Mites, ticks, lice and fleas.....oh my ! UGH.....poor marten .....

I had no idea they collected so many varmints on them, not counting the ones inside. I'm happy they keep such good fur texture under those sappy conditions. And, happy that trappers don't suffer from those same things in dealing with the marten they catch. At least I haven't heard of anyone enduring trouble from them.

I wonder how much of those things they get from the voles , mice, etc they catch ? If they all share the same varmints....

Jack, you are indeed in a special environment for marten . I'm glad you have them there to enjoy and study.

inside thread

My experience with cannibalism is much like Boco's. I've seen some years where the only way to prevent it was a daily trap check, and I would still lose some.

Thank you N50....I thought they got those things from the voles and mice.

What? marten in North Dakota? I can't picture marten habitat in ND, what does that look like?
And marten in sage brush in Idaho??
The only thing even remotely similar that I've seen is marten in the Brooks range where the only thing resembling a tree for miles is a thin strip of willows along the riparian areas.

Uh Oh! It is raining!

Pretty normal every winter. Hard for that rain to get through the 4 foot snow pack to kill my voles.

Takes a lot of rain to even make a good crust. I love rain in the winter. Beats another 2 foot of snow.

When your on a dying mouse you get one chance....jump. Or be eaten.
As for what the life cycles in marten nest are I don't know what fleas can continue. This tick species is thought to cycle in the nest.

As for ND maybe someone from there can chime in. The RTL trappers in the Peace Gardens Canadian side do take most of their allotted 10 animals. The do travel along the Pembina River and are found all along the Red River and our farm is 6 miles from the boarder and they are there.

I've seen lots of cannibalism, and the territorial biting like Dirt mentioned. Usually the territorial biting seems to be adult male, running down the line, biting the neck, chest, thorax of any marten hanging in sets, I presume making sure they are dead. I've often followed their wake of destruction (tracks), to eventually find them caught further down the line. It can be really irritating, as all those little holes from chewing are pretty hard to sew up. They seem to really go after the vitals (heart, lungs) and the neck in my experience. Similar to this one...




At one point, I think on here we hashed out the role of salmon/ fish in the dietary make up of marten. To the extent of some believing scavenged salmon carcasses, whether dead spawned out carcasses, or bear left overs that have been discarded further back from the stream side, do certainly make up a substantial part of the diet of marten seasonally. Further bunny trails led to discussions on premature tooth wear, for coastal marten, due to sand, grit in these scavenged fish wearing out teeth prematurely, etc. etc. For certain, coastal marten will absolutely utilize the intertidal zone, for a consistent food source, much the same as mink do. Like the old saying around here goes, "when the tides out, the table is set" meaning there is always something edible available. I find all sorts of larger sized things for marten to scavenge as well, such as dead seals, whales, porpoise, skates, halibut, octopus, etc. Many of these larger fish seem to be kills that Stellar Sea Lions abandon, after feeding on partially. Sea lions eat large prey by biting down hard, then shaking vigorously, until the chunk in their mouth tears loose, and the rest of the prey species goes flying through the air. They then gulp this bite down, swim over to the prey and repeat. Apparently, they occasionally get full, before finishing, or get distracted, because I often find partially consumed prey from them on the beaches.

As to the parasites...... I would say virtually every marten I have skinned in SE has been loaded with dozens of fleas, and hundreds or thousands of mites. I've never found a tick on any. The fleas do bite some people, but apparently not me, because I've had them crawling all over me, in my beard, etc, and never been bit. Maybe it's a blood type thing, but probably I just taste as bad as I smell, during trapping season I tend to have an aura of skunk scent...... The interior areas (Central all the way down towards the Toklat River), and SW Alaska areas I've trapped, fleas/ mites were nowhere near as common as SE.

I would surmise in extreme cases of infestation, it could certainly be fatal, if for no other reason due to the parasites causing under fur damage, thus the fur losing some of its insulation value, and requiring more calorie burn, for the marten to stay warm. Similar to one of my other crazy theories on why SE marten seem to have a preponderance of pitch, compared to those from colder climates, a topic I think I PM'ed a bit with Gulo about. Whether SE marten acquire more pitch due to warmer weather, thus softer pitch, are just less careful about acquiring it, or just more tolerant, since they aren't dealing with -30F to -60F temperature like they would in the interior. For whatever reason, I always find my interior marten lines produced much less pitched marten. My theory there, was just simply based on my curiosity as to how many extra calories a marten would have to burn, to maintain body temperature, with large areas of fur at a reduced insulation value, due to pitch mats. Parasites can have some pretty obvious affects on marten....





Then sometimes, you just find the oddball stuff that is just so fun to look at....

WTH is that ?? Is that on a wolverine hide ?


T4E: in the picture of the marten suffering territorial bites above............... Do you find that the hair retains some sort of slimy saliva feel and sort of clumps where he has been bitten ?

W17,
No, that is on a marten skin.... Not sure what it was??? It went in the carcass tubs, while busy skinning, and I forgot to remove it for further inspection, before I got rid of them.

I just wash those marten, that have the saliva/ blood on them.

These ones must have been infested with something?

I sent one like that to NAFA in 2013. ( Generally I don't send them ) and got $90.

I don't ever recall having a marten eaten by another marten, but have had quite a few eaten by lynx with only the head left in the trap. Also have had a few eaten by fisher. Normally catch the culprit on the next check. I did start catching doubles in marten when I was using 330 size boxes for lynx which eventually led me to start doubling up my marten sets.

Have had marten eaten by fisher on a few occasions-it is unmistakeable its a fisher from the amount of sign and scraps left at the site.
Like Gibb-always catch it next run.
Never had a marten eaten by lynx that I can remember,but have had a few eaten by fox.After installing snares behind the marten boxes and on the walk ins and gang setting snares using jackpots,predation was all but eliminated and multiple catches are not at all uncommon.

thanks !!

Dirt,
I almost always shipped my junk/ damaged fur, what else was I going to do with it, I figured. I always seem to have a few in the mix, every season, that look like those you displayed. 2013 was a good year to ship junk...... I had some partial marten (cannibalized), that sold at higher levels than many years top lot. I remember at least 1 that graded PCS w/tails, so apparently the rear half of a marten, that brought $132. Lots of the damaged junk was over $100, and almost every male was over $200. Still, those are a couple ugly looking marten you posted, and looks like flea, lice or mite damage to me?? Sometimes, the damage is at least partially due to the animal scratching at the irritation/ itch.

Maybe Northof50 or Gulo can give us more info on the external parasites?? Northof50 has mentioned the ticks he finds on marten, and like I mentioned, I've never observed ticks, just an abundance of fleas and mites. I'm curious if Northof50 or Gulo have any photos to show the skin side of a marten, where a tick has been attached? Is the location visible, from the inside of the skin, so it would be obvious while fleshing? I'm thinking it would be pretty apparent? Also, maybe one or both of you know the answer to this.... I've always noticed when brushing/ combing flea infested marten, there are often little loose tufts of fur, scattered around on the pelt, that are already loose. Maybe an area the size of a pinhead, or a bit bigger. They show up when brushing, and can be picked out of the pelt then. I've always called them "flea nests", and assumed they come from the fleas feeding locations? Is this in any way accurate? It's always been my interpretation at least.....

gibb, I went to multiple sets per location long, long ago. Partially for this reason, but also to increase efficiency. I can use half as much bait, fuel, and double my trap nights, with two sets, and minimize cannibalism. Some really good locations get as many as 4 sets. My rationale is simply to harvest as quickly, and efficiently as possible, then move on. This can be achieved by checking less times, to equal the same number of trap nights, just by simply adding a trap, or multiple traps. I generally hesitate to advise this on here though, as I fear many would then simply overharvest, by leaving these sets to long, at that location. I think it's always best to err on the side of being overly conservative, with the resource, than over exploitive, especially with marten. That being said, you definitely can't piggybank marten until next season either, so if you have an abundance, you can certainly take them, with minimal impact. It's the ability to understand how many to take, from each stretch of line, that takes years of experience to learn, and realizing that each line is different, and production varies from year to year. I don't know how many cannibalized marten I experienced, before the light bulb finally went off, and I made more sets per location, but it was probably in the hundreds. I have MUCH fewer issues now, with both cannibalized and territorial chewing. I think maybe I sent you my "Marten Strongbox", double box design? It has maximized efficiency for me, from years of tuning up speed and production on my line. More sets run, faster, and quickly relocated, equals more fur.......

I also make at least 2 sets per trap location. About 10 years ago, I got to run a friends line with him, and every stop he had multiple boxes with-in sight of each other.
I asked him about it, (though it was clear it worked, with multiple marten hanging in close proximity to one another).
He said something to the effect of, "If it's worth one set, it's worth at least two".
I have been doing it since, and can't count how many times I found multiple catches, ermine in one, mink in another, and a marten in yet another.

skin side 1 December coyote.
This picture I have shared before. It is on a coyote and show the ECM around a Lymes disease infection area, ( the tick was checked at CDC Winnipeg lab as positive) Several other diseases were tested for but not at liberty to say.
The tick head's mouth piece has been touched with the scraping knife, it shows as a white dot in the middle of the forceps. The mouth pieces are usually black on the outside.
The ticks on the marten have all been where they cant reach closely, nap and ears and the tips of the ears( picture coming)

The fleas are not nested homesteading on the marten as you think. They are raising their larvae in the nest material probably living off the duff or dried shed skin.

lets give trapped4ever some time off to catch up.

Due to shipping material that can be classified as bio-hazard shall post links later where interested people can send to researchers in Canada and the USA external parasites, ticks and fleas and lice. The only researcher on fur mites is swamped,( Univ Alberta) and she has a lifetime worth to deal with. One of the problems these researchers have right now is getting medium and the micropipettes since it is the same stuff as used for covid sampling

This is a nymph on the inside of the ear, there is probably a larvae on the outside edge of the ear in the white hair - probably the same length as hair. That funny little fold in the ear usually has some in it as well.
Above the yellow pencil is another but not in focus in the crease of hair.

The most common thing I see on marten is a yellowish waxy looking thing about half the size of a rice grain. Most always in the ears and heavy fur on the feet....but sometimes I have seen them crawl out from under the eyelids.

They give me the creeps !

Rice-A-Roni will never be the same.