heavily ticked moose

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fingers284

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Question for the moose experts on the forum....Had 3 moose go past the house last night just before dark, one of them was 95% white from tick rubbing and the other 2 were like a pinto pony white spots , will they survive this infestation over the summer??
 
Not an expert. My understanding is it’s a winter danger, especially in young moose. They become weak and rubbed and die to cold weather, predators, or can’t get out of the way of vehicles on highway.
 
Jimbobob08 said:
Not an expert. My understanding is it’s a winter danger, especially in young moose. They become weak and rubbed and die to cold weather, predators, or can’t get out of the way of vehicles on highway.
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I saw a cow moose the other day standing at a small mud hole. She was in the water and seemed to be unsteady on her feet - looking very weak. Just standing and shifting her feet trying to stay upright. I am a moose hunter and affects me emotionally to see this.
 
When I lived in Prince George I had a moose run down the driveway and by the house. When I went out to look at the tracks there were gorged ticks laying on the snow as big as the end of your pinky. Tough life for them animals.
 
Its super sad to see them in that type of condition. Unfortuanately theres no money to be made so the old BIOTCH muther nature will take her course. Unfortunately theres only one thing crueler and thats us.
 
I noticed the moose around here with heavy tick infestations head to water to try and drown them off their body. 2 winters ago every moose I saw was almost white from rubbing, this past winter the moose all seemed to look good and healthy.

Last year I had found a yearling moose dead in my dugout in February. My aerator will keep a 8’ hole open during the winter and I’m guessing it went in the water to shed some ticks but couldn’t get back up and out onto the ice.
 
Jay said:
Would be cool if someone figured out a way to get some Permethrin on those moose to keep the damn ticks off...
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Helicopters and paintball guns sounds worth a shot!

Hard to say if that is due to ticks or not in the photos.

In the places where a lot of moose are dying south of us, like Maine, we're talking "heavy infestation" as in nearly 50,000 on one animal when an adult dies. An adult D. albipictus tick takes about 1 ml of blood. If they are in good condition, it can take about 30,000 to kill a calf.

One of the many joys of climate change. Mild winters mean much more ticks, and the area of their effects creeping upward more and more. We'll see.

The "good" news in my region is that we simply don't have the moose population density to support that many ticks! Heh.
 
All my pictures are from late May. I had some from early March that show ticks and bloody bumps on them, I also have pictures of this same bull about a month later with new full summer coat.


Havnt seen any moose this bare since then in my area.078-1.jpg
 
In prince george, would love to catch a moose on game cam, unfortunately I just went through 4600 pics of a tarp flap moving, that wasn't a good place. So far we've only got pics of dear,fox,coyotes, not even a bear yet.
 
Had a young tick infested cow moose move in with some of my geldings a few winters back when the wolves were bad...I tried a few times to chase her out after the wolves moved on so I could fix the fence behind her...She wouldn't leave those geldings for nothing all winter long...She knew the wolves never go any where near those geldings...Smart girl.

Adult moose seem to survive lighter tick infestations no problem but I have seen heavily infested moose of all types dying or already dead come spring...Awful thing to come across.

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Longstud said:
Its super sad to see them in that type of condition. Unfortuanately theres no money to be made so the old BIOTCH muther nature will take her course. Unfortunately theres only one thing crueler and thats us.
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well.... to be fair..... talking cruelty and when it comes to how a moose meets it's demise. I think being killed by a hunter's bullet is a far better way to go than being terrorized and torn apart by wolves and bears or living with a tick infestation your entire existence

the mule deer are migrating through our area in big numbers right now. Yesterday there was a couple in the yard with bare patches around the base of the neck, high on the shoulders. I thought at first it was healing wounds from an animal attack but with binos I was able to get a real good look. Most of the deer coming through look very healthy this season but winter was relatively mild this year so that will mean there was no winter die off of ticks this year.
Too bad there wasn't mineral blocks with the same tick remedies they use on domestic animals like "advantage" or similar. Load the blocks up with tick medicine and heli drop them by the thousands on all the spring migration areas
 
Your making the assumption that all moose are killed by wolves or bears. That is simply not the truth but is part of nature. I hunt moose and simply stated its sad to seem them infested with ticks. Tick remedies are basically poison and has to be administered by weight. I agree that it would be nice to help but its never gonna happen cuz its not profitable.
 
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