The Field Report

Tick season 2026 // what experienced hunters are adding to their kit this year

You Solved Tick Protection for Yourself. The Problem Is Everyone Around You.

The permethrin works. The tailgate check works. The Sawyer concentrate works. None of it works for the wife, the dog, or the daughter who can't use any of it.

Hunter at truck tailgate checking forearm for ticks at dawn
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You've been doing this right. That's not the problem.

You run your permethrin on a six-week rotation. You treat the boots, the pants, the jacket, the gaiters. You buy the Sawyer concentrate by the gallon and you mix it yourself because the pre-mixed is a ripoff and you know it.

You do the tailgate tick check before you get in the truck. You do the bathtub check when you get home. You pick them off the dog before she gets on the couch.

You've been doing this for twenty years and it works.

For you.

That's the part nobody talks about.

Side by side, treated camo gear in the garage, woman walking to mailbox in flip-flops through tall grass

Your wife won't soak her clothes. You've mixed the bucket. You've hung a note on the fridge. You've bought her the trigger spray, the pre-treated clothes, the picaridin for her skin. She tried the spray once, said it smelled, and put it under the sink. The pre-treated pants were stiff. The picaridin nozzle crusted shut in the junk drawer.

Not can't. Won't. And you can't blame her. Every tool you own takes effort she's never going to put in. She walks to the mailbox in flip-flops and comes back inside without checking her ankles.

Your daughter's OB banned permethrin and DEET for the rest of her pregnancy. No exceptions. She still has to walk from the car to the porch every day in tick country. And you have zero tools to hand her.

The dog gets a Seresto collar you spent sixty bucks on. It kills ticks after they bite. It doesn't stop them from climbing on. The dog is treated for the bite. Not treated for the ride. He goes out, runs the fence line, comes back, gets on the couch, and drops whatever hitched a ride into your living room. The couch where your kid sits. The carpet where your grandkid plays.

The chew kills the bite. Nothing covers the ride.

You've got a closet full of treated clothing. And somebody in your house with nothing.

You solved tick protection for yourself a long time ago. The problem is everyone around you.

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46 years hunting. Never seen numbers like this.

That's not a headline. That's a direct quote from a hunter on Archery Talk, posting photos of deer with their ears covered in ticks. A guy in Michigan said it was the worst he'd ever seen. North Carolina. Kentucky. Missouri. Kansas. Same story, different states.

A guy did everything right before a hike. Sprayed, tucked, the whole routine. Found one starting to bite into his calf anyway.
Another one stopped at a grass edge with his kids for less than a minute. Found seven on them in the car.
A woman outside Chicago put it like this: thirty-five years, never saw one. Last five years, they're everywhere. Can't step in the grass, even short grass, without picking one up.

Tick season used to be May to July. Now it's March to December. The Lone Star tick is in 33 states. It was in 12 when your dad hunted.

And the Lone Star tick carries something your dad never had to think about.

Map showing Lone Star tick range expansion from 2005 to today
Lone Star tick range expansion, 2005 to today. Dark red: historic range. Red: newly established. Orange: suspected, awaiting confirmation.

Alpha-gal syndrome. A lifelong allergy to red meat caused by a single tick bite.

Not a rash. Not a fever. Your body turns on red meat. Beef, pork, lamb, venison. The full freezer, the cookout, the harvest dinner. One bite from the wrong tick and all of it is off the table. For good.

450,000+
Americans the CDC estimates may already have alpha-gal syndrome. Up over 5,500% since 2015.

The CDC published a brochure specifically for hunters in December 2024. That's how real this is.

You know someone who has it. Or you know someone who knows someone. A buddy who can't eat venison anymore. A guy at camp who sits out the cookout. It's not rare anymore. It's not distant. It's in your county.

"There's a fear deeply planted in me now."from a public hunting forum, 2025

Your old playbook was built before alpha-gal existed. Before tick season was nine months long. Before January bites were normal.

You weren't doing it wrong. The threat changed under you.


The drag, the dress, and the load. That's when they move.

You sat in the stand for four hours. Clean. Careful. Permethrin on the clothes, picaridin on the skin.

Then you shot, walked to it, grabbed the legs, and dragged it three hundred yards back to the truck.

That's when they move.

Hunter dragging whitetail through tall grass, forearms exposed

The US Army Public Health Command publishes a field guide on this. As the deer's body temperature drops, ticks leave the carcass and seek the next warm body. The next warm body is you.

Your permethrin is on your jacket. The ticks are crawling up your bare arms during the dress. Your DEET sweated off two hours ago. And you're handling a carcass that was covered in them.

Every chemical option puts something on the meat. You asked about the sulfur in the feed. The ivermectin in the herd. The permethrin on the dragging tarp. Every time you're running the same math: if it's strong enough to work, is it in the deer?

The venison isn't dinner. The venison is the whole point. It feeds your family for six months. You need to know it's clean.the math every hunter runs during the drag

Here's the question nobody's had a good answer for:

Can you add a layer of tick protection during the drag, the dress, and the load without putting anything on your skin, in the blood, or on the meat?


A layer. Not a miracle. Not a replacement. A layer.

Mana+ is small. About the size of a guitar pick. Lighter than a AA battery. It clips on.

It puts out a steady ultrasonic signal the whole time it's running. Too high for you to hear it. Ticks find you by picking up heat, breath, and movement with a little sensor on their front legs. That's what the signal is aimed at.

Mana+ device clipped to a hunter's belt loop next to a knife sheath

But here's what matters more than any of that.

It never touches you.

Not your skin. Not your hands. Not your kid's neck. Not the food in your freezer.

It's a thing on your belt. Not a thing on your body.

That's the whole idea. Everything else anybody has ever handed you goes on somebody or into something. This one doesn't go anywhere. It's a clip.

🚫
No chemicals. No skin contact. No soak-and-dry cycle. No reapplication window. No smell in the stand.
Charges off your phone cable. About 90 minutes to charge. Runs for weeks. Plug it in when you think of it.
👥
One per person. Clips to a belt loop, a pack strap, a dog collar, a jacket zipper. Built-in carabiner.

This is not a replacement for permethrin. If you're running the Sawyer concentrate on your clothes, keep running it. If you're doing the tailgate tick check, keep doing it. If you're treating the dog, keep treating the dog.

This is the layer you didn't have before. The one that runs during the drag, the dress, and the load. The exact moment when your spray has sweated off and the ticks are moving off the carcass.

Woman gardening in golden hour with Mana+ clipped to her apron strap

The wife clips it to her gardening apron and actually wears it. Every time. Which is a small miracle if you've ever tried to get somebody to soak their clothes in permethrin for two hours.

Think about that. Every tick tool you've ever owned comes with a process. This is the first one you can just hand somebody and say clip this on when you go outside. That's it. That's the whole thing.

The dog gets one on the collar. It runs alongside whatever chemical treatment you're already using. It adds a layer before ticks climb on. That's the gap that Seresto and Bravecto don't cover because they kill after attachment, not before. The chew handles the bite. This handles the ride. Fewer passengers coming through the front door.

And the pregnant daughter who can't use anything her OB would object to? Nothing on the skin. Nothing absorbed. Sound can't enter the bloodstream.

That's not a claim. That's physics.


It's not really the ticks. It's the thinking about the ticks.

Be honest for a second.

How much of your season goes to this?

The spray before you go out. The spray again after lunch. The strip-down at the door. The shower. The check on you, the check on the kids, the check on the dog. The second check because you're not sure about the first one. Lying there at eleven at night going did I get that one on the back of his knee.

That's the real cost. Not the bite. Nine months of worrying about the bite.

Father checking behind his son's ear on the porch at dusk

Here's what people say they notice first, and it's not what you'd guess.

It isn't that they stopped finding ticks.

It's that they stopped checking for them every twenty minutes.

The thing on your belt is doing the worrying so you don't have to. You still do your check at the end of the day. You just stop doing it in your head all afternoon.

A layer she actually wears beats a perfect system she won't touch. Something beats nothing. And nothing is what she had before.


Fair questions. Straight answers.

"Does ultrasonic actually work, or is this snake oil?"

Fair question. It's the first thing every hunter asks.

The technology has been in European veterinary clinics since 2009. Ticks have a little sensor on their front legs that picks up heat, CO2, and movement from whatever they're trying to climb on. The ultrasonic signal disrupts that sensor.

Is there a peer-reviewed study proving this exact device works on Lone Star ticks? No. The company is straight about that. Because you'd find out anyway and then you wouldn't trust anything else they said.

This is a layer, not a guarantee. Use it alongside permethrin, alongside your tick checks, alongside everything you already do. If it keeps even a few more ticks off you, your wife, your dog, or your daughter, that's fewer chances for alpha-gal, Lyme, or anything else a tick carries.

🛡
90 days. Full season. Clip it on. Wear it through the spring. Take it in the woods. If you get to day 90 and you don't feel better about walking outside, email them and they send your money back. Keep the device. They're not going to make you mail a used clip back. That's more than Sawyer offers on the permethrin, and you buy that every year without thinking twice.
"Those plug-in ultrasonic pest repellers don't work."

Different technology, different target. Those plug-in things are aimed at rodents at totally different frequencies. This is aimed at the sensor ticks use to find you. It's like comparing a dog whistle to a car horn. Same category of sound, totally different job.

"If this worked, Cabela's would carry it."

Retail takes years. Cabela's carries permethrin, and it works. For people who will use it. The person you're buying this for won't use permethrin. Cabela's doesn't have anything for that person. Not yet.

"I don't want to replace what already works."

You shouldn't. Keep every tool you have. Add this one. Best case, it adds a layer you didn't have. Worst case, you send it back and you're out nothing.

"Will it bother the deer?"

It's aimed at the sensor ticks use, not at anything the deer cares about. Plenty of guys wear it on the stand. That's the whole point. No spray smell drifting, no DEET on your hands when you draw.


What families are saying.

"Bought four. One for me, one for the wife, one for the dog collar, one spare. I run permethrin on everything and I'm keeping it. But my wife won't touch the stuff. Won't soak her clothes, won't use the spray, won't do any of it. She clips this on her garden hat and actually wears it. Every time. First tick tool she's used more than once. That alone was worth it."
Mark R. Wisconsin ★★★★★
"I clip it on during the drag. Honestly, I can't tell you for certain it does anything. What I can tell you is the drag is when I'm most exposed and I feel better having something running that doesn't put chemicals on my hands while I'm handling meat. The guarantee made it a no-brainer to try. Charged it twice since August. That's about all the effort it takes."
Steve K. Michigan ★★★★★
"My daughter is seven months along and her OB banned all the chemical options. She lives on five acres and walks to her car every morning through the grass. I couldn't find anything she could use. This clips to her bag. Nothing on the skin, nothing she breathes in. I don't know if it's the final answer but it's something, and something is better than the nothing she had before."
Tom L. North Carolina ★★★★☆

Nobody buys one.

One for your belt during the hunt. One for the wife's jacket. One for the dog's collar. One for the daughter until March.

The most common question isn't "does it work?" It's "how many do I need?"

Count the people at your house who walk outside. That's your number. Most guys who find this page leave with three or four.

Family tick kit flat lay, four Mana+ devices on weathered wood surface
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90 days to change your mind · Ships from the US · Nothing goes on your skin


Count the people who walk outside. That's your number.
Most families leave with three or four. One per person, one for the dog.
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And why "later" doesn't hold up.

"We mostly stay on the paths."

So did the guy who found one biting his calf thirty minutes from home. They're not in the middle of the woods. They're at the edge, in the tall stuff, waiting on whatever brushes past.

"I check the kids every night anyway."

So did the dad whose daughter found the one he missed on the back of his own knee. The check is the last look, not the first one. It happens after they're already on you.

"We've been fine so far."

That's word for word what that woman outside Chicago said for thirty-five years. Then five years ago it changed. Now she can't walk in short grass.

"I'll grab something before the camping trip."

The season already started. It started in March and it's not stopping until November. Nine months is a long time to keep putting spray back on. It's not very long at all to keep something clipped to your bag.


One clip. Anywhere they go.

🏹
Belt Loop
During the hunt, the drag, the dress
🐶
Dog Collar
Runs alongside Seresto or Bravecto
👜
Jacket Zipper
Wife, kids, anyone who goes outside
🎒
Backpack Strap
Hiking, camping, school pickup
👶
Diaper Bag
Safe for pregnancy. No chemicals.
🌱
Garden Apron
She clips it on. Every time.

The freezer in the garage.

Open chest freezer full of labeled venison packages

That's six months of feeding your family from the land you walk. It's proof you provide. It's backstrap on opening night and ground venison all winter and the cookout where everyone eats what you harvested.

Alpha-gal takes the freezer. And you don't get it back.

You've done the permethrin for twenty years. You've done the tick checks. You've done everything right. And the threat grew past what those tools were built for.

You're standing there holding your dad's tools in a world that quietly swapped the problem out on you.

This doesn't replace any of that. It fills the gap those tools leave open. The drag, the dress, the family members who won't soak their clothes, the dog who brings them into the house, the daughter who can't use chemicals until March.

This was never about you. Your kit is dialed. It was always about her. About them. About the people around you who have nothing.

Ninety days. Full season. Clip it on before bow camp. If you're not sold by Thanksgiving, every penny back.

Protect the Freezer →

90 days to change your mind · Ships from the US · Nothing goes on your skin