Goin' Buggy

The ticks are thick this year, and I don't step out of the truck without liberal applications of deet and permethrin.  Most of the ticks we find are the tiny deer ticks, which you don't know are on you until they are very well embedded and you start itching from a histamine reaction.  It makes you glad to have a dog tick.  The lone star ticks make you itch worse than the others, and you actually know from the way their bite itches what you are going to find when you begin searching for the little blighter.  The best tool for removing them from your hide is the Tick Twister, and I keep one with me at all times.

On a happier, more pleasant note, Brood XIX is emerging in Southern Illinois, and other Midwest locations.  These are thirteen year periodical cicadas, and we will be entertained by their song for about one month.  Click over to Magicada.org to record locations where you see these fascinating insects.  Researchers who track periodical cicadas are largely navigating from cicada maps drawn in the Nineteenth Century, and they really need information from the masses.