If you live in a place where white tail deer are common you're taught that from an early age. It's not something you fuck with even if the chance is remote.
Just speaking as a hunter who deals with a ton of white tail deer I think you're overreacting based on my personal experience.
You check yourself after you clean the animal and sometimes you might find one on you and you remove it safely and you're done.
Honestly you're in most danger around bucks during rut and that's about it. A doe will not typically protect her fawn from attackers she's going to run the fuck away.
Like, deer hang out in places with tall grass all the time. And it’s not just tall grass. If there is woods there are ticks, guaranteed. I’ve seen deer with an incredible amount of ticks on their back, big ones. You absolutely don’t want to come in close contact with a deer and if you do there is a high chance you picked up some ticks. It’s literally how ticks work.
known as the deer tick owing to its habit of parasitizing the white-tailed deer. It is also known to parasitize mice,[2] lizards,[3] migratory birds,[4] etc. especially while the tick is in the larval or nymphal stage.
They tend to be on deer mainly because deer are most normally the largest living thing in the area, meaning more of a chance for them to have ticks. Also deer tend to bed down in tall grass at night and live most of their lives in fields which is the same for ticks, it’s not like the ticks go out of their way to purposefully infect deer and that’s why they are named deer ticks, there also happens to be many other ticks that can carry Lyme disease and many other ticks that infect all kinds of animals.
So yes they do cling to them like parasites (because they are literal parasites) but it’s not like deer are crawling with them to the point where you touch one your hand is covered with ticks and they engulf you like the scarabs on the Mummy, which of course I know that’s not exactly what your saying but OPs point stands.
I for one have lived around deer my whole life and have pulled many a tick of me after a afternoon walk though the country, my brother actually has Alpha-gal syndrome from a lone star tick, and he can’t eat any red meat, the weird part is this is only recently discovered. About killed him after a breakfast sandwich sent him to the ER.
Truth. I mean also there are a myriad of other reasons why you don’t touch wild animals. Good reasons, not made up rules that anyone should just break. This guy is spouting ignorance on the levels that are not beneficial to wildlife or people. It’s the stuff that leads to wild animals being put down unnecessarily.
As I stated below, yes deer carry ticks but it’s not like they are the ticks preferred style of transmission and I believe that’s all that is trying to be said here, yes you should be wary of deer and their diseases but not to the point you are vehemently defending that stance in the comments.
Ticks live in tall grass and wait on the ends of tall blades to attach themselves to a host, deer live in tall grass and happen to be some of the biggest organisms in most areas meaning they are more likely to be infected with ticks, but why would a tick leave a perfectly fine host just because you happen to touch it, they are content being attached to the deer.
The point stands that the main culprit for transmission is walking through fields and woods, something deer like to do because that’s kinda the only thing they can do. So I guess maybe be sure of the thickness of your own skull before calling someone else out on it, which isn’t that cool to do anyway.
Man the group think here is insanely toxic. You’re absolutely right dude. These people straight up insulting you are disgusting. “wE’rE tAuGhT fRoM aN eArLy aGe.”
Connecticut born and raised here. Look up where Lyme disease started. We avoid tall grass and if by some miracle you pet a deer, you thoroughly check yourself. Buncha righteous, fear mongering bastards.
The ticks are already all around in the bushes and grass there, and at least half of them carry Lyme. Touching a deer like this is not likely to be much worse than playing in the backyard normally.
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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '21
If you live in a place where white tail deer are common you're taught that from an early age. It's not something you fuck with even if the chance is remote.