Ticks
by Donna Schoenkopf
Looking back on the past year of Life in Oklahoma, I have the following observations about ticks.
When you find one (or two, or in the case I am writing about, THREE!) half-deflated, once-juicy ticks, the size of an ovate large pea, lying lifeless on the dog bed, they are not lifeless.
I found those three nasty little things in Diego the Dog’s place of sleep. (I will not tell you where or what that place of sleep is. You might never come to visit.)
Because I thought they were lifeless, and because I have become desensitized to ticks, I threw them over onto the concrete floor about five feet away, where I intended to go to sweep them up after I finished cleaning the Diego sleeping area.
Clean, clean, clean.
Stand up. Look over to the tick area. And see only one tick there.
Hmmmmmm. I walk over to it and pick it up. It is lifeless.
I happen to glance over at the corner of my kitchen cabinet and there, THERE! is the second one, climbing microscopically up the corner of the cabinet.
Okay ... they’re ALIVE.
Okay. Okay. I start toward the bathroom to flush the two I have. And on the way to the bathroom, there is number three. Merrily making his way eastward across the floor.
Now, you ask, why is it important to tell us that the tick was crawling up the corner of the kitchen cabinet?
Well ... it’s because ticks crawl up anything that is vertical. Like a tree. In the woods. And then when the tree is bumped, or jostled, or the breeze wafts through, making the leaves move, the tick falls down on its PREY.
Ask Don. He sat under my oak trees a year ago August before my house was even built. He was here with some of The Cell to see the “propiddy.” To do this we all had to walk through the tangle of brambles and brush, through my forest with unknown critters lurking behind rocks and trees, and up and down hills. We came out of the forest flush with heat and excitement.
So Don decided to sit on one of the chairs I had so thoughtfully provided for us all. I had put them under the little grove of oaks not far from the pond. We all plopped down because it was hot and the shade looked delicious.
How conscientious of me!
And Don went home to Florida unknowingly carrying three ticks.
He emailed pictures of the ticks to us. They were delightful.
AFTER the unwitting hosting of Don to the little guys, I was told by people who know, that ticks crawl up any vertical surface so they can ...
DROP ON THEIR PREY.
And, Gentle Reader, it is coming to that time of the year which people around these parts call “Tick Season.”
A dream I had when I was a teenager:
I get up from bed, walk downstairs, go to the kitchen, open the refrigerator, see a bowl of large grape-like gray ticks, swollen with blood, and toss a bunch of them in my mouth. They pop like grapes. I wake up.
Me and ticks.
I thought about ticks a lot before I moved to Oklahoma. I did not like them. I had visited my property several times before I actually moved onto it. One August, a really hot and humid August, I drove out to Chigger Lake in the morning, walked around, up and down hills, through my forest, felt all wonderful about living here, hopped in my car to drive back to Shawnee and my Motel 6. On the way, I started to cross Highway 9 when I saw a tick crawling up my arm.
Ai yi yi! I forgot all else and grabbed that sucker and was ...
PROMPTLY
... hit by a semi-truck. And I mean HIT by a semi-truck. It tore the right side of my rented Kia completely away from the body of the car. Bumper, headlight, door gone, windshield shattered.
The poor man driving the semi was freaked out and came running up to see if I was all right and I felt HORRIBLY GUILTY and assured him over and over that it was MY FAULT and I got a ride back to my motel and left for California the next day.
Not a bruise.
And my insurance paid for everything. Mostly. Well, I ended up with an $1800 repair bill to the car rental place.
(Get the extra insurance. Seriously.)
So, ticks.
I find them sometimes on my bed. I flush them.
I found one crawling up my wall yesterday. I flushed it.
And I got a bunch of guineas JUST TO EAT TICKS. Instead, THEY got eaten by Who-Knows-What. All but one. And I will NOT tell you again what happened to that poor dear darling chick.
It’s too horrible.
And I tell you now that I have finally come to grips with ticks.
I live with them. They are no more scary or disgusting to me than a gnat. Irritating but only a pest.
Well, maybe they are a LITTLE more disgusting. I mean they ARE sucking my blood.
And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why Oklahoma is affordable.
donna@fourstory.org
Comments
and that’s one of the reason’s I MOVED from Oklahoma….other reasons…:
red dirt and mud, heat, rain, other bugs, WIND….etc…..
But Twitches zone!!!!!(or to each’s own…...)
We love you!
Donna, Deer ticks cause lyme disease and they are not often found around here.
Keeping as much brush as possible mowed will also help get rid of the ticks. You might also try some fighting hens. They are less likely to roam and do a bang up job on ticks just like guineas do. One option is to build a small pen with a wire roof on it that is small enough that you can move it around yourself. That will protect the chicks and allow you to help them find more bugs.
2009-04-12 by Jo
Whoa, Donna dear, Spending summers
2009-04-10 by Karin Lubbain the pine and oak barrens of Long Island,ticks were an all too common presence. My poor little brother ended up (nflated to the size of a green grape)with one on his you know what
Half the residents of Red Creek Rd, in Hampton Bays,were plagued with Lyme disease and
died painful and relatively early deaths Every night before laying ourselves down to sleep, we inspected ourselves, each other and the dogs It was a ritual, like brushing one’s teeth. So, dearest friend, please take these pests very seriously and perhaps pursue the same nightly ritual! Happy Easter (secular) to you,my dear, Karin