Moose and Ticks

Moose and Ticks

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
I was on a hunting trip and I was talking to some of the guys with me and they told me that Moose are dying because of winter ticks. Listen to a conversation I had with University of Idaho entomologist Dr. Sanford Eigenbrode. "I have heard about the moose decline and I know they can be heavily infected with ticks." According to the Maine Sun Journal, Maine wildlife biologists Chuck Hulsey and Lee Kantar are hoping for a long, cold winter with snow lingering on the ground through April. Winter ticks are affected by the previous winter. If you have a lot of snow and a lot of cold, that's not good for the ticks. If you have less snow and more warmth, it's really good for the ticks. That's what happened last winter, and it's why biologists heard so many reports of people finding more moose carcasses than usual in the woods the following spring. Winter tick "cluster bombs" in the tens of thousands ambush moose and take their first blood meal then settle in for the winter. "The winter tick is a huge contributor to a calf or an adult dying" said Kantar, Maine's moose and deer biologist. "They get literally tens of thousands of moose ticks on the back of a moose and within a two-week period of time, they're taking so much blood that for a smaller moose like a calf, that moose can't replace its blood fast enough."
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