Ticks in Central KY?

[tuckessee]

Only evergreen native is red cedar? Shortleaf, Virginia, and pitch pine are all in central Kentucky. I literally just got back from barren river lake tailwaters and I'm still pulling ticks off me. I live in BG and any area near water here is infested with common and deer ticks

[CraigCreek]

Originally Posted by tuckessee

Only evergreen native is red cedar? Shortleaf, Virginia, and pitch pine are all in central Kentucky. I literally just got back from barren river lake tailwaters and I'm still pulling ticks off me. I live in BG and any area near water here is infested with common and deer ticks

I should have said "Inner Bluegrass" rather than "Central Kentucky". The limestone and alkaline soil here do not allow other evergreens to grow naturally - of course, many have been planted, but only cedar is native to the Inner Bluegrass.

Actually, isn't Barren River is in the Pennyrile or perhaps the Knobs?? I need to find a map showing Kentucky's regions...
Edited to add: just found such a map. Barren River is in the Pennyrile ("Pennyroyal").

BTW, are you using "BG" to mean Bowling Green or Blue Grass?? If it's Bowling Green, you are not in either the Inner or Outer Bluegrass, but are in the Pennyrile (aka the "Pennyroyal", for purists - for traditionalists, it's always going to be the Pennyrile).

I tend to think of Bowling Green as being located in western Kentucky...not far western Kentucky, but still - western.

[tuckessee]

Yeah I'm in Warren county, and you are correct if directly referring to the inner bluegrass. I was just stating the tick situation down here for comparison. We are in the center of the pennyrile, and yes the culture is more in line with western Kentucky. That may be one reason Western Kentucky University is here. But when I think of western Kentucky I think of cypress/tupelo swamps and loess alluvial plains (northernmost Mississippi delta). Here we have red clay and more Southern species of trees than the inner bluegrass, including naturalized stands of loblolly, as well as native shortleaf, Virginia pine, and of course red cedar.

[creeksitter]

There weren't many evergreens on my trail of ticks. Unless you count mountain laurel and perhaps rhododendron.

[EricOldTime]

EVERY time I have gone into the woods here in Kentucky in summer, I've found ticks on me. My grandfathers coon dogs and foxhounds were regularly covered in them. This is Daviess, Hancock and Ohio counties. We'd have to spray the dogs once every 2 weeks heavily to get the ticks off of them.

To be honest, it's hard going into the woods in ky in summer, youre almost guaranteed to be eaten up. On my uncles farm in Hancock county Kentucky, he has woods all around him close to his house and he has to keep the grass mowed down real good or his yard gets overun.

Worse are the chiggars which are also bad, gotten myself into a mess of those a few times, Once when I was a kid during a hot Kentucky summer down in LBL ironically enough on Cravens Bay in Lyon County on Barkley. The absolute worse are the "Deer Flies" and "Turkey Lice" especially the Deer Flies....nasty little turds