The American Beagler Forum

today me and a buddy shot 5 rabbits today and they were all covered with fleas i have never seen them this bad at this time of the year but it has been in the 50's the last few days.
anyone else noticing fleas realy bad lately?

My girlfriend has them all year long. A fox with fleas will get a stick in his mouth and get in the water with just his nose above water. All the fleas will jump onto the stick and he lets the stick go. I have seen it!!!

If you hang the rabbit in a tree, as the body temp. drops they will hop off. Then when your ready to leave pick them up on the way out, but I still don't think I would put them in my game bag, lol lol
Sod

Yep, we've noticed the fleas are BAD also. While hunting last week, a friend and I had bunnies in our vest, and began feeling the rascals crawling on us. My 18 year old daughter cleans my bunnies for me (eat ur heart out LOL) and she said they were loaded with fleas. Soooo, take it from me, don't just carry the bunnies in and plop em on the kitchen counter. You may not like the result. LOL. Brian

I was in Wis last week, we got one hare and one cottontail (and one grouse). The cottontail was thick with them. Of course, I got to clean the cottontail... Oh well, it was good eating.

Emery

I killed a bunny last Wed. (with my T/C Contender .410 pistol--I have so very little to brag about, humor me!) and it was covered with fleas, also. I hung it in a tree for a while and when I picked it up it only had a couple on it. I left my game vest on the dog box all day and washed it later (needed it anyway, since it hadn't been washed in 2 yr.) Haven't seen any since. Hound owners need to be careful about this or hounds could get infested. I remember last summer's discussion about Sevin dust. Probably a good year-round idea.

the thing is i shot a rabbit in the same area just the day before and it had no fleas on it but the next day they were covered in them i didn't put any in my game bag i just tied a string on their back legs and carried them out but i have never in the entire time i have been rabbit hunting (sence i was 9 and i am 16) nto realy long but awhile have i seen them this bad in january. but then again i don't think i have seen it around 60 the first day of the month in a while either.

not month i mean year

Our winters are milder here but I have never seen a "Georgia" rabbit that did not have a few fleas even in the coldest of weather! It amazes me that your toes can be numb and you can have fleas crawling on your hand (while holding the dead rabbit up in front of the dogs) at the same time! One of my partners put his dead rabbits in a "bread sack" before putting them in his vest to keep the fleas off of him.

Not about fleas, but another oddity. I don't normally treat my dogs with a tick preventative in the winter months. It's been rather warm here lately and notice ticks on my dogs yesterday. Never thought I'd be using BioSpot in January.