior, don’t explain is that when approached by another deer it behaved like a predator, chasing competitors away. If it thought its behavior was “defensive” against a predator, you’d think the deer would have welcomed other deer as supporters. Instead, the deer wanted IT’S PREY for itself. Is that/would that be typical of deer behavior?
The “connection” is that ticks hop on things and sometimes decide they’d rather eat something else, I reckon.
:D
Sorry for the gross video.
There just aren’t any Lovely Tick Flicks anywhere.
If you ever notice the birds taking dust baths, you might set out a tray of diatomaceous earth for them to bathe in.
It dessicates [and brutally shreds] ALL nasty ectoparasites and is non toxic to any other living thing.
Since birds tend to have mites that torment them, they’d be so grateful for that.
:)
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