TICK PICK KIT FOR TURKEY HUNTING, GET ONE?

Did you get one? I did yesterday at home – a tick pick kit (that’s what I call it at least) to take with me on my Nebraska turkey hunt this spring. You know, white-tailed deer are an important host for the tick, but wild turkeys may also be infested.

Our friends at the U.N.L. Entomology Department – ‘the bug studiers’ - are looking to survey the occurrence of ticks on wild turkeys here in Nebraska because wild turkeys are important game birds and because ticks can cause direct injury as well as transmit disease pathogens to animals and humans.  They say the purpose of this survey is to determine 1) if ticks are important parasites of wild turkeys, 2) what tick species infest turkeys, and 3) where tick populations may be established in Nebraska.   

So, if you are a Nebraska spring wild turkey hunting permit holder like me who has received one of these kits, do your part for wildlife management and examine your birds. I know I’ll be carefully looking mine over for ticks!

Send any ticks you happen to find on them to the ‘bug studiers’ at U.N.L.! They say: Thank you very much! By the way, after you’ve bagged your gobbler or bearded hen, whether you’re carrying it out of the woods, field dressing it or butchering it, watch for any ticks that might be crawling from the turkey onto you!