Tick Prevention with the Tick Terminator

Spring is right around the corner, and with it, those vicious blood suckers that cause over half a million Americans to fall ill each year: ticks. No matter your favorite outdoor pursuit, ticks pose a significant problem. Fortunately, there are many things we can do to protect ourselves and our loved ones while in the field.

In this episode of the Wisconsin Sportsman Podcast, Josh talks with Brian Anderson, the Tick Terminator, about preventing ticks and avoiding tick-borne illness. Brian is known as the top speaker and educator on tick prevention in the USA dedicated to the outdoor worker, hunter, camper, and the outdoor enthusiast. In this episode, Brian shares how he became a top expert on tick prevention and gives tons of helpful tips to avoid ticks and avoid tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease.

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Find Brian Anderson, "The Tick Terminator" online.

What is going on everyone? Welcome back to another episode of the Wisconsin Sportsman Podcast, which is brought to you by TACTACAM. I'm your host, Josh Rayley. Thank you so much for tuning in with us this week. This episode is coming out. Two days late. Yeah, two days late. Sorry about that. If you were looking for your regular Tuesday [00:01:00] morning drop of an episode, I've gotten myself a little bit behind here, but got a few episodes now in the Reserves, if you will.

I've got a good episode here for you. This week I talk with Brian Anderson, the Tick Terminator. Now, this time of year, temps are starting to warm up just a bit. Folks are starting to get outside for hiking and camping. And obviously one of my favorites Turkey season, and that means one thing that is ticks are going to be on the move.

Basically, if it's above freezing, you can count on ticks being on the move. Now, aside from being just incredibly gross critters and giving me the creepy crawlies, ticks carry all kinds of bad stuff, namely Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted. Can give you Alpha Gal Syndrome, all this stuff that you do not want as an outdoorsman.

Things that will not only make you sick, but will really mess with your day-to-day function, potentially impact your. Work life, your home life, your outdoors and hobby life, that can really mess you up. So [00:02:00] tick prevention and avoiding tick-borne illnesses is a huge deal, something we all need to pay attention to.

So that's why I wanted to have Brian Anderson on to talk about what we can do as outdoorsman as we head into spring to keep ourselves healthy and happy and away from those little blood suckers. I do not like them at all. So after listening to today's episode, if you wanna learn more from. Head over to lime tick bug hub.com.

That's lime tick bug hub.com where you can find all kinds of tick and lime info. You can find out about Repellants, you can find out more about Brian and hopefully learn what you need to do to keep yourself tick free this spring. Now, heading right into the episode, I do wanna say thanks to our partners.

First of all, we're gonna talk about Hunt Worth right now. They've got a great deal going on heading into Turkey season to get you geared up and. You can get 20% off if you just used the code. T R K Y M 20, that's T R K Y M 20, all caps on those letters. That's gonna get you 20% off of [00:03:00] any of the camo that you want to get right now.

And if you spend over $200, you're also going to get free shipping. So those savings just add onto each other. Now, you've heard me brag on this camo a ton, so I'm not gonna go too far into detail. I do recommend though, that heading into Turkey season, you pick up some of their lightweight gear, and I really like their tarn in pattern.

That for me right now is the the secret sauce for staying concealed and it's what I'm gonna be wearing this Turkey season. Also, big shout out to Tcam, our title sponsor. They too have some pretty sweet deals going on right now to get you geared up for Turkey season. They've got their Ultimate Turkey package for just 2 99.

What that's gonna get you is the 6.0 camera, the barrel mount, and an SD card that you know is going to work perfectly in your TTO cam camera. One thing guys don't pay enough attention to, I think, in their trail cameras, as well as their video cameras that they're using to try to capture their hunts.

They don't pay a lot of attention to the quality of SD card. If you buy one from Tcam, you can rest assured it's gonna work in your tact CAM [00:04:00] products. So head over to their website right now. Take advantage of this ultimate Turkey package. You save 75 bucks when you buy the 6.0 camera, the barrel mount, and the SD card all together.

And while you're there, check out their other stuff. They've also got the solo extreme camera if you're looking for a more budget friendly option. They also have the Reveal X Pro cell cameras, which man, I love those things. Now I'm gonna make a big ask of you as a listener. Please go support the brands that support this show.

We couldn't do what we do here without Tcam, without Hunt worth, without these great brands that help us make this show possible. So please do go support them, show them some love, and get yourself geared up for tricky season because it's right around the corner. I can't hardly stand it anymore. I'm watching YouTube videos right now.

Watching Dave Owens and the Hunting public and Shane Simpson Smashing Birds from last year. I'm looking at social media, seeing folks down there in Florida getting it done right now, and I'm absolutely chomping at the bit Now. I'm gonna get to get out in about, [00:05:00] oh man, nine days. Nine days from when you're listening to this, assuming you listen on the day it releases.

Nine days from now, I am going to be in the woods with my son trying to get him his first bird. Yeah, man. It's right around the corner. Get geared up. Get ready, get excited. Now let's jump into today's show with Brian Anderson, the Tick Terminator. All right. Joining me for this week's episode of the Wisconsin Sportsman Podcast is Brian Anderson, the tick, Terminator.

Brian, how are things in your world today? Oh, doing good today. Just, it's a joy to be here. I love talking about ticks. Even though , when I start talking about 'em the people listening to me start to get a little creepy crawly. So if that's you listening that's normal, so yeah.

Hang in there. I got some good information, . Yeah. Man, I gotta say I never anticipated or never thought that, I would one day be doing an episode totally devoted to ticks, tick prevention and all of that. So I was so glad that you reached. Initially and just said, Hey, I, I'd love to come on your [00:06:00] show because this is a topic I never saw myself covering.

At least from someone who's an expert. I would probably say, Hey guys, don't get bit by ticks. But beyond that, I don't really know what to tell people. So I was really glad that you reached out, that you're willing to come on the show. Remind me again, where are you based? . I live in Iron Mountain, Michigan, basically 10, a hundred miles straight north of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Okay. I mean it is definitely a rural area. I'm a hunter myself. Especially rifle season, deer hunt, deer season in November 15th in our areas like a holiday, yep. I look forward to that. So it's great to talk with other hunters here cuz you know, I can relate because I am one too.

Sure. Absolut. Absolutely. So it's a lot of fun. Absolutely. So here's where we have to start. . Okay. How in the world did you get into what you're doing? As I look around, I don't see people who are I don't see job advertisements for Hey, come be our next tick terminator. I don't see people who are like, we'd like to find a, a conference speaker on ticks.

This is really unique. So I feel like there's gotta be a story here. . [00:07:00] Oh, yeah. It was always a story, it started off with when I was a little kid, I had a strange and unusual fascination with the, with these little blood suck environments we call ticks. And at the time I lived downstate Michigan.

I was born in upper Michigan and I was living downstate. And my parents would go up to visit their, my, my grandparents up here in Iron Mountain, in the upper peninsula. And they had these little ticks. And to me it was fascinating because it was different than a mosquito where you could watch a mosquito land on you and you could feel it bite you, and then you slap it and the blood would spot on your arm.

and you knew about it, but ticks are very stealthy and secretive, and they get honest and they crawl around. They don't make any noise. And then God gave a special little saliva that they spit on our skin before they dig their head into us. So we don't even feel it because it numbs our skin. When I was a little kid, I remember my mom at night.

I'm one of three boys. We would strip down and nothing but a smile, and you were a little five, six years [00:08:00] old and she'd do a tic check on us and Tic tacs are very important. And on a case, she'd find 'em and pull 'em off. And we never ever had a problem with them. Lyme disease, we didn't hear about it in the sixties.

And no problems. It just, we didn't have any problems at all with 'em. Fast for another couple years, I marry my wife, I bring her up there because my grandparents had passed away. We moved there in 79 when we got married. And her first experience with ticks were just crazy cuz she was an outdoor, person like I was.

I got all kinds of stories. But anyways, probably 10 years ago. I got crazy stories that I give when I give conferences and presentations. So if I figure, say, if you can laugh and learn about ticks, that's the best way to do it. But anyways, about 10 years ago I had a even a renewed interest in them and I would start bringing them in the house.

Literally bring ticks in the house. I know you gotta be crazy to do that and put 'em on a white carpet in the basement and just playing with them and trying to get 'em to. To move around. I [00:09:00] brought, different cleaning products from under the sink, how would they react to this cleaning product?

How would they react to this or that, or smells and things like that. So anyways, we start playing in the basement with the grandkids and with the ticks on the white carpet. And I just wanna find out how they react to different smells. Could I get them to to go to something that, Was like their chocolate.

Okay. So if I bring 'em in a house and I have 'em on myself, is there something that I could some smell that I could get that would have 'em come off of me and go to that chocolate, so to speak? And guess what? There ain't nothing like better than our own blood. So once they're honest, they're gonna keep looking around till they find this good spot to suck our.

And then I bumped into Perron about the same time one of my buddies was really struggling with Lyme disease. And Lyme disease is just awful. It's terrible. That's just one disease that they can carry. They can carry a lot of them, but that's one of the probably worst. And that kind of got me going into more research and looking into [00:10:00] it.

And then I developed a website probably in about. 2016 is when I had the idea, I should make a website on this stuff because there's so much information out there about Lyme disease. , which is great that they need that support. But what about prevention? What about keeping them off you? So they don't, so I will say if you keep a tick off, you can't get bit.

If you can't get bit, you can't get a lime or any other tickborne disease. So I'm looking around for prevention. There was hardly anything out there, and I'm not a rocket scientist or a genius. I'm just a regular guy like anybody else. With a strange fascination on these little things, . So I started putting this stuff together, took me about a year to put that website together of just all kinds of different things, called the Tick terminator, is what it's called now dot com.

But anyways it's a spot where people can go and learn a lot about techs prevention, products and stuff like that. and then I started molting into other things after [00:11:00] this. I didn't know how it was gonna go five years ago, five, six years ago. So then I started bumping into linemen, outdoor workers and thinking that, I betcha they could really they need to know about this kind of stuff.

And so I just end up talking to a safety director at One Power Company. And that's where the light bulb, the aha moment came. and I thought, I need to start talking to more of these guys so that they can teach their people out in the field, like the linemen and the stakers and the people who cut trees.

They call it vegetation management. So that's basically how that started and evolved through a lot of trial and error, a lot of prayer. And I'm not kidding about that, , and that's how it's molted in this. And I'm really the only one that does that in the country that's been taught by themselves.

The only other people who talk about this stuff have PhDs and entomology, and they're wonderful. They're extremely knowledgeable, but I don't talk like [00:12:00] that because I'm not, that I'm self-taught and just spent hundreds of hours on this kind of, , and so that's what I work with now.

I'm probably even gonna be going into some school systems even now too. I'm just working on that in the last couple weeks of teaching young kids. Hey, when you're out there and you get ticks on, you doing tick checks or using product called Perrin or how do you take a tick off? Those things will get into even today, how important those different things are to help you avoid having problems with them.

So that's how that's gone and that's what I do a lot with safety directors. I speak at safety conferences across the country and it's just a blast, and then be called the Tick terminator. And having your logo is a tick in the shape of a hand grenade , which is really a lot of fun, so I, I get a real kick out of it now. It's a blast. Yeah. I find this fascinating, not only, and I was telling you this before we started recording, not only because of what you do and it's so unique, but you really carved out. Because of a passion, because of a genuine curiosity. Because of a desire to learn and share that knowledge [00:13:00] with other people, you've carved out this whole lane for yourself, which I think is just fantastic.

I I love that story. So you mentioned back when you were a kid, you'd come in, your mom would strip you down, get any ticks off of you, and you guys never really had, excuse me, and you guys never really had any issues with, ticks or tickborne illness. It seems like in the last decade, two decades, maybe even three ticks, tickborne illnesses and just the prevalence of ticks in general has seemed to skyrocket.

Have you noticed that? Oh and what would you attribute that to? Yeah, Lyme disease, was, has actually given a name in the mid seventies. In a little town in Connecticut actually called Lyme, Connecticut. That's where he gets his name because there were some adolescent kids that had this strange arthritic type of condition, achy joints, flu-like symptoms that is normal with Lyme that the mothers there really push the medical community to come to some sort of , an issue with, so that [00:14:00] they can help their kids, do what mothers do they want good help for the kids.

So that's where it's got its name. And over the decades since then, it seems like it's gotten in worse. New England is the hotspot for Lyme disease where you've got, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, going down to Virginia.

Those are the worst spots for Lyme disease. But there's other tick foreign diseases too. The second worst spot. During, for them, during the last 25 years, they've seen a 300% increase in Lyme cases where I live in upper Midwest, meaning Minnesota, west Michigan, down in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio we're the second worst spot.

During the last 25 years, we've seen a 250% increase in lime cases. So there's a real problem there. But they say that maybe the temperature change, I hate to say global warming cause I don't get into that kind of stuff, but let's say it's a little warmer longer. So sometimes we have a later fall and an earlier spring that gives, ticks a longer chance to live and look for a host.[00:15:00]

Because most of our ticks in this upper part of the country, usually eat one time a year. They have one blood meal a year. Wow. That's all. So yeah, once a year. I should get into, when you want, I can get into the life cycle of a tick. It's fascinating. Yeah. Let's go ahead and jump there.

I think, Lyme disease is obviously the big one. There are lots of other diseases, tick-borne illnesses that, that we. Obviously want to avoid, and I'm sure they'll come up throughout the course of conversation, but I'm curious now to hear about that life cycle of a tick hearing that they only have one meal a year, like you might be the only thing that they feast on.

What does that look like and how long do they live? Okay. The way it happens is a female tick gives birth usually in the middle of the summer to anywheres between. a thousand to 5,000 eggs at a time. Oh my goodness. It's just disgusting. I say, Lord, why not just a hundred? Otherwise, that's being a thousand.

That's horrifying. Yeah. So anyways, yeah, so [00:16:00] they're in the shape of an egg. After a couple weeks, they break out of that egg and like any newborn, at that point, they're looking for something to eat. Now they're on the forest floor. So their options are pretty limited. In the northern areas, it's Ty typically gonna be their first host is normally gonna be a white-footed mouse because it's really close to the ground.

they'll never get on the deer at that point. So they get on this white foot of mouse, start sucking the blood out of it, and the German pathogens from that white foot of mouse they go into the tick is what actually gives it the A disease if they're gonna get it. They're typically not born with any disease.

They're pretty much disease free. So they get it from their first, from the white foot of mouse, which is normally the problem. Okay. So after a few days they, they get off the white foot of mouse and they do whatever ticks do, which ain't a whole lot. mean they just sit back and bask in the satisfaction of just feasting on the full belly deli, of that little white foot of mouse and they kick back and they.

molt into their next series that fall, that winter, and then they grow two more [00:17:00] legs. So next spring they come out with eight legs. So that eight legs makes them part of the family. They're part of the spider family. Okay. So that next spring they come out, so they had their meal last year on the white foot of mouse.

This year they're gonna come out as the size of a poppy seed. Now think about that. Wow. A poppy seed could be on your shoe lace and you couldn't even hardly see it. So if that tick got Lyme disease the summer before and now it's the size of a poppy seed is just as lethal as a full grown adult if it were to get on you.

So it may get on your shoe and start crawling up, you up your pants or so, whatever. And if they latch on and you don't notice it and they're on you for a couple days. A lot of times you may get a tick-borne disease. Now, not all ticks have 'em, diseases. They have 'em in more in different areas.

And some may have higher percentage, some may not have any. So not every tick is gonna give you something bad. So anyways they look for their hosts for that year. Could be us, [00:18:00] could be, a little environment. So they do that. Then they molt into the next series that fall, that winter, and they just kick back after they had their feast.

And the next spring they come out as a full grown adult. . Okay. Now they're gonna look for something a little bigger. It could be us, it could be a deer. A lot of times they'll get on a bigger animal like that. Let's say they get on the deer for their feast for that year, and the male is on there too.

Typically, the female is the one that's going to gonna bite us. Okay. But if they say they get on a deer, and I'm sure you've seen ticks on deer before. Oh, yeah. and that we get. But anyways they're on the deer and after they feed, then they, a male and a female will mate right on the deer.

Okay? So they ride the deer for the rest of the winter. The next spring, the male gets off and he dies. The female gets off and she gives birth, in June anywheres between a thousand to 5,000 ticks. And that's enough to kill anybody. And she dies . So their life cycle is approximately three years, and they have to eat once a year.

That's our tick up here in pretty much the eastern [00:19:00] half United States. Now, there's other ticks, let's say, out in the western parts of the country that are a little different. They may eat here let's say somebody's out backpacking or hunting or camping and and they see an old trapper shack or, some kind of old dwelling from years gone by and they say, Hey, that's pretty good.

I'm gonna stay in there, put the sleeping bag in. And they don't know that there's little squirrel nest or something. A little Garmin nest up in the corner and there could be ticks in there in that environment nest. Okay? So those ticks come down at night and then will feed on the unsuspecting person sleeping in there for about a half an hour.

Then they go back and you don't even know you got met until a couple days later when you start to have some symptoms of Maybe rocky motor spot, a fever or some kind of tickborne disease out there, so it's crazy. Just wanna take a quick minute to let you know that the Wisconsin Sportsman Podcast is brought to you by Tcam makers of the best point of view cameras on the market.

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To learn more and check out their full line of products, head over to their website, tcam.com and share your hunt with tcam. How are these ticks? Finding the host? First of all, that blows my mind that they live multiple years. I thought for sure that they. I don't know, [00:21:00] died off or something for the year and then came back, but obviously that was incorrect.

How do they find a host? What they do is they typically a tick, like on, on our era, the Eastern Half United States is normally gonna go up on a piece of lower vegetation like grass. Okay? They sit there on, they'll call it questioning. Oh, that's the, that's a big name. Anyways, they sit there on that grass and they got eight legs.

So six of 'em wrap around that blade of grass. And the other two kind of sit with their their legs out and they mo they have very poor eyesight, but they can smell really good, they can sense vibrations. And as an unsuspecting person comes by they are a very rude and egotistical hitchhiker.

They don't even ask permission. They just latch on when something comes by. It could be us, could be some sort of little little garment. A lot of times they will stay by trails, like game trails. Yeah. Or walking trails because they congregated there over the years and decades because that's where their [00:22:00] hosts, their blood meals are gonna frequent more often.

They like shaded areas better than sunny areas. So that's how it's gonna be. Then they get, that's why I tell people when you when you get ready, to treat your clothes do all, you know everything. But anyway, that, that's, does that making sense what I'm saying there now?

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So they just hang out and wait for either vibrations or just something to pass by. They latch on at that point. And that's really interesting that you said they hang out by trails. I've. That if I am walking through the woods, let's say, and for part of the time I'm hiking on a designated trail or a well beaten path, that's where I get the ticks.

If I get off in the woods and bushwhack for an hour, I get far fewer ticks off in the woods than I do on a well established hiking trail. It. Okay. That I can understand that. That makes a lot sense. Yeah. If you're in a hiking trail that is just dirt, obviously you won't get 'em, but you have to go through the brush to get them.

Yep. Also, keep in mind that they do not jump, they don't fly, they [00:23:00] don't drop out of trees. They just basically sit on lower vegetation typically, like knee high approximately or less. Is normally where they're gonna be. So cuz if you have one on your shoulder, that means they're crawled all the way up there.

Wow. , that's creepy. And they don't, yeah. , that's just how it is. Yeah. Wow. Wow. That's a tick for you, man. So let's talk a little bit now about how we can begin to prevent some of this. I hate, it's one of the reasons that I didn't Turkey hunt for a long time was because I didn't want to be in the woods in the spring when I felt like there were ticks and stuff all around.

How are you going about preventing some of these things from getting off? Especially you hear one female can produce 1000 to 5,000 young. My goodness, it seems like the odds are stacked against us. Yeah. Yeah. That is a lot. Thank goodness. They don't all live or, so the groups would just be crawling with them.

Yeah, and there are spots I know where people have just, they've walked [00:24:00] through and they just are. Infested with them in some spots. Okay. Or whatever. People just brush off hundreds of them literally sometimes. Wow. Which is just disgusting. But most of the time it's not that way. Anyways, I tell people the the best way to never get a ticket is never go outdoors,

But that's not your audience. That's for sure. You know what I mean? Sure. Yep. We're outdoors people. So anyways staying on paths, is one way. You're not gonna get 'em, like a dirt path. You're never gonna get 'em. But we're hunters, so we go through the brush we do the bush whacking.

That's, we love the woods. And that's fun for us. The best way to ha not have many ticks on us is to use a product called Per. And I think you're familiar with that too. And especially if we're talking to Turkey hunters, because Turkey hunters are so susceptible to ticks.

It's not even fun. They literally sit on the ground at the worst time of year for ticks and and they gotta be still. And I hear people all the time say, man, I had text crawling all over me. But when they use Perin, [00:25:00] it works differently the way Perin works, it was created in the mid seventies.

Okay. And it was four, four different applications. One of 'em was for farmers to put in their crops key bugs off. Another one is for farmers to keep under their cattle to keep, to put in cattle to keep bugs off. Another one was for doctors to use for licensed scabies in the fourth way. The fourth combination was to put on clothes.

And the cool thing about perimeter is that you don't have to put it on every day. I treat my deer Hyundai clothes at the beginning of the season, and it's good for. Okay. Wow. And because even I don't wash my deer hunting clothes, none of us hunters ever hardly ever wash our clothes

But if you did, it still stays there because it binds to the fabric of the clothes. So what perimeter does it's called a contact repellent. Now, we've all used de. Mosquito spraying, stuff like that. And the way DEET works I wanna give you a comparison so you can understand it. The way DEET works is created a 1945 for the military and it's wonderful product.

You can get DEET in, in, 20, 30% if you get a [00:26:00] hundred percent. The only difference between a hundred percent deet and 30% deet is that it'll last a couple hours longer. It's not any stronger, it just lasts a little longer. Okay? So 20 to 30%. , it is plenty adequate, lasts for probably maybe six hours or so.

You may wanna apply it again, but it's probably better to use a little less percentage. So what happens with deep is the scent, the smell, the aroma of deep is what a mosquito notices when it flies near us. Okay? So when a mosquitoes flying near and they smell that dee it, it interrupts their little antennas in their brain that they're sticking out their head.

And it tells 'em there's no blood there. It tricks 'em, okay. So then they fly off and there's no blood there. So that's how Deep works. Now, Perin works on a whole different concept. Perin works on what they call a contact repellent concept. So that, what that means is they don't notice it until they come in contact with it.

Here's an example. I sprayed permit in the course on the clothes when I go in the woods. A couple years ago, I had a little black fly [00:27:00] land on my. On on my jeans that were treated with perent and this little blackly starts dancing around. It could sense the perent on the, on my pants. And it was dancing around.

We call it the hot feet syndrome. And if it could talk, it'd say what the did I doesn't land on. You're just driving me nuts. So then I flew off and I say, Chich, I won cuz it didn't bite. Now ticks are different. Ticks are crawlers. They're gonna get on, your shoes your pants, your socks, and they start crawling up.

That's just by their nature. So what happens if tick is crawling up? Your shins, on your pants? Every step they take drives their nervous system nuts and drives 'em crazy. Normally, after 10, 15, 20, 30 seconds, a lot of times they will fall off and die. Or die and fall off cuz they can't stand it.

Wow. So what happens is, let's say a Turkey under sitting out there, the ticks will start crawl on 'em, but they're not gonna last [00:28:00] very long on 'em. Okay? So that's the cool thing about it. And I remember a couple years ago I had a a cable company wanna try this stuff. They had two of their guys working on cable climbing up and down poles.

In a rural area here in Upper Peninsula. And at the end of the day, one of 'em had his close tree and the other one didn't. One guy had 30 ticks on him, the other guy had three. So you can imagine who had the tree to close. Yeah. So like I tell people, and you're nodding your head here, of course, because I'd rather take my chances with three than with 30.

Oh yeah, absolutely. So that's how that stuff works. And Perin is great. The Perin I work with on my website is, , is really cool because the nice thing about it is it's a concentrate and anytime you get a concentrate, you're saving money. Yeah. Cause you're not shipping water.

Okay. So the cool thing about most perin that you buy at a store is great. It all works the same, but it's good for six weeks or six washes, which is fine, and hunters, I [00:29:00] know hunters. I. Pretty much year round guys. Like yourself, yep. In the spring you may be out looking for sheds, for deer antlers.

You may be Turkey hunting. In the summer you're looking, you're working on food plots, , you're looking, you're working on your deer stand for that fall, whether it's bow hunting, you're rifle hunting. So it's like a spring to fall type of people. Yeah. They're out there. Yep. So what they can do with this type of perin.

If they can the more they mix in with the bottle, the longer it will last. So instead of just lasting for six weeks, they can mix it to last for three weeks, six weeks, nine weeks, 12 weeks, up to 24 weeks. . Wow. Okay. And that 24 weeks and 24 washes are nine weeks and nine washes. So it puts the customer in charge how long they're gonna make it last based on how much they mix in there.

And it comes with directions too. But anyways, as long as somebody's using perin, that's the biggest thing. That's so important to use perimeter cuz it's nothing better than that. Yeah. I've, does that making sense? Absolutely. I've used it in the past. Had [00:30:00] wonderful success with it. Going in and outta the woods several times during a Turkey season and not getting any ticks on me, which for me is a huge win.

So I've had, yeah, I've talked with guys before and recommended it and told 'em how well it works and they say if something works that well, it doesn't seem like it would be safe. So what can you tell me about how Promethrin is made and what makes it a safe product for our use? It's been around for a long time for sure.

The military used on all their clothing. It's virtually non-toxic. There are no records, o of anything, of anybody having any huge bad effects with it. Peripheral is only designed for skin. Okay. If you spray it, if you weren't to spray it on your skin, you may have a little reaction to it.

It's not gonna kill you, that's for sure. You wash it off it'll, it'll, it evaporates off your skin even too, after about 15, 20 minutes. , but there's no, no records of any problems with it. So it's it's really safe, if somebody wants to, they can use when you treat your clothes.

I should come back to that. When somebody treats your [00:31:00] clothes, it's best to do that outdoors. I hang mine up, spray 'em down outdoors, with the wind behind your back, so you're not spraying in your face. So yeah, it, there's no problems with it. Because it's called an insecticide.

Or pesticide, I can't remember which. But that kind of scares people, but the benefits, I guess absolutely, definitely outweigh any other possible thing that could go wrong. Sure. Sure. So that's hope. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. Tell me a little bit about the application, cuz I think, if guys are used to using a product like Off or Cutter or something like that, they think about.

Take the can out in the woods with 'em and they spray themselves down right there on the spot. It's a little bit different with Promethrin. So what's the best way to apply? So you just mentioned hanging up your clothes and spraying it down, and then you just make sure it dries well and then store.

Yeah, just spray 'em down and let 'em dry overnight. Actually about three or four hours they'd be dry. Some people, I almost hate to say this, but some people actually spray right down on the spot while they're wearing them even it will work [00:32:00] that way. It'll work wet as well as it works dry, okay?

But when you do spray them down, you want your pants up to get damped looking, like they're damped. And that way, you're soaking 'em pretty good. Same thing. I tell people, shoes, socks clothes, out outer stuff. You don't do your inner underwear, stuff like that.

But outer snow, outer clothes where ticks are gonna get on us first. You know what I mean? Yep. But I even have videos on my website about that too. You know how to apply it and doing everything like that too. I, and even lineman like it because it's non-flammable too, so it's very safe in that respect too.

Nice. But yeah, spray it outdoors is the best thing on the ground. On a close hang. Close line or whatever, something like that. Okay. Yeah, good question. So tell me about the brand that you use. So I've used stuff that you basically pick up from Tractor Supply that's not necessarily made.

Yeah. For people. I've used Sawyers before, which I've typically gotten, it's pre-mixed, it's not concentrate. So what, is there a specific brand that you re. , the [00:33:00] rec, the brand I recommend is the one I use myself. The Sawyer is gonna work just the same as our stuff would Sawyer is a probably the biggest name out there.

It's a retail brand. Ours, we don't retail hardly at all. But, and it's good for six weeks, six wash. I've used it myself in the past, but of course I use my stuff now that I get from the manufacturer and have my website. Nobody else makes the concentrate. Designed foreclose. There's other concentrates that are out there designed for farmers, and it's a little bit different application.

It's more oily, there's more petroleum in it. It could have more of a scent to it than two for hunters. . Yep. Because hunters don't want any kind of scent, that's for sure. So that's why I like our concentrate, that we can mix it cuz it's the only one designed for clothing on the market.

Yeah. Yeah. And in reality because you mix it yourself, you're actually saving 50%. You'd have to buy $80 worth of Sawyer to get our stuff for say 40 some bucks. Wow. So you're saving a lot of money. Oh yeah. You cut your perent [00:34:00] cost by half. Yeah, literally by 50%. Yeah.

And it, and then it puts you in control of mixing it to your desire, whatever you need. Yeah. And I , most guys that I know who are outdoor enthusiasts one of the, one of the constant battles that they have is their their outdoors budget, , and there's always that next gadget or that next thing to buy.

So being able to cut your promethrin cost in half is pretty huge. Oh yeah, for sure. And it, it is so critical too because Lyme disease or any kind of tickborne disease can be just so debilitating. It's just it can just ruin your time. And I've come up even on my website, they can download this for free.

A couple years ago I came up with a little bulletin that I designed for safety directors at companies, and it's on the front page of my. It's called a Tick Prevention Safety Guide. It's just three or four little pages of some really good content about tick prevention. Another one just next to that is called the Hidden Cost of Lyme Disease.

Where they could, you know about, you may wonder what's a hidden cost? You know what a hidden cost is. A hidden cost is [00:35:00] not real. Not understanding that you could get so sick from. You're gonna miss your kid's soccer games, you're gonna miss weddings. You are so weak that maybe you can't hardly go to work.

You may lose your job cause you miss so much. So anyways, it's so important and I want to get into this here probably next is what happens when you do get bit, even you did everything right And sometimes a ticket still get through and still bites you. So I'm gonna use, I have a little pet tick right here.

The guy, they can't see it, , but it's a little pet tick. It's probably. You can see it there, Josh. But anyways, let's say a tick is stuck on you. Okay. The way you take a tick off can even make a difference. You wanna grab right at the very base of, you don't wanna grab it by the body, which we have all done in the path.

Oh yeah. Of myself included. , you grab it by the, if you grab item by the body, when you pull it off you're squeezing it, okay? The sooner you get a tick off, also the better, because the longer they stay on you, the more apt they will be to puke some bad stuff in you, which you don't want. The quicker you get it off, [00:36:00] the better for anything.

So then the way you take it off is even important too. Grab at the very base. You may wanna use a, like a little, a fine tip Tweezer. , don't grab it by the body, or a little thing called a tick key that grabs right at the base and pulls it right up. Because if you grab by the body, you may squeeze the bad stuff out of it and into you at the time that you're taking it off.

. Okay. Which you don't want. Okay. I tell people, be very gentle with the tick when you take it off after that. I don't care if you save it or shoot it with a 30 out six, , but be just. , you don't wanna tick off a tick when you take it off. Be nice to it and then, save it if you want to send it in to see if it, if it needs to be tested.

But otherwise take it off very gently. Okay. And then you wanna watch that bite area. Okay. If the little bit of the head is still left in there just wash it with soap and water. It'll probably, come out in a couple days automatically. And then, if that bite reacts bad let's say a [00:37:00] bullseye rash or any kind of bad reaction.

Or if you start feeling aching joints, flu-like symptoms, your vision goes funny. You don't have brain fog or anything strange like that. After a couple days, you need to see a doctor. Okay? And most doctors will if you have those symptoms. Cause some the bad thing is sometimes we get bit and we don't even know it.

Alright, we don't even know it. So anyways if you get bitten, if you know it and you monitor that bite and you have problems, see a doctor and tell them that, show them that. And in most cases, doctors on the Eastern half United States anyways, most of 'em will more than likely, probably give you some antibiotics, which is called doxycycline.

And that's probably the best thing for Lyme disease. Now, other Tickborne disease, they may have something different, but it's all about early detection and early treatment. I can't stress that enough. That is so critical is take care of in the beginning. Those first few days are a. Don't wait months out there, because then if you wait months to get it treated, [00:38:00] then it's in your system and it's really difficult to get rid of.

That's where people really have the problems. So early detection, early treatment, watch for the a bad reaction if you have symptoms after you got that. Please see a doctor if they don't give you, if you have bad reaction like that, then achy joints, flu symptoms, and they don't give you some antibiotic.

Go to another doctor. It's that critical. Yeah. Yeah. It just has to be, that was gonna be my, you gotta get take care from the beginning. That was gonna be my next question. I know guys with the horror story of, I went into a doctor, I had these symptoms, I had these issues, and they missed it. And then I got a little better and then a few months later I was sick again and I went in again and they missed it.

And then, it takes them months. They find a doctor or the doctor finally gets around to it, probably is from a tick bite. So how can we, especially as outdoorsmen, try to emphasize that when we're, dealing with symptoms that could potentially be from a tick bite? You mean in talking to the doctor?

Yeah. Either talking to the doctor or just steps that we can take.[00:39:00] Yeah I, like I say, find another doctor. If they don't give you something for that it's that critical. I'm not quite sure what else I should say other than that. Sure. But that's it. It's so important. No, that, that's really good.

Because if let's, yeah. Let's say they wanted to do a test on it in the beginning. Okay. Let's say you got bit today and tomorrow in three days from now, Monday, let's say you you go to a next Monday you go to a doctor. Okay? And he said I wanna do a test on it. The tests come back so common.

They're faults in the beginning because it hasn't been in your system long enough. Okay, interesting. Now, if they're in your system for six months, then they're more apt to get a positive result. But in the beginning it's so common to get a negative result because there's not enough in your system yet, hasn't been there long enough.

A lot of times doctors will give the doxycycline just based on the symptoms, not on a test result. Does that help? Yep. Absolutely. And that's so critical. That's huge. I think as outdoorsman, just to be aware of, right? Like [00:40:00] we are our best advocate when it comes to this kind of stuff, right?

When you go to the doctor, you've been Turkey hunting all week, you've been deer hunting all week, you handled maybe a deer that had ticks all over it. You've gotta, you've gotta be the one that says, Hey, I have been in close proximity with ticks. I want you to check this out, or I want, this, any, is there any harm in just giving me the antibiotic?

Because of these symptoms so that I can hopefully take a preventative step from this getting worse. Exactly. I like the way you worded that because doxycycline is actually the main go-to thing for Lyme disease. Okay. And it's, and I'm not a doctor. I don't put one on TV or anything like that, but doxycycline is a pretty mild Antibiotic.

Okay. Okay. Yep. People use it for, it is widely used for all kinds of different things. I was on it when I had tooth aches and stuff like that. Nothing to do with Lyme disease. Okay. So it's very wide and it can be dispensed pretty freely. Okay. So it's not gonna hurt anybody to be honest, for, a week or 10 days or [00:41:00] 14 days, whatever.

Yeah. And now remember that's Lyme disease, okay? Other Tickborne diseases may react differently to us. I means other tickborne diseases like anaplasmosis, but B Cosis, leaky Osis, emia, Rocky Spot Fever Poin, alpha Gal Syndrome. Alpha Gal Syndrome is what your audience does not wanna get, because that makes you allergic to red meat.

Oh my goodness. I know that sounds awful. Yeah. And Alpha Galil. Alpha Galil is more in your area too. Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, that little area right there. It's more prominent there than it is in my area or up in the East Co. Up in the New England area. And that's by a little tick with a little white Dons back.

It's called a lone star Tick. That's the one that will give you that, okay? Now, not everyone does, but that's the one that will give you that. So you have basically have three ticks. You got the black legged deer tick, we call it. You have a eastern black legged tick on the east coast, a western black legged tick on the west coast.

But anyways, you have the, those little deer ticks, and then you have. The lone star, tick the little white dot. Then you have the [00:42:00] American dog tick, we call the wood tick. Those are the three most popular ones on the Eastern Happy United States. So that's. Those are the three. And there's more.

There's about eight or 900 species of ticks in the world. But we don't have that many here. We have plenty that that I don't like any of 'em. That's why I'm the tick terminator, that is like fuel for a nightmare right there. Eight or 900 different species different creepy crawlies that wanna suck your blood and make you sick.

Man, yeah, that is absolutely terrifying. So what am I missing then when it comes to being an outdoorsman? Making sure that I keep myself. , what am I missing? Maybe what do you see guys doing? Like missteps, like maybe even missteps in the prevention stage or missteps once they get to the level of having symptoms, what do you see, ca that creates problems that could have been avoided?

The biggest misstep I see, and people will admit this, they were too lazy to put Perent on their clothes, and then they got bit by a tick and they got Lyme disease. Wow. , my people have told me [00:43:00] that. Wow. That little bit of prevention that you could do could save you hundreds of hours, o of he headaches, not hundreds of hours, years of anguish with Lyme disease expense.

Lyme disease can be very costly too. I got a buddy almost. I spent 50 grand to get it fixed for himself. Wow. A lot of times insurance companies don't pay for it. So the few bucks that you spend on Permethrin and the few minutes that you spend preparing for that, for your ho, for your hunt, for your, for whatever you're doing outdoors is well worth it in the long run.

Trust me. Talk to somebody. Go to online and look at people who have Lyme disease and other tickborne diseases. It is miserable. Miserable. So taking the time to treat their clothes, and stuff like that. I gotta poem when we're close to the end here I'll tell you about all that kind of stuff too.

. Yeah, man, it, most people that I know who are outdoorsmen, there's a routine, right? Whether we're [00:44:00] fishing or hunting or hiking or camping or whatever, we're going outside to do, we've got some kind of preparation routine where we're getting our gear. It seems like that would be a really easy step just to add in, if you're gonna, especially hunting, yeah.

You're gonna hang your clothes outside probably anyway, to get rid of some of the scent. Why not use that as the opportunity? Yeah. To spray it all down. As soon as you hang it up outside, spray it all down, then you know you're gonna be good to go. And it adds almost nothing to your prep. . Exactly. I've never heard it quite worded like that, but you worded it perfectly.

Yeah. That's exactly right for your audience. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. Excellent point. I'm glad you made it like that. Absolutely. So let's fast forward a little bit as we get into those maybe day, two days, or maybe we're just back from the field, the importance of checking ourselves and maybe any tips for us as I, I come in and I do a tick check after a Turkey hunt.

Another little tip that you can do is let's say that you come in after a Turkey. Let's say you [00:45:00] do find that, let's say you did not treat your clothes for whatever crazy reason, okay, and you have ticks on you. What do you do with your clothes? , here's a really cool tip. You don't lay 'em down in the house.

You put your clothes in the dryer, not the washer. You put 'em in the dryer on high for about 15 minutes. That dry heat will kill all the ticks on there and then put 'em in the washer. Interesting. So if I just come in and store 'em. Cool cool trick. Because see, trick ticks need moisture to survive.

They can't stand too much dryness. Okay. And a dry dryer on high for 15, 20 minutes, we'll kill them on your clothes. Interesting. If I just come in and store 'em, let's say I take 'em off and throw 'em in a clothing bin and then put them back on a week later, are those, is there a good chance those tick are still alive?

If I didn't sto, if I didn't drive them a week later? a week later, they probably would die cuz they can't take living in the house [00:46:00] too much. Okay. But you think of where else they're gonna go. They could crawl up on somebody else. Yeah, they could be they could crawl off from there. They may find a, a damp spot place.

But yeah, you should not do that. Yeah. So one thing that clear in a dryer, one thing that I'm curious about, a lot of guys are using ozone these days. To treat their clothing, to, to kill the scent or, for me it's just a way not to have to wash the clothing every single time. I go out into the woods, just run it through a quick ozone cycle, and it takes care of any, scent or sweat or nasty be or whatever from the, for the clothing.

Do you know if that has any effect on permethrin? So if I've treated my clothing and then I come in and run it through an ozone cycle, is that gonna break down what I've done to treat my clothes? Or is it gonna be.

How exactly I'm not, I've definitely heard of ozone. I'm not sure exactly how does that work? Yeah. So with, and enlighten me on that. Yeah. I don't know a ton about it. Other than oh three is a really [00:47:00] volatile mo molecule, which is what, causes it or enables it to be able to bind to, let's say you sweat it a lot and your clothes smell like sweat.

Now it binds to a lot of the odor caus. Molecules that are on your clothing and breaks them down, essentially robbing them of their scent producing capabilities or whatever. So I'm wondering if you spray down with promethrin and then you run it through an ozone cycle, if that volatile molecule of oh three is gonna break down what you've put on your clothes, it's possible.

I would probably treat my clothes after it's been through that. Okay. Gotcha. I probably, I think we would probably agree on that. Yep. Absolutely. Doing it after that. Sure. Yeah, sure. Just in case. Because again, it's cheap and it's easy. Yeah, for sure. Awesome. Why don't you, oh, yeah. Why don't you share the poem with me?

I feel like I need to hear this. I've never heard a poem about ticks or tick prevention. You never heard from a tick terminator before either. That's right. Here's how it goes. I ha I hate them little suckers. I wanna terminate 'em all. [00:48:00] So I do a perin and love to watch 'em fall from head to toe.

I spray this stuff, my shoe, socks, clothes, and hats cuz it works on more than ticks like skiers, chiggers, and even Nats. So I ask you if you're listening to Keep Away from Lyme, get started with Perrin and now is the perfect time. Man. That's awesome. That's awesome. I love that. So this stuff works on more than, just, more than just tics.

It's good for mosquitoes and all kinds of, . Yeah. Now mosquito would land on, on, on a perimeter treated garment, apparel or pants and they'll sense it and then they'll fly off. A lot of times it doesn't necessarily kill them cuz they're not in there on there long enough. But like Chiggers too in the south, I mean you got Chiggers down there.

Yep, yep. Little tiny mics that drive people nuts. Definitely works on them too. Okay, awesome. So absolutely Turkey hunters really need us. Yeah, for sure. I'm definitely gonna be spraying my gear down before we get going here at the end of March in Georgia. And then for before my hunt for certain in in Wisconsin, our area in Wisconsin, I think I read some crazy [00:49:00] statistic, like almost half of the ticks carry Lyme disease in our area, which to me is just a crazy statistic.

Yeah, I'm not surprised. Wisconsin is definitely one of the worst states. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. If folks wanna learn more, they wanna see more from you, maybe find, do you have any of your talks or helpful videos or things like that? Where can they find it? On the tick terminator.com. The tick terminator.com.

Like I say I'm open to do speaking engagements too. Let's say wildlife banquets or anything like that, for hunters, things like that. . So yeah, they get a lot of good information on there. Use their stuff on my front page right there for inform. . Actually I'm coming out with a book here.

I'm done with it. We're editing it right now. I can't decide what we're gonna call it. I was thinking about maybe calling it tick suck, but I may call it something about the , the Battle with the Enemy. But it'll be a crazy book. It's just me talking in the book, it's a, it to help people prevention, yeah, absolutely. , Brian, thanks for your time. I feel. Yeah, I feel if you don't at least incorporate, tick suck into the subtitle.[00:50:00] Man, you missed an opportunity cause that's a good one. But hey, I appreciate your time for coming on. What, oh, is that your license plate? . This is my license plate that says Kick suck

I love that. For the guys on the radio, it says T I C S U C. Now you don't wanna know something else. My wife has plate like this too. Hers says T I C S U K. So we have real Matt Matching license plate. How romantic is that? Yeah. . . I've never heard a tick called romantic, but like you said, I've also never talked to the Tic Terminator.

Brian, I appreciate your time. Thank you for coming on the show today. Certainly lots of good information. If nothing else, keeping guys safe when they're out in the woods. And as I've heard for a lot of other things before, if you don't do it for your, for yourself, do this for your family, right? You don't wanna put your family in a compromised position with your health because of something that could have been easily taken care of during the preparation stage, getting ready for your hunt.

So Brian, thanks for coming on and looking forward to seeing that book whenever it comes out. [00:51:00] All right. Thank you. That's all for this week's episode. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. If you dig this show, be sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever it is that you get your podcast. While you're at it, if you could lead me a five star review, I would very much appreciate that.

You can also follow along with my outdoor adventures on Instagram at the Wisconsin Sportsman or at How to Hunt. Dear. That's also the best way to get ahold of me. Suggest topics, guests, or questions that you'd like me to explore on the show. Big thanks to our partners tact. Hunt worth and OnX, please go support the brands that support this show.

And if you're looking for more great outdoor content, check out the sportsmans empire.com where you'll find my other podcast, the How to Hunt Deer Podcast, as well as a ton of other awesome outdoor podcasts. And until next time, make sure you make the time to get outside and enjoy the incredible natural resources that are ours as Wisconsin Sportsman.[00:52:00]

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