going to cut up my own deer for the first time this year as the guy that usualy does it for us has "retired" from it and i don't trust anyone else with my meat to be honest...i have a plenty big garage to do it in and my only reservation from doing it at home is.....TICKS.....i hate those little suckers and my worry is that if i skin the deer in my garage i'll have these things running all over (this is the worst they've been in years arpund here)....i know when we have knocked one down late in previous years we have left them in the shed over night at my father in laws and when we got up to take it to get cut the things were all over it....i have a little one running around at home and she is my biggest worry.....not only do we have lymes to worry about but as some of you read there were fatal cases of another disease caused by ticks in NY not to far away from me....i forget the name of it but i know that it only takes 15 minutes after being bit for the transmission to occur.....am i being a little to precatious.....what do you guys do as i'm sure you don't want these things running around your home either......any suggestions would be great......i know skinning it before i bring it in the garage is a way to eliminate that but that's not always an option right then and there either
I have never really worried about it. the ticks are probably going to stay on the deer for the most part. I would skin him then get the hide out of your garage. Once you finish skinning the deer just do a quick check of yourself to make sure you don't have any on you and then get to cutting. We have been cutting up our own deer for 17 years now.
If you can, depending on your temps, just let it hang out overnight...since as soon as the blood has stopped flowing and the body temp is dropping the ticks start to move off to find greener(or redder) pastures.
You can also spread a ring of sevin powder around the area the deer is hanging from, any ticks that dislodge will have to crawl through it to go anywhere and they can't survive the pesticide which is generally a pretty safe pesticide as well. Honestly I don't think it would be a problem anyway, hang it and skin it ASAP and get the hide out of the garage and no problems.
If your so concerned about ticks why didn't you hang it up in a tree and skin it out where you shot it? Rather easy and quick process. You say you don't trust anyone else with your meat but you buy meat at the grocery store that "someone else" has processed and you probably eat out at restaurants where "somebody else" has handled the meat. There must be other reputable meat processors around that would do a perfectly fine job processing your deer. If you want to do it yourself, put a large tarp down, hang the deer, put on rubber gloves, some type of apron or coat and have at it. Roll the skin up and place it on a garbage bag and discard it. Drag the tarp out to the curb, hose it down good or discard it too. Problem solved. Maybe take up knitting instead of deer hunting.
I hate those ticks and I too am not far from Dutchess and those counties that have that new disease now. I always skin them out at the property I hunt and wash the deer down again too. I also bury the hides so I can at least get rid of the ticks on the hide. I do a lot of things to get as many ticks away from me as I can including taking all of my clothing off outside before I hop in the shower after every hunt.
I am in Northeast PA where the instances of Lymes disease are unbelievably high. Like others have already stated, I skin it outside, then take the quarters inside to process.
Well.....richard......i havent shot the deer yet as season opens tomorrow....however when i do....as I said sometimes its not always feesable to take the time and skin it out right there if its late as I have never done it myself before so it prolly wont be that "quick and easy"....plus I have a 21 month old at home and have matters to attend to as a father after the sun goes down.....second of all I dont trust anyone with my meat as far as how long they let it hang or age the meat if you will......the nearest "reputable" processor that I would deal with is about a quarter tank away so your genius idea that I never would have thought of is also not helping me out at 730pm.....by the way i didnt ask how to skin a deer once in my post but thanks for the detailed tutorial...I learned a lot and appreciate the wisdom you offered there.....oh and obviously you have never seen the effects of lyme disease close to home....if you went through 2 years of multiple false diagnosis with someone close to you and the hell that comes with it....you would also have a thought about bringing the possibility of that home to your family......going in the woods for a hike and having to check everyone after is different than bringing a deer covered in them into your living space in my eyes.....I dont need my man card checked by some punk like you....I asked if anyone knew of a way to contain the ticks off a deer if I did have to leave it overnight hanging in an area my daughter frequents....if you cant answer that......dont reply Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
I can relate to the part of your post that I bolded my friend... My fiancee has Lyme disease and it decided to flare up about 3 months ago and it was really bad for like a week... It honestly scared the living hell out of me because she was so sick and looked like death.. I was honestly afraid that I may lose her... I know i may sound melodramatic but Lyme disease is no joke.. Thankfully her symptoms subsided again for now... Hope that she doesnt have another episode for years to come...
once the deer is dead and its body heat stops, the ticks should be moving along. if the temps outside are cool enough, most of em may have dropped off by the time you start taggin n draggin.
A couple years ago I shot a deer, packed it in ice, and brought it to the processer the next day and when we removed it from the bed of my truck, there where probably a hundred tick in the bed of my truck. I know this doesn't help with your question, but your concerns are valid.
