Cold temps and ticks, boy can they endure. A little frigid story.
I have to look on the only plus side of the cold. I was bummed our cold snap only got to -19F last night!
After about
-15 it all feel the same, so might as well get colder with the possibility of it killing some wintering ticks.
Unfortunately, in the leaf fodder , under 12-20" of snow they arent that cold.
Almost Twenty One years ago, (holy cra#, time flies!) my then outdoor forested "playground" region reached -40 F several times that winter, not really uncommon once a year though. Starting the snowmobiles at noon -25F was very difficult at the island cabin, this was much colder than forecast and was actually dangerous being on that secluded island with no nearby roads and only our 4 snowmobiles. It was 8 miles of riding on that frozen encrusted, rocky island dotted lake (huge lake) to the historic iron mining town of Tower Mn. Yes, this is the land of "up nort" accents even southerners make fun of LOL, its a little ways north of Bob Dylan"ville" yes, that Bob Dylan, the one who sung funny.
Later that month, in Feb 1996, it reached an all time low of -60 or -62F (depending on whats official). It was -59 at a relatives lake house on the deck. There were less ticks the following summer, but some still SURVIVED. HOW?
This was in the five lowest recorded temps of lower 48 states history, (Montana leading at -70, Utah -69) and some ticks survived!
Parts of Canada- I feel your pain for this info. But if you live where -60 is common,(Hudson bay?) there might be hope. One problem with that, you might freeze solid before the ticks do!
I know there is a frog species that freeze solid on the outside, displacing its blood with a natural antifreeze, you can watch a time elapse on you-tube. Wonder if ticks have this same process?
Post Edited (astroman) : 12/18/2016 12:59:55 PM (GMT-7)