TOPIC: Is now not a good time to scout?

So I'm finally getting out to the mountains for a hike this Wednesday. I was thinking about making it a scouting trip, but I have a few concerns. Isn't this around the height of snake and tick season? I've seen lots of snake pictures recently in the mountain areas (including suburban).

Rattlesnakes, ticks, and copperheads are out and lively well into the fall so scouting with them now and or harvesting with them this fall. I really don't see a difference. Just watch where each foot goes and don't step over logs because they like to lay under them and will get an ankle.

VAhunter,

There are some positives and negatives to scouting at this time of the year. I went to the mountains a couple of days ago and I told my wife that it would probably be my last trip before the season opens. Every thing is up and growing now with good size to it. If it's not covered up, you should find them pretty easily. On the other hand, snakes, yellow jackets, and some other obstacles are more prevalent from this point on. Sting weed is one that can eat you up, even with snake boots and chaps. It can grow as tall as a man and the nettles are out now, so watch out for them. I happened to be hunting a place that had so much Sarsaparilla and Blue Cohosh that I could not even find an opening to see where I had planted young sang last season. The easiest places to get through would be Black Cohosh patches. They are getting tall and setting seed pods, but they're not so hard to get through. I know your anxious to go, so good luck and I hope you fine some nice ones.

Hugh

two bear wrote:

Rattlesnakes, ticks, and copperheads are out and lively well into the fall so scouting with them now and or harvesting with them this fall. I really don't see a difference. Just watch where each foot goes and don't step over logs because they like to lay under them and will get an ankle.

Noted. Thank you.

Hugh Hartsell wrote:

VAhunter,

There are some positives and negatives to scouting at this time of the year. I went to the mountains a couple of days ago and I told my wife that it would probably be my last trip before the season opens. Every thing is up and growing now with good size to it. If it's not covered up, you should find them pretty easily. On the other hand, snakes, yellow jackets, and some other obstacles are more prevalent from this point on. Sting weed is one that can eat you up, even with snake boots and chaps. It can grow as tall as a man and the nettles are out now, so watch out for them. I happened to be hunting a place that had so much Sarsaparilla and Blue Cohosh that I could not even find an opening to see where I had planted young sang last season. The easiest places to get through would be Black Cohosh patches. They are getting tall and setting seed pods, but they're not so hard to get through. I know your anxious to go, so good luck and I hope you fine some nice ones.

Hugh

Oh, god. Not too fond of snakes, but yellow jackets scare the crap out of me. I'm not so sure I'm as anxious as I was a while back when I thought of ginseng hunting. I'll be planning on starting my hunting in the late fall and early winter. Yellow jackets thrive in late summer and fall. And, yes, I've seen those stinging nettle before so I'll watch out for that.

Not sure about down there, but up here there are a lot of little ground plants of some sort that come up in spring and die out by summer. So it is easier up here in a month or two.

Interesting. Yeah, I've noticed quite a few on the ground. I'm still really trying to make sure I can identify all of the companion plants, poison ivy/oak, and lookalikes.

I hunted and harvested some seng for my own personal use on June 1.

There is a lot of green this time of year... and as someone above mentioned, some of that green would die down later in the summer which would make the seng a little easier to spot.

But hey, when you get the chance to go, and the tops are up, it is always a good time to scout.

Earlier in the season like now, there will be a lot of seng tops up, that you will not find when you go back in September (deer browse). I think by the time seng season opens in September as much as 50% of tops have been browsed (depending on deer population levels). I have seen the browsing get much worse in dry years. We have had plenty of rain this year, so hopefully the browsing will be down some. They have lots of other green stuff to eat right now.

I cant' see there being any difference in snake or tick between now and September. That risk should be about the same.

Good Luck !

TNhunter

Thanks for all the good information! A lot of that I haven't learned yet. I'm goin on pretty strenuous hike tomorrow in preparation for Katahdin in a few weeks, so I won't be able to dedicate much time to scouting. But, I'll definitely go off trail a bit to look. The great part about this hike is that it's outside of the National Park.

if you learn to find ginseng now which to me is the hardest time it will be much easyier this fall when the berrys are red and the weed cover has thined, dog ticks get less in the fall but deer ticks seem worse to me .tn is right about the deer though they can sure do the damage