ANDOVER — Leo Camire of Andover saw firsthand last month how something as small as a winter tick can kill a moose, even a large bull moose.
On May 3, he photographed a dead bull moose around the corner from his house on South Arm Road that was covered with engorged ticks.
“He was a big moose,” he said. He estimated its weight at 600 to 700 pounds.
Camire pointed to one of three photographs he took of the moose that revealed many engorged ticks on its hindquarters and around its butt and partially down its left rear leg and across to its stomach.
Curling his index finger into his thumb on his right hand to indicate the size of a quarter, Camire said of the parasites on the moose’s butt end, “That’s all frickin’ ticks that big around.”
The moose was also missing large chunks of hair on its hindquarters and body. Camire said it looked like the moose tried to rub off the ticks and took its winter coat off with them.
The moose was found lying against a gate on a gated road.
“I was driving into town and I slowed down and saw the moose there and I stopped and Jeff (Rainey) was there and I said, ‘What the hell’s going on? Did somebody shoot it?’ He said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Did it get hit?’ and he said, ‘No, come look at it,’ and I did and I said, ‘Holy crap,’ so I took some pictures of it. That’s scary.”
Camire took the pictures off his cellphone and posted them on his Facebook page, and later uploaded the image of the tick infestation on the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Facebook page.
About a week later, another dead moose, a younger one, was found at the bottom of Long Hill, he said. “He had a big patches of hair missing and ticks on him. That one was killed by the ticks.”
He said he doesn’t like to see moose killed by ticks, because he knows they must have suffered greatly.
Despite that, Camire said he hasn’t seen any reduction in the moose population along South Arm Road. And all of the moose he’s seen in the area have been “very healthy-looking.”
“I just think that poor bull was kind of unlucky,” he said. “Although I’ve heard that a lot of people have been finding dead ones up around Jackman; two, three and four of them at a time.”
He said he read an article about how ticks get on moose.
“What happens is those ticks will get off on a branch, the moose will go by, and that’s how they get ’em,” Camire said. “They climb on, and then they just breed there. I guess they just breed like rabbits.”
Camire said a Maine game warden came the day after the dead bull moose was found, hooked a rope onto it and towed it down the road and up another and left it there.
According to state wildlife biologists, Maine’s moose population is estimated at 60,000 to 70,000.
In September 2013, the department estimated the population at below 70,000 and said it was reduced intentionally from the 76,000 it was two years ago through increased permits to hunt moose.
The unknown variable skewing moose populations is winter ticks. These single-host parasites have been documented in Maine since the 1930s and undergo periodic spikes in populations, according to a May 9 department news release.
On March 27, Inland Fisheries said in a news release about the approaching deadline for the moose lottery that it intended to issue 4,085 moose permits in 25 wildlife management districts that encompass more than 21,000 square miles.
However, on May 9, after learning about the heavier-than-usual winter tick predation, the department reduced the available permits by 990. That’s down from the 4,110 that were available last year.
“Based upon the research of our biologists, I feel it is prudent to decrease the number of female moose permits available,” Chandler Woodcock, IFW commissioner, said in the May 9 release.
“Glad to see that the state is being proactive about this potential serious issue,” Jason Seymour, a former Lewiston resident now living in Old Town replied to the May 9 release on the MDIFW’s Facebook site.
“I’m glad to see IFW is finally waking up,” Carl Burns of Andover wrote. “Moose populations are in serious decline across the northern tier states from Minnesota eastward, mainly due to two factors: Winter ticks and over-hunting.”
Burns said the MDIFW has overestimated the moose population for several years and allowed hunters to take too many prime-breeding, large bulls are being taken.
“We see very few big bulls in this area (Andover) now, mostly immature bulls and medium size cows,” Burns said. “We’re seeing far fewer moose at all around here than we did just 10 years ago. To strengthen the herd, IFW needs to more closely regulate the taking of large, prime-breeding bulls.”
On May 10, Orion Outfitters and Guide Service of Bethel replied to Burns’ comment, agreeing about decreased moose numbers in Western Maine.
“Seeing the same here in zone 7 and 12,” Orion Outfitters commented via Facebook. “Much fewer moose than even five years ago. This is a great step, but probably not the last one.”
Holly Bates of Benedicta wrote on May 9, “Good call IFW. My husband and I antler hunt and we have found an alarming number of dead moose this spring.”
Scott Cyr of Fort Fairfield wrote on May 9 that he agreed with Bates.
“I also have been out looking for antlers and have found three dead tick-infested moose in the last two days. Not good!” Cyr said.
Bert Corrigan of Smithfield wrote on May 10, thanking the department for “good management” in reducing the moose permits.
“After 3,000 miles in the Northern Maine woods from Jackman to Fort Kent, I saw firsthand the effect of the harsh winter and tick infestation,” Corrigan said. “Maine’s moose and deer herd did a lot of dying this winter.”
Winter ticks are also partly to blame for the decline in applications for moose permits, Dana Duncan, MDIFW information management supervisor, said Wednesday.
Applicant numbers have dropped from a high of 94,532 in 1994 when 1,130 moose could be taken only in certain zones Oct. 3-8, to 53,577 this spring for 3,095 moose in certain zones and weeks in September through November, according to the department. Of the 1994 and 2014 applicants, respectively, 74,424 and 38,419 were residents.
Each year, IFW biologists sample moose for winter tick densities at moose registration stations during the moose hunt. Last fall, biologists recorded one of the highest tick counts in the past 10 years, according to the May 9 release.
In making the recommendation to reduce permits, IFW biologists also used data from the ongoing radio-collar moose study. Early data revealed about a 30 percent mortality rate for adult females, which is above the average 10 percent winter mortality rate for female moose.
Antlerless-only permits were decreased in northern and northwestern Maine, including the northern portions of Oxford, Franklin, Somerset, Piscataquis, Penobscot and Aroostook counties.
IFW wildlife biologists have documented a number of winter moose kills throughout the state. Many of the moose carcasses are engorged with winter ticks, just like Camire and countless other people have discovered.
“Even with the increase in ticks this year, by decreasing the number of antlerless permits available, we can continue to meet our population objectives for moose,” Lee Kantar, IFW moose biologist in Bangor, said in the May 9 release. He wasn’t available for additional comment Friday.
Bob Cordes, an assistant regional wildlife biologist in Strong, said Friday that winter tick collection at hunter check stations in their region “wasn’t that bad” this fall.
“We found some tick loads on moose, but this year their numbers were the highest reported, but it didn’t seem as bad in our area,” Cordes said.
Moose ticks are single host, meaning they stick to one species.
“Winter ticks will get on deer but not on the loads they are on moose,” Cordes said. “They prefer moose. They have a nine-month life cycle and the fall is their questing phase. It’s really from September through December where they climb up on foliage and try to catch a ride.”
Because moose can’t groom themselves well, the tick larvae get a free ride unless moose manage to scrape them off by rubbing against trees. But that breaks the animal’s thick, protective hair, leaving them vulnerable to death from exposure.
The larvae crawl onto moose backs, take blood meals, moult into nymphs, spend the winter, and then moult into adults with another blood meal.
In March and April, they breed and take a third blood meal before dropping off, engorged females first, each to lay a thousand or so eggs in the leaf litter before dying.
Cordes said Maine experienced a high mortality rate this winter in moose from winter ticks and the harsh winter. But he said hunters didn’t need to worry about getting winter ticks on them when dragging their moose kill through the woods this fall.
“The winter tick doesn’t carry Lyme disease,” Cordes said. “It may carry other diseases, but not Lyme. It’s a single-host (parasite), so it’s not as apt to carry diseases from other species, unlike the deer tick.”
Getting moose ticks would be akin to getting dog ticks in the spring, Cordes said. “It makes your skin crawl when they get on you and you find them.”
Moose permit applicants
2014 — 53,577 (38,419 residents; 15,158 non residents); Available permits: 3,095.
2013 — 55,946 (40,313 residents; 15,633 non residents); Permits: 4,110; Harvest: 3,015.
2012 — 54,338 (39,681 residents; 14,657 non residents); Permits: 3,725; Harvest: 2,971.
2011 — 49,889 (36,535 residents; 13,354 non residents); Permits: 3,862; Harvest: 2,660.
2010 — 49,729 (37,012 residents; 12,717 non residents); Permits: 3,140; Harvest: 2,469.
2009 — 56,611 (40,959 residents; 15,652 non residents); Permits: 3,015; Harvest: 2,464.
2008 — 64,450 (46,313 residents; 18,137 non residents); Permits: 3,015; Harvest: 2,243.
2007 — 65,088 (46,568 residents; 18,520 non residents); Permits: 2,880; Harvest: 2,052.
2006 — 65,184 (46,412 residents; 18,772 non residents); Permits: 2,825; Harvest: 2,329.
2005 — 69,084 (49,288 residents; 19,796 non residents); Permits: 2,921; Harvest: 2,226.
2004 — 73,755 (53,205 residents; 20,550 non residents); Permits: 2,910; Harvest: 2,317.
2003 — 78,003 (56,086 residents; 21,917 non residents); Permits: 2,593; Harvest: 2,075.
2002 — 84,725 (60,417 residents; 24,308 non residents); Permits: 2,964; Harvest: 2,375.
2001 — 85,275 (63,266 residents; 22,009 non residents); Permits: 3,000; Harvest: 2,226.
1994 — 94,532 (74,434 residents; 20,108 non residents); Permits: 1,200; Harvest: 1,130.
How to get rid of ticks when hunting
AUGUSTA — To get rid of ticks or keep them away when hunting in the Maine woods, Dr. Sheila Pinette recommends using a product called Permethrin on clothing.
Pinette is director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Augusta. The center has a website devoted to preventing tick bites at www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/on_people.html.
Pinette said Thursday that applying Permethrin to clothing will kill ticks that crawl across it, “keep them from biting you and, basically, they’ll fall off.
“You can also put it in your wash and that will be good for multiple washes for at least a month,” she said. “The military actually uses that, so Permethrin can actually be purchased at any of the sports stores or probably online.”
Another option is DEET, the active ingredient in insect repellents. Pinette recommended applying 20 percent DEET on skin that is exposed.
“That should be washed off after you come in at the end of the day,” she said. “You don’t want to accumulate to get toxic effects. So definitely (use) as prescribed and read the directions on the can or aerosol or the bottle.
“The other option is to make sure that you’re wearing light-colored clothing, and check for ticks in your scalp, your groin, your axilla (underarms), your belt line, your bra line, and your back,” Pinette said.
“Before you go out, have someone else check, as well, look in your hair, and then again when you return in at the end of the day.”
She said people can wear light-colored clothing to better see ticks on clothing, tuck pants into socks, wear knee-high boots, and even wear face and neck netting as desired.
“Sometimes that helps as a barrier,” Pinette said. “Sometimes wearing boots up to your knee can also be helpful, especially to keep them off of your ankle or common places.”
For more information about Permethrin and DEET, visit www.tickinfo.com/permethrin.htm.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story