I thought I would forward this information to Cayugabirds-L. We may see a higher incidence of tick reports this year, as is being noted in Western NY, in part due to the light winter weather.
Sincerely, Chris T-H Begin forwarded message: From: Susan Robertson <serob...@gmail.com<mailto:serob...@gmail.com>> Date: March 20, 2012 10:02:49 PM EDT To: <geneseebird...@geneseo.edu<mailto:geneseebird...@geneseo.edu>> Subject: [GeneseeBirds-L] ticks For those interested in having a tick tested for Lyme disease, the University of Mass Extension will test ticks for $40 - see http://extension.umass.edu/agriculture/index.php/services/tick-borne-disease-diagnostics Cornell University has a very informative web page on ticks that has some very good photos and descriptions of various species of ticks, how to prevent tick bites, and how to remove a tick: http://entomology.cornell.edu/cals/entomology/extension/medent/tickbiofs.cfm#Section5 I've gotten into the practice of periodically spraying a set of "outdoor" clothes with permethrin which needs to be applied to clothes and allowed to dry before the clothing is worn. It lasts for a couple weeks and up to six washings. Cornell's web page says "Permethrin (0.5% concentration) provides a high level of protection and effectively kills all tick species and developmental stages that have been tested. In one field study, most ticks removed from permethrin treated clothing were dead or had impaired mobility while 99% of ticks removed from DEET (33.25% lotion) treated and untreated clothing did not show any ill effects." When dry, permethrin has no odor. Some companies sell clothing pre-treated with permethrin. I also use tick & chigger gaiters (which I treat with permethrin) I got from Forestry Suppliers as an alternative to tucking pants in socks: http://www.forestry-suppliers.com/product_pages/View_Catalog_Page.asp?mi=6954 For those of us that don't care for DEET-based repellants on bare skin, picaridin, which one of the newer chemical formulations on the market in recent years, is reported to work well against ticks and mosquitoes in concentrations of about 20%. A Consumer Reports test published in July 2010 showed Natrapel 8-hour with Picaridin repelled ticks for 8 hours and mosquitoes for 7 hours (in lab conditions). Picaridin doesn't seem nearly as greasy to me as DEET-based products, and has virtually no odor. It also doesn't harm plastics and synthetics like DEET can. Some picaridin products are Natrapel 8 hour with Picaridin, Repel Sportsman Gear Smart (which I've found at Target), and Sawyer Premium Inspect Repellent 20-percent Picaridin Pump Spray. Picaridin is definitely harder to find in stores than DEET-based products, though. In addition, as Steve Daniel said, careful tick checks are extremely important. Good birding! Sue Robertson _______________________________________________ GeneseeBirds-L mailing list - geneseebird...@geneseo.edu<mailto:geneseebird...@geneseo.edu> http://mail.geneseo.edu/mailman/listinfo/geneseebirds-l -- Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes TARU Product Line Manager and Field Applications Engineer Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850 W: 607-254-2418 M: 607-351-5740 F: 607-254-1132 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
