Watch out for Turkey Mites
Last year about this time, I was watching a bumper crop of deer out at the farm. The neighbor to my north had sold out and he was no longer dumping $700 worth of corn into his feeder every year. The deer all came over to my place. They’re not nearly as prevalent this year, but it made for a grand show while it lasted.
One thing I noticed was most of the deer were showing signs of something really bugging the snot out of them. They seemed pre-occupied with something that was making them twitch and shake. I chalked it up to horseflies. I now think it was turkey mites.
With the increased fascination with early season bowhunting, I’m hearing tales of guys getting seriously infested with turkey mites as they dress out their deer. All I can say is beware. Turkey mites are bad. They are like Africanized fleas armed with flamethrowers and they dig in, set up a defensive perimeter, and call in air strikes on your most sensitive regions. They will not accept surrender; their only goal seems to be making you suffer.
I’ve picked up a few hunting, usually it’s a few here and there in turkey season. However, one of the worst infestations I’ve ever gotten was an attack at a public campground in southern KY over July 4th one year. They attacked my groin and underarms while I slept. Without knowing what they were at the time, I called them Saber-toothed Crotch Crickets. They attacked at division strength and marched through my privates like Guderian through Poland.
Yes, they wrecked the trip. Yes, they made me sick. Yes, it took weeks to get rid of the itching.
I’ve been back to that campground and even stayed at the campsite. What I did was dump a can of RAID all the way around the tent before entering the first time. It kept the crotch crickets away for the whole weekend. Revenge was sweet: gas the bastards. I do the same at our family campground at the farm.
Turkey mites are immature forms of certain tick species. Unlike the adults, you probably won’t get Lyme or Rocky Mountain spotted fever off the mites, but if you get enough bites, they will make you sick. Prevention is the best course of action. Use DEET and Pyrethrin as directed. Tuck in your pant cuffs and wear long sleeves. Be very careful in handling fresh kills. Guys are talking about turkey mites swarming off carcasses into garages and living spaces and biting family members. They really love the blood flow in the velvet in antlers. The last thing I’d want would be turkey mites in my house.
The good news is that once these nymphs get a blood meal, they drop off. Add in a frost or two and the deer are pretty much mite-free and tick-free before rifle season.
The only time I’ve been worse afflicted was bumping into a swarm of black flies while fishing on a creek south of Oxford, Ohio. Everything was covered except my wrists and hands. However, that was enough. After hiking out, I found my knuckles stopped working, and my hands were too useless to drive a car. The condition lasted 8 hours.
Here’s an article on turkey mites I found useful:
Just Exactly What Are Turkey Mites
This post has already been read 133 times!
I just posted a couple of pictures on my FaceBook page of my pant legs covered in a swarm of what we call “seed ticks” (larval form of the lone star tick). That was after a 3 minute stroll, 75 yards into the woods to look at a dropping persimmon tree.
I have high reservations for this weekend, as the plan is to bushwhack a new trail on Dad’s farm to an old logging road at the back of the property to hang a new deer stand in a place we have always wanted to hunt. With the seed ticks as bad as they are, I’ll have to cover up well this weekend.