48-hour freeze: enough to kill ticks?

My husband and myself have both seen ticks still crawling around after only being in the freezer that short of time. It's crazy. So much for the theory, a "hard freeze" kills the ticks...... They are nasty little things! It's amazing what they can survive in.

 

Keep in mind that being in the freezer for 48 hours is not the same as being frozen for 48 hours. It takes a while for the whole thing to freeze solid. I would think 48 hours, once completely frozen, would do the trick, but you may need to leave it in the freezer for 72 to have 48 hours frozen solid. The longer the better, though.

 

3 days works for me

 

Here in the COLD Northeast (NH) I've seen ticks walking on snow crust in February. No deer tracks even close so they didn't just fall off the deer. I know they do die off in the freezer but how long it takes is anyone's guess. I have my own way to deal with them and posted the method on this site in the tutorial section. Go to the tutorial page , click on General Taxidermy shop & Tools, then "Killing ticks on a cape, by Jean Lavallee. No freezing and kills them all. Good luck....JL

 

Ive unthawled capes this year that were in the freezer 6 days and after they warmed up they started crawling around. I would have never believed it i hadnt seen it with my own eyes.

 

Well people I live in MN where it is cold 6 months a year and those nasty little thing live through that if a hard freeze killed them they would be gone after 1 winter and this post would not be in here now would it? However we have ticks here and I freeze them bout 72 hrs frozen not just in the freezer, and that seems to make them dormant or dead or whatever they don't move after that jmo .