Youth turkey season opens

Left. Aidan Jarman 12, Dadeville, with a turkey he shot on a snowy Sunday during the Youth Weekend Turkey Hunt. Because of the cold and snowy weekend, harvest numbers were down from previous Youth Spring Weekend Hunts with a total of 1,723 turkeys harvested compared to 4,060 harvested last year.

Submitted photo

The Youth Weekend Spring Turkey Hunt last weekend saw a big drop in the number of turkeys harvested. The cold and snowy weather was the main factor in the low numbers of bearded birds taken. Of the 1,723 birds harvested statewide, Vernon had only 19 birds checked.

Jason Isabella, turkey biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation said, “Temperatures that were well below average made it difficult for the young hunters to spend as much time hunting last weekend as they would have with more seasonal temperatures.” He also noted that spring has been slow to get here causing turkeys to be behind schedule as far as the winter break-up.

With a warm-up forecast, conditions should be more favorable for the upcoming regular spring firearm season that starts Monday.

Everything has a price. For the turkey hunter, it can be picking off ticks. With the recent cold and snowy weather, a turkey hunter would think ticks wouldn’t be a problem but just prior to the start of the Youth Weekend Turkey Hunt, James Davis, Independence took his 12-year-old son, Robert, scouting for turkeys and came back with dozens of those blood-sucking critters. “ I usually find a few ticks in April, but there were more recently than I have ever encountered. It won’t keep us out of the turkey woods, but it can make it uncomfortable,” he said.

With the increased tick numbers this spring comes an increased risk of tick-borne diseases, but you can still enjoy hunting, fishing, camping, hiking and other outdoor activities safely with a few precautions.

Most tick bites are nothing more than a nuisance. Still, in rare instances they can result in serious illness. Tick paralysis, a rare, severe allergic reaction to tick bites can affect part or all of the body. This disease usually is associated with a tick bite at the base of the skull on the back of the neck. Victims almost always recover fully after removing the tick.

A more severe reaction is tick toxicosis, which is a type of poisoning. It begins with redness and swelling at the site of the bite. Although it is an uncommon reaction, it can be very serious, even fatal.

Ticks can carry tularemia, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis and Lyme disease. Many of the symptoms of these diseases are similar. Signs to watch for in the days following a tick bite are:

• Swelling at the site of the bite. In Lyme disease a raised, bull’s-eye rash develops within a few days.

• Unexplained flu-like symptoms, including fever, headaches, body aches and dizziness.

• Any unusual rash.

A person infected with a tick-borne disease may have all or none of these symptoms. Should you visit a physician, be sure to mention that you’ve recently been bitten by a tick or were in a tick-infested area.

The good news is that most tick bites are avoidable. Clothing is your first line of defense. When outdoors, wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants. Tucking the cuffs of pants into your socks or blousing them with rubber bands or tape makes it harder for ticks to get inside your clothes. Wearing light-colored clothing makes it easier to spot ticks and remove them before they bite. However, turkey hunters wearing camo clothing need to check for ticks right after the hunt.

The most effective anti-tick tools are chemical repellants. Extensive testing has shown that two compounds, DEET and permethrin provide the best, longest-lasting protection against ticks.

In spite of these measures, people who spend lots of time outdoors pick up a tick now and then. The risk of contracting a tick-borne disease is negligible if ticks are removed promptly. The likelihood increases when a tick becomes engorged with blood and regurgitates some of its stomach contents into the host. It’s important to do a “tick check” as soon as you get home. Look closely as immature “seed” ticks are smaller than a pinhead and are difficult to detect.

Just as important as removing ticks promptly is doing so properly. Anything that causes a tick distress: burning, soaking with alcohol, turpentine or nail polish is likely to cause regurgitation. Squeezing engorged ticks can cause involuntary regurgitation and jerking them out is likely to leave their heads embedded in the skin, leading to secondary bacterial infections.

Follow these four steps to remove a tick that is already attached:

• Grasp the tick firmly as close to the head as possible, using tweezers or tissue to avoid direct contact.

• Gently pull the tick straight out. Don’t jerk or twist.

• Disinfect the bite area and dispose of ticks by flushing them down the toilet making this the most satisfying part of the process.