Adventure at oak hammock marsh.

I wish I had some sort of documentation of my experience at Oak Hammock Marsh because my attempt to plan an eventful afternoon had failed miserably.



Like all animals in nature, Ticks (a small arachnid belonging to the superfamily lxodoidea, if you didn't know) engage in behaviors that serve to foster and sustain life. Buttt.. they are no wildebeest, majestic cat or even ground squirrel that burrow and nibble on grass, all cute.





Aww, see cute right?

Ticks are malicious and mean, MEAN! Ticks are fucking assholes. With that said, I thought it would be nice to spend the afternoon at oak hammock marsh , have a nice jaunt, some sandwiches etc. The big foreshadow of that day was this sign that we read, right before we began our adventure. It had some facts (warnings really) about ticks that can be found in the tall grasses of the marsh, just to be careful. So, ticks engage in this 'interesting' behavior called Questing. yeah wtf right? Basically....



Hard ticks seek hosts by an interesting behavior called "questing." Questing ticks crawl up the stems of grass or perch on the edges of leaves on the ground in a typical posture with the front legs extended, especially in response to a host passing by. Certain biochemicals such as carbon dioxide as well as heat and movement serve as stimuli for questing behavior. Subsequently, these ticks climb on to a potential host which brushes against their extended front legs.



Awesome.



So, the first half hour was okay, super relaxed, really appreciating the marsh and nature, until the grass on the trail started getting higher and we took a wrong turn that lead to my inevitable break down. This was the path we took:





































In total, we walked about 13km, in what I now like to refer to as 'tick city'. It was soooo shitty. There was probably at LEAST 50 ticks on Ken at the end of it all. I had no idea that it was going to be as bad as it was. My break down consisted of me stomping around, in an anxiety induced stupor, sweating and almost crying, but I made it. We tried running, but that failed because I'm ('we're') unbearably out of shape. I'd run for like five minutes and then ultimately want to collapse into the thicket of grass, but couldn't, so really I just settled into hopping around in a circle until Ken would look for ticks on my legs pick them off (because I refused/couldn't look at or touch them)then pick of the hundred that were already nested on his jeans. It continued on like this for the duration of the walk, 15 minute intervals in between reserved for picking off the ticks that have accumulated, mostly on Ken because he was wearing jeans. Oh, did I mention I was wearing shorts and flat canvas shoes? yeah. HELL. It was fucking HELL. The worst was looking down at the grass, trying to find a trail that didn't have as much grass and seeing these assholes in their 'quest' position. What dicks.











Oh and our sandwiches suckeddddd.

So, with all of that said, these are my top 'bugs' that I cannot stand in large quantities. In most cases these ones would probably precipitate an ugly break down that anyone would not want to be a witness of.

1. Ticks

2. Spiders

3. Canker Worms

4. Wasps