A friend of mine took a nice 8 point buck and gave me the whole hide.
All she wanted was the antlers mounted and the feet mounted for gun racks. She skined it with the skull still in it and feet on. I picked it up the same day it was skined. When i got it home and started working on it, I noticed that it had ticks. When i say ticks, I mean it had about 50 ticks in a square foot. I skined out the skull with the antlers on and the feet for the racks. Getting bit twice while I did the work. I then took the hide and froze it for 3 weeks killing all those nasty buggers. meanwhile I finished all the mounts that she wanted and gave them to her. I took the hide out of the freezer, thawed it, salted it till rock hard, rehidrated it, picked, and took it out to shave. At this time ticks where falling off by the dozens. They where in between the skin, in the fur, they where everywhere! I believe I got them all.
The hide had spots all over it, it looked like it had the measeles.
I put the hide back in the pickle and then tanned. The final hide came out good, but it still had spots.
My question is in three parts. Has anybody had this problem before?
How long can this deer live with that many ticks? And what effect does this have on the meat?
Thanks Dave
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Has anybody had this problem before? Yes every year!
How long can this deer live with that many ticks? Unless they become infected with a virus or enemic, their normal life.
And what effect does this have on the meat? NOthing in most cases.
Not need to jump on the bandwagon about what could happen, because thats only speculation.
Complete cooking of the meat, this dont mean the meat has to be dry and boot leather well done, +160F there should not be any problem.
The deer i get in usually have TONS of ticks as well. I mean like during grooming, you need a broom and dust pan. Normal stuff for down south. Most people around here have no prob. with the spots on the hide, as they know how many ticks are carried on them. Like John C said-that should have no effect on the meat.
Sheila
Deer Ticks ...........no problem! What I do, after you take the hide off the head,take a 3mil bag that your going to freeze it in and open the bag up and spray a little Permanone Repel (that's a tick repellent that you can buy from a sporting goods store) It has PERMETHRIN in it that REALLY kills them with-in minutes and you don't have to wait months before you take the hide out to make sure that there dead. WORKS every time for me! Pam
PS. I've had LIME disease so I really hate those critters!