alt.hn

6/24/2026 at 6:42:12 PM

Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877959X26000476

by bushwart

6/27/2026 at 6:19:00 PM

We have (had?) some ticks in our backyard and I came across these which I thought was a clever attack angle: tick tubes.

Permethrin-soaked cotton balls in a tube, mice find them and build nests out of the freely available cotton, ticks that the mice have gathered while walking around die when they come back to the nest.

by kbaker

6/27/2026 at 8:51:52 PM

Would want to be careful if you have cats. Also appears to not be readily available in the EU?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin - see other animals, I can never get anchor links to copy on mobile.

by tclancy

6/27/2026 at 7:00:10 PM

It does work a little, but it's even more effective to just get some chickens. I did find permethrin works great on clothing - when I used to go hunting a lot I'd get ticks on me every time, and the thing is they climb off of your boots in the car and go under the seats or wherever so you don't get bitten until three days later when you're driving back from grocery shopping or whatever. After I started using permethrin and sprayed the floor of my car with it I never saw another tick again.

by felix-the-cat

6/27/2026 at 7:43:22 PM

Wow this is extremely insightful. I need to spray my car floor since I live in tick country.

by greenavocado

6/24/2026 at 8:07:50 PM

If you are out in the woods and you come upon a roughly circular area of crushed down grass, that is a deer bed. Try and avoid walking through it, deer beds are full of ticks.

The deer trails are a lot harder to avoid.

by opwieurposiu

6/27/2026 at 4:00:16 PM

I avoid grass all together- especially in the woods.

by umpalumpaaa

6/27/2026 at 4:23:53 PM

Or avoid the trails all-together. Given the 30th anniversary of Trainspotting this seems relevant: https://youtu.be/xtbS_PdA198?si=8ba8Fp8_uzdpIq6J.

I’m pretty wary of ticks, when you go for hikes just do a body check after. Also, I tend to go with long pants (even in summer, I dislike bugs more than the sweat).

Plus a lightweight windbreaker can help to cover upper body. Plus it limits sun exposure which is also harmful.

by Insanity

6/27/2026 at 5:01:50 PM

Linen clothes are awesome. Long trousers and long sleeves and almost as cool as short sleeves and shorts in shade, and cooler in direct sun.

by topgrain2

6/27/2026 at 5:45:50 PM

Linen is the most underappreciated fabric. It's cool in both ways. I don't understand why so few people wear linen in summer.

by littlestymaar

6/27/2026 at 7:17:07 PM

Yeah I’m a huge fan, lots of linen and thin, fine cotton that’s not been formaldehyde treated (so, not “non-iron”) on me in hot months. I even have an open-weave linen sweater that’s comfortable into the 90s of degrees F. I’ve got a few high-twist wool pieces that are nice in the heat, but they’re more specialized, less everyday wear sorta of things.

Dedicated summer clothes in trad fabrics are a ton less durable than their winter counterparts, though, for the simple reason that they’re much lighter-constructed. Individual pieces can be had plenty cheap if you bargain-hunt and shop used, but you cycle through more of them than, say, heavy-weight denim or a hefty tweed. Still, mine usually last a few years. Cycling them out seasonally means they don’t wear as fast as some synthetic-blend shirt you wear year-round, so you may not get more wears out of them, but they last a good long while in calendar time.

But man, do they breathe better than just about any of the fancy “tech” fabrics. And feel nicer. Durability, though, is an issue, and you have to get the fit closer to correct than many shoppers may be used to, because most of them won’t have much stretch (no cheating by blending in some nylon or whatever, like a “tech” fabric would)

by topgrain2

6/27/2026 at 6:33:04 PM

Cost, more complicated in the laundry, prone to wrinkling, and air-conditioning. Linen clothing was more popular before AC was invented.

by SoftTalker

6/27/2026 at 6:09:36 PM

Some people don't like the scratchy feel of linen compared to cotton, although there are now linen-synthetic blends which ameliorate this almost entirely.

by Analemma_

6/27/2026 at 6:26:34 PM

I have not come across linens that are scratchy. They can be coarse but not scratchy. Blends can be fine fibers. Coarse wool I do find scratchy, unless it’s cold then the scratchiness goes away. Seems like Belgian linen is good.

by mc32

6/27/2026 at 4:43:03 PM

And if you're wearing long sleeves and long pants, you can apply permethrin in a semi permanent way to your clothing to discourage ticks and mosquitoes: https://www.consumerreports.org/health/insect-repellent/is-p...

by twoWhlsGud

6/27/2026 at 5:45:53 PM

Do not do so if a cat will be anywhere near the clothes or compound. It’s super harmful to cats.

by Dumblydorr

6/27/2026 at 6:48:18 PM

Lethal dermal exposure is somewhere near 100mg/kg.

I probably wouldn’t wear permethrin treated pants and let a cat sit on my lap, but “anywhere near the clothes” is a pretty big exaggeration of the danger.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10822630/

by sarchertech

6/27/2026 at 7:16:29 PM

If I'm going off trail I cram my jeans into my boots and shake everything out before getting in the car. Ontario ticks are just a part of the experience now :/

by nik282000

6/27/2026 at 6:53:46 PM

My body helps me with this goal by being ridiculously allergic to all grasses.

by cortesoft

6/27/2026 at 8:30:14 PM

A healthy wolf population is the proper (trophic cascading) solution to the tick epidemic.

by pcmaffey

6/27/2026 at 8:35:40 PM

Can you expand on this provide me pointer to research for this? I am not an expert in the fields but it seems very interesting

by gbalduzzi

6/27/2026 at 8:35:14 PM

I would much rather encounter a hungry tick on a recreational trail than a hungry wolf

by roshin

6/27/2026 at 8:50:41 PM

A hungry tick is much more likely to make your life miserable because you’re significantly more likely to encounter one in ecosystems with both species.

by rescripting

6/27/2026 at 8:04:02 PM

No ticks at the altitude I reside. But with global warming it's slowly creeping up towards the towns further down. Same with Spanish slugs. Will soon be able to thrive here as well.

by matsemann

6/27/2026 at 4:44:32 PM

Through a combination of two of my hobbies, I learned that pyrethroids are toxic to aquatic animals. Glad to see that they used "locations [that] were situated away from waterbodies". Pyrethroids are very powerful tools for insect control (and non-toxic to humans) but any place where you have runoff or ground seepage is going to be a problem. Aren't those places the ones most likely for ticks to thrive -- areas near bodies of water where animals like deer come to drink?

So hot take: this would only be useful in places where there are not a lot of ticks?

(PS: Permethrin-sprayed clothing is very effective.)

by washbasin

6/27/2026 at 5:04:09 PM

They’re also very toxic to cats, which is why dogs & cats have different flea & tick medicines.

by e28eta

6/27/2026 at 6:55:53 PM

Also bad news if your dog is prone to seizures, as mine was.

by zukzuk

6/27/2026 at 5:01:18 PM

Deer ticks will go after pretty much anything warm blooded: coyotes, mice, dogs, etc etc etc.

Proximity to water doesn't seem to factor much either. Where I live, ticks this year are horrendous and everywhere.

by MegaDeKay

6/27/2026 at 4:47:32 PM

This reminds me I need to respray my tick pants. Thanks.

by pfdietz

6/27/2026 at 7:07:50 PM

Some birds eat ticks including guinea fowl of all things.

by nephihaha

6/27/2026 at 5:04:20 PM

I got bitten by a mosquito in Ottawa a couple years ago that sent me to the hospital.. I stopped near the river while cycling to see a raccoon for few seconds, was more than enough for that lil sucker to do the job.

by tamimio

6/27/2026 at 6:36:18 PM

I got bitten by a tick at a cottage near Ottawa and got a fever then bell's palsy a month later. I didn't even notice I got bit at all at the time. A year later, I went to the hospital for a swollen knee and had surgery done, and ended up being tested positive for lyme disease. The doc says you're too young to have bell's palsy and arthritis. Careful out there!

by winxton

6/27/2026 at 5:21:51 PM

There are some potentially very nasty diseases spread by ticks and insects. For example, flaviviruses like West Nile, Dengue, and Powassan (which debilitated and ultimately killed the wife of Canadian fantasy author Charles de Lint.)

by pfdietz

6/27/2026 at 4:09:25 PM

> Twenty 50-m trail segments across two sites were randomly assigned to intervention groups: untreated woodchip borders, deltamethrin-treated woodchip borders, and ten assigned to untreated controls.

> Treated woodchips reduced I. scapularis adult and nymph density by 99 % (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 0.01, 95 % CI: 0.001–0.08) relative to controls, while untreated woodchips achieved a 48 % reduction (IRR = 0.52, 95 % CI: 0.34–0.78).

by beautiful_apple

6/27/2026 at 5:09:56 PM

[dead]

by aaron695

6/27/2026 at 5:23:52 PM

Another worrying proxy for how deeply climate change is bleeding into everyday life: coffee prices, orange juice prices, and now having to engineer huge trail areas with woodchips just so people can avoid being bitten by exploding tick populations.

by bluerooibos

6/27/2026 at 5:30:40 PM

Ticks are a problem regardless. And they don’t like too much heat. So climate warming may even reduce their population in some parts. Or, more likely, move them up north. Giving relieve to some and headache to others…

Lyme disease vaccine would help a ton though. I’ve had Lyme 3 times by now. Thankfully encephalitis stab is a thing.

by mantas

6/27/2026 at 6:29:42 PM

Norway is projected to have growth in ticks and new tick species because of climate change (warmer and more humid climate), so that's one example of it moving north (though ticks seem to always have been in Norway?)

by kzrdude

6/27/2026 at 5:47:41 PM

They don’t like heat? That seems incorrect. If true, Then why are they a huge problem in TX and other southerly areas, and are only now spreading north?

by Dumblydorr

6/27/2026 at 6:36:45 PM

Different species I belive. Ticks in Texas are differnent from ticks in Ottowa. Most lyme disease in the US is concentrated in the northeast and northern great lakes states and into Canada (though it is spreading over the past few decades).

https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/data-research/facts-stats/lyme-dise...

by SoftTalker

6/27/2026 at 6:45:27 PM

They seem to be much less active on hot days compared to cooler days in my experience - though I can't say why. I've definitely observed a difference over the years though.

That said, whether it is hotter or cooler doesn't make much of a difference in terms of how you go about your day - you pretty much have to assume you can encounter them regardless.

by bitwalker

6/27/2026 at 6:09:29 PM

They are a huge problem in Minnesota as well.

by bluGill

6/27/2026 at 7:15:19 PM

It's the length and depth of cold days in the winter that can potentially limit their breeding populations, is my understanding. So the issue is that more northerly areas are getting much more variance in temperature and lacking long deep consistent cold periods.

Up and down cycles in temperature have always been a thing on the North American continent but climate change has made it even more variable. We will still get places where it gets very very cold but not for the consistent chunks of time it takes to set back tick populations significantly.

TLDR I don't think it's the heat or cold per se but the variance.

And yes climate change is absolutely the prime factor in their spread. Into places where they were not ever a threat before.

by cmrdporcupine

6/27/2026 at 8:23:32 PM

> So the issue is that more northerly areas are getting much more variance in temperature and lacking long deep consistent cold periods.

It impacts the population, but even a couple solid weeks of -20C weather doesn't seem to be enough to eradicate them.

by Marsymars

6/27/2026 at 6:09:27 PM

AFAIK there was a Lyme disease vaccine, but was discontinued, probably because it wasn't effective enough, I don't remember the details.

by mihular

6/27/2026 at 6:30:43 PM

There has been a vaccine for dogs and cats for a while now, not sure why it hasn't been released for humans yet. Lyme can be really horrible. Some people we know have a 30-something son who was very active (camping, hiking, rock climbing, etc.) until he was bitten by a tick. Now he's quadriplegic.

by gramie

6/27/2026 at 8:37:04 PM

Lots of drugs work for dogs and cats because they don't live longer than 25yrs. A human has 3-4x the lifespan during which side effects can be worse than the disease.

by nik282000

6/27/2026 at 6:38:56 PM

Typically because it's rare enough that the cost/side-effect risk of the vaccine isn't judged to be worth it.

Humans generally aren't vaccinated for Rabies either, unless you are e.g. a veterinarian who might have a higher chance of exposure to it.

by SoftTalker

6/27/2026 at 6:34:30 PM

So there's no natural immunity after having it once? How would a vaccine work then?

by SoftTalker

6/27/2026 at 8:33:21 PM

“Lyme” colloquially covers half a dozen to a dozen different bacterial infections.

by DANmode

6/27/2026 at 7:01:04 PM

There are many strains. You will develop immunity to one strain, but not the others.

I assume a vaccine would try to be multivalent.

by zukzuk

6/27/2026 at 7:17:34 PM

I don't understand why we're not vaccinating deer populations, even if we're not vaccinating humans out of safety concerns, etc.

That and deer populations need to be significantly culled (along with rodents, the other part of the Lyme / deer tick population cycle).

In any case, lack of long consistent extended cold spells in the winter to set back their breeding population is the reason they've moving further north. Which is tied directly to climate change.

by cmrdporcupine

6/27/2026 at 7:39:23 PM

I believe mice are the main host of tick populations

by bethekidyouwant

6/27/2026 at 7:58:35 PM

The black legged tick has a complicated lifecycle which includes both rodents and deer (or other large mammals I believe)

by cmrdporcupine

6/27/2026 at 8:38:40 PM

Clearly we should be banning all rodent/deer contact until the tick population is under control.

by nik282000