The weather seems to be warming up a bit. Spring is getting closer. You know what comes next.
Insects. Many different types in many different shapes a sizes will soon be upon us.
It will be a few weeks before the arrival of the blackflies and mosquitoes. First, the ticks will wake up.
Not that they have ever really gone anywhere and the fact that we have had a fairly open winter probably hasn’t hurt them much. I have seen people posting the occasional tick picture all winter. I’m sure there will soon be more.
Ticks would have to be my least favourite insect. Blackflies and mosquitoes, you can hear them coming. They don’t try to keep anything secret. Same for deer flies and horse flies. No sneaking up there.
But ticks, that’s different. You don’t see them. You don’t hear them. If you’re lucky, you may feel a hair twitch a bit as they walk past.
My dog, who really doesn’t understand all this, seems to like this time of year. Mostly because she gets groomed and rubbed more often as we check for strange lumps and bumps that weren’t there the day before. I do use some of that stuff that is supposed to keep them away. It really doesn’t seem to keep them away. It may cut down on the numbers, but it does mean I tend to find the occasional tick that is not at all well, so it must be doing something.
Maybe we need better genetic engineering. Look at crops. They have managed to come up with altered plants that no self respecting insect would ever go near. When are they going to do that for people and animals?
