Ticks, chiggars and fire ants. Tell me about your part of the country.

30 years ago on the family ranch in central texas, you always had to use repellant of some kind for chiggers and be on the watch for ticks. Cows, dogs and deer had ticks. If a stray dog showed up it would look like a grape harvest.

Then came the fire ants and ticks and chiggars are almost nonexistant, I work in the summer in shorts and army boots waist high in grass and weeds with no problem.

Then came the drought of last year which (I think) killed off the fire ants. Last week we baled hay in the bottom fields and never saw a fire ant bed.

Saw a tick on a calf I was tagging yesterday and have pick up a few chiggars lately.

I wondered if this story is the same in other parts of the country. I've never read any research confirming that fire ants kill ticks and chiggars, it's just my assumption.

I would like to hear about your situation.

Thanks.

I live in East Texas.

Ticks are on the rise. Warmer winters, fewer fire ants.

I keep my dogs doused with systemic tick and flea killer, but, I still find 1-2 ticks on them each day. Chiggers have not been bad though.

I work in the garden almost every day in shorts and flip-flops. I haven't been bitten by a chigger yet, but I had a tick on my thigh a few days ago.

We had mosquitoes even in January.

TRG

We have them all in N. Florida. Lots of ticks the last couple winters. This morning I was thinking I need to get on the ants. Guy at work was complaining about chiggers a couple days ago. Throw in sand gnats, no-seeums, yellow flies, horse flies, and that yellow jacket nest that got me a couple weeks ago, and I start thinking about moving to Antarctica.

You have more than that in FL I spend a week there and I want to burn the place down, the whole place is crawling, creeping, slithering and jumping

I can report in this part of WV, there in none of the 3, at least I have never saw them.

No chiggars in SE AZ that I've run into. Ticks are few and far between, but they are around. Have fire ants. And scorpions.

here in coastal SC we are covered up with ticks and fire ants. I can walk up my driveway and have a couple ticks on me before I get back to the house, granted I live in the woods but still...the fire ants are so bad I started pouring gas on the hills, nothing else seems to work.
skeeters haven't started yet but I am sure they will be real bad this year..

Hell, we have them all including those evil South Louisiana Black Bite through Elephant Hide mosquitoes thanks to Katrina. Demon WP will kill ALL walkers and crawlers.

Ditto for SE UT. Working on the ant problem with my chickens.

Here in Illinois near St Louis chiggars are thick, I have seen no ticks but we have had a major increse in Slugs which isn't anything compared to ants wow they are every where. Thankfully they are not Fire Ants

Central TX here too. I remember when the fire ants moved in also. They did eat up the ticks and chiggers. That was the only good side to it. They also ate up all the toads, lizards, turtles, horny toads, any ground nesting birds, even most of the true frogs were gone.

I had a professor in the late 80's whose specialty was fire ants. He said what happens when they move into an area is they will way overpopulate and eat up everything. Eventually they will hit a balance with the carrying capacity of the land and other animals would make a comeback. I think that's what finally happened somewhere around 2004 - 05. That was the first time around here that I heard a frog in 15 years. Since then other things have made a comeback. Three or four years ago I saw a racer lizard, now them and wood lizards are regulars. Fireflies are back as well as some snails. Sure enough, ticks and chiggers have made a comeback also. Now I want to see TX red ants and horny toads.

Here in San diego we have very little to worry about besides our government.

when i was a kid, i ran all over our hunting lease without worrying about any bugs but mosquitoes. now, if i don't put on the proper repellant, i'm covered in red bug (chigger) bites. my brother went out there last year, didn't leave the campsite, and came home with several chigger bites.

Las Vegas, NV

Ticks are rare, no chiggers, no fire ants (yet). Have palm trees? You got scorpions for sure. Pulled one up last year and learned they live in the little pockets made by the leaves where there's moisture. 50+ of them over the next couple months after that.

Black widows. Waging a fucking jihad against them right now, shrug off most poisons like it's water. Have two dumb dogs that eat everything, trying to find a pet-safe alternative that WORKS. Had a big one bite me last week and I'd rather be stung by a scorpion 10 times than have another black widow bite.

Ticks and chiggers are found in the woods, away from the fire ants but we have noticed a big decline in fire ants in my area. Hoping the quail will come back.

Once i discovered Termidor (fipronil) I no longer have an ant problem...none, zero. And a friend in SC who battles Fire ants says I saved him from the annual battle...stuff is the bomb. Got mine online from DoYourOwn pest control. No spiders either.

Dog Ticks and Deer Ticks here. Deer ticks are so damn small (drain of sand) you don't notice them until they've been attached for a day or two. They carry Lymes.

Mosquito's and spiders that will carry off small children. My chickens seem to be helping in the yard, but they don't clear the woods.

For whoever was having the problem with their dog, try Preventic collars, they're awesome. I've also heard of hikers using them around their ankles over their pants to keep the ticks at bay.

Here in NC, we have them all to. I only have 1.5 acres, but I use Cross Check from Lesco Supply to kill them and others. It works amazingly well and keeps them from returning.

Amarillo here. Ticks, fleas, horny toads (not as many as when I was a wee child). No fire ants.

Ticks here (central Missouri) are worse than I ever remember. Even with free-ranging chickens and keeping things mowed short we can hardly go outside without picking up a few.

We used to have horny toads in Ft. Worth when I was a kid.

The large red ants were killed off and the horny toads disappeared at the same time.

TRG

South Texas here. Still have several active mounds of red ants and a few fire ants. The guinneas have all but eradicated the ticks.

yeppers! Kill the food, kill the predator. Used to catch 'em in town, no longer. I know they're still out in the counties though.

Fuck fire ants, I grew up with those bastards.

Fire ants will fuck you up. They will kill you with their fire.

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