DanG, January and I had a deer tick on my back ,just had a lyme test. Near as I can tell if the temp is above freezing the blighters are active. Check yourselves but their usually not discovered until they start to itch. Frank C.
Seems like around here if it's above 40* and you are on a sunny slope you might pick up one or two. Some folks call the deer tick the winter tick. I hardly see them in summer when it's more brown dog ticks and lone stars.
Back in the 90's I was camping in Nov. deer season. A couple days after getting home I felt something back of the upper arm and it was a deer tick, all fattened up. Gross, that. Anyway in a short time there was the classic bullseye so I immediately DID NOT go to the Dr. but sweated it out. No biggie that time but how dumb can you be? 6 months later the Doc did put me on [which is it?] I think doxycycline anyway..... not all victims get the bullseye but if that shows up on a bite it is definitive.
I live in north Florida and got bit by a deer tick last April, told it to my dogs veterinarian and she looked at the bite. Told me to go direct to my doctor and show him the inflammation. I called him at his office, he had already left for the day, the office said wait we will call him, he came right back and got me on the meds.
He and the vet both said it is an epidemic in Florida but no one seems to get the word out to the news media.
My suggestion is it doesn't matter where you live in this country, everybody is susceptible to Lime Disease, so if you get bit go to the doc and get the meds started. This is a very dangerous disease that can kill you.
We have Lyme bad up here, but no doctor routinely screens for it.
You go to the vet, and they screen every time, takes about 5 minutes to get answer.
I once thought I had Lyme as all my joints ached terrible, especially my knees. Went to doctor and asked to be screened and took 2 weeks to find out I did not have it.
Complained to the doctor about the length of time it took, and mentioned how fast screening was for my dogs, and he said OK next time go to your vet, i'll write a script for you. :-\
Anyway find out I was deficient in vitamin D; took some and felt way better by the next day. By day after, all of my aches were gone.
Hope you kick the Lyme before it gets bad. Kid in my neighborhood went un-diagnosed too long and now he is pretty messed up (only 12 years old). They have collection jars out for him in the local stores.
JJ
A friend of mine is a surveyor. After about 20 years of constant tick bites and meds, he's a cripple. I know a few others that say they have Lyme, but they don't seem to be that severely effected. I had a bite with the bulls-eye. Took meds and came back negative.
I had Rock Mountain Spotted Fever, many years ago. Stayed in a hospital for 17 days, paralyzed for 3, capillaries blew out, heart swelled triple its normal size, I turned bright purple, quite a long recovery period. Two people in Huntsville got Spotted Fever that year, the other guy died. I almost did, as evidenced by the preacher showing up at the hospital. The Huntsville Times wrote a big article about it.
Don't mess with ticks. Self awareness is important, taking showers immediately after working outside is important. Exposure time is important. Both dog and deer ticks are nasty parasitic time bombs. Treat them as such.
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is sudden and catastrophic. Lyme disease is progressive, and gets worse with time. It's also degenerative in many cases, the disease can be cured the damage may not be. Neither should ever be ignored.
In north MN we have so many deer ticks that the Dr's don't even test just gives you the pills . I tested negative he gave me the pill anyway started to get better after 3 days . The guys in the woods here take 2 pills whenever they get bit .
I had lyme's I was lucky and caught it early...
I had a tick on my back a couple of years ago and went to the doc. to have it removed!
I was told that if the tick was removed before 48 hours that the chance of getting Lyme Disease was "in his words" slim!
Yep, key is getting ticks off early -24 hours is the point at which Lyme has not been transmitted, after that it is progressive increasing %. Better yet, keep them off by spraying everything from belt down in Permethrin, kills ticks and other bugs on contact with clothing (so also Zika carrying mosquitos). Also, permethrin stays on clothes for several washes. Deet deters ticks as well but it is not as good, washes off. Use both for best effect.
Ticks have an interesting 3 stage life, the little smallest ticks can't transmit disease. The second stage can though and they are still small, but it is the adult 3 stage that are the buggers, they actually are only feeding in the late summer/fall/winter (typically). Any day above freezing is a day for ticks and just because it is fall does not mean less prob of ticks, those adults are trying to get enough blood to lay eggs that hatch in the spring.
A couple of bottles of permethrin spray is great insurance. Oh, and the right way to do it is to hang the clothes up and spray them outside before you put them on, let them dry, then wear. So, something to do before you head out. It lasts, does not wear off so you can treat 3-4 sets of clothes at once and get about a month of wear before treating again (assuming you wash your work clothes- not a given with some of my forestry friends).
Nativewolf you hit the nail on the head as I have understood the life cycle of deer ticks and the transmission of Lyme disease. I am a timber buyer for a local mill and generally get bitten every day during warmer months. I don't use permethrin until the nymphs start hatching, can't stand hundreds of ticks. The nymphs can't transmit Lyme disease but they will cause you to dig holes in your hide. Permethrin is a poison and I don't want to use it every day for 7 or 8 months of the year.
So as you said, transmission is unlikely within the first 24 hours of being bitten. So I am very careful to look for them every evening when I shower. Maybe lucky but, I've worked in the woods for over 40 years bitten hundreds of times and no Lyme disease. Knock wood ???
They are an epidemic here, I'm still digging ones face out of my side. My wife got lyme bad, did 2 rounds of doxy, it recurred and the doc put her on a cocktail of annnie B's, vitamins (she is a big vitamin D pusher), probiotics and whatall. It seems to have worked this time. The disease apparently can live intercellularly, in the cells, intracellular, hiding in the spaces between cells or encysted within a biofilm. You know that film that forms on the dog or chicken water bowl and it's kind of hard to remove, that's a biofilm. It can hide inside there in a cyst state.
I suspect when they test for lyme they are testing for lyme. I'd just as soon know if I have any tick borne illness.
One of my logging friends was bit and rashed up over a weekend, I took a bottle of Doxy over there and he scheduled a visit at the VA. 6 weeks later they wrote him a scrip ::)
If y'all are taking 2 pills after each bite, that doesn't sound good.
THIS STORY IS TRUE - IT ALSO CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT SOME MAY FIND OFFENSIVE IN A HUMAN BIOLOGY KIND OF WAY. IF YOU'RE EASILY OFFENDED PLEASE STOP READING NOW.
In the tropical and subtropical rainforest areas of Australia we get a tick called the Paralysis Tick. Just a little thing as ticks go... pinhead size when it attaches, matchead size when its full... but unlike lyme which is a tick transmitted disease this one is venomous. Average dog with a tick is dead in about 5 days, humans tend to get very sick and if you've got pre-existing conditions like a weak heart etc, or a child it can kill in about the same time. Starts with muscular pain, then headaches, then shortness of breath, eventually arrhythmia, then dead.
It's also cumulative. Each time you get a tick the symptoms onset faster etc etc. I've had a few over the years... last one I would have picked up at work in the afternoon, found it on my head in the shower, 2 hours later I was in the hospital in a bad bad way, and now I carry an Epipen in the bush for the next one. This story isn't about that tick, it's about the one before.
(Please put the drinks down now guys, I dont want to be responsible for you spraying stuff all over your screen)
About 3 pm one fine sunny day in a tropical Australian rainforest your humble correspondent feels this intense burning sensation. In a nasty place to feel a bad burning sensation. In fact - the nastiest place you could think to feel an acute burning sensation. So he drops his trousers in the bush and lo and behold there is a tick attached. On his balls. Right at the base of... well you figure it.
Worst thing you can do with a paralysis tick is scratch it off and not remove the head. And its gloomy in there in the jungle by 3 pm so I know I need to get out in the daylight where I've got tweezers and things. It just didnt seem the right kind of place to be burning the critter out of with a lit cigarette y'know? I run the nose of the saw into a tree above rat height (whitetail rats eat chainsaws) hang my bag off the saw and start humping the half mile or so out to the dozer in some pretty inhospitable terrain. Maybe 3/4 of an hour of walking.
Then up on the dozer, rattle her back to the trailhead where the vehicle is and at least we can begin surgury. I'm hurting by now, this is like a needle going under your skin and well... as we all know thats sensitive skin around there. Drop trousers again in the work truck, and my my my... we got some swelling here but I get some tweezers on him and get him out... Grass seed size maybe. That should be the end of it, methinks. I'll survive. Too late to go back into the bush though, might as well call it a day.
So I drive the half hour home and when I get there its hurting. Man oh man its hurting. Y'know the time when you were a kid and that baseball got ya... that kind of hurting. Go inside, drop trousers again and my balls are now swollen up pretty bad. But its going to be over soon - I'll survive. Dinner and bed, and I take a heap of tylenol but its still getting more and more swollen and painful.
Next morning... well next morning I have a drumhead stretched over two oranges with me. And dammed if the rest of it isnt swollen as well. I might have to walk with my knees a foot apart, but... I'm impressed with this. I'm proud of it even - it can't get bettern this. Coooollllllllllll.
About lunch time, with me still barely able to walk and still in intense pain I make a suprising new discovery:
They're right.
Black ones are bigger. I'm now the proud owner of two eggplants hanging underneath a radiator hose that'd fit my Mack truck. I call my wife and tell her she better come home from work. Thats partly because I think its now time to go to hospital, but mostly because I really want to show this thing off. I am absolutely in AWE of this thing. Hurting bad, somewhat concerned for the future... but this is HUGEEEEEEEEE!!!
Off we go to the hospital, wife driving, me sitting there with my knees 2' apart wearing a towel because theres no way I can put pants on.
It's a bumpy road. 15 mile never took so long before.
Anyhow, I get to the hospital. Go into the ER. Talk to the nurse.... paralysis tick, pain, swelling, yada yada yada. I got a fever. Pretty much straight through triage to the doc on duty.
Now, I know this doc: Her kids go to school with my kids. We attend school and kid related things together. Shes hawt. Normally I'd be a bit embarrassed fronting up in a bathtowel in front of a cute woman that I got to rub shoulders with...but its a one doc on duty rural hospital and I want some serious painkillers.
Now!!!
Because that drive took forever. My 237 maxidyne motor radiator hose has grown into a 16v71 part in just 15 miles... I looked. I have now got something like I've never seen before and its mine. ALL MINE!!! I WANNA KEEP THIS THING IF I CAN!!!! I CAN LIVE WITH THE PAIN IF IT DONT FALL OFF!!!!
So I tell the Doc my story. And she says... as she must I guess... "I need to take a look at this. I better call in the nurse". Nurse fronts... I drop my towel.
Battleaxe old nurse gasps. Shes probably seen a few of these in her lifetime but nothing like this! Doc goes real quietand you can see she's trying soooooooooo hard to keep a straight, professional face.
At which point I say (with perfect deadpan delivery) " I need something for the pain. I'd like to keep the swelling".
*cue cute doc and ER nurse BOTH rolling on the floor laughing while ex-wife glares at me. Ex-wife never did appreciate my sense of humour*
Anyhow, eventually the Doc regains some composure, sits back down in her chair and writes me a scrip. I gets some antihistamines for the swelling and some morphine for the pain and off we go home
Sadly, the medicine removed the swelling after about a week and my future career as a porn star ended before its started.
Oh well... I'm happy in a sawmill
You make it tough to eat breakfast...
Ah, well we need a good story once in awhile. :D
That's a good one. Normally, I'd ask for pictures, but I think not on this one.
You have quite a talent for painting a mental picture, it's a funny story so your ex must not have a sense of humor. :D
Now I have a bunch of coffee to clean up ;D
He did warn you. :D
Everything in the woods is a potential tick and redbug dispenser.
Lyme wasn't that present in W. Oregon due to the wet weather. No so anymore. Got my first tick bite last year and got the bulls eye rash. Got a month of 2x daily doxy and no milk products. I understand those week long pill boxes. Did I or didn't I? Dump them out and count, look at the calendar.... :-[
Here in W. Mass, we also have a severe deer tick infestation. FYI, Lyme disease was named for Lyme, CT as that is where it was first diagnosed. As far as getting ticks out, many doctors and such use tweezes or tick spoons. Never, ever burn them or use nail polish etc. I have removed to many ticks to count from our dogs, family and friends. I swear by the ODOM tick twister and carry one with me in my pack. http://www.otom.com/en/ My dogs vet has them on the counter for sale, I buy serveral each visit. I have never had the head break off regardless how engorged the tick is nor had a tick bite get infected. The little buggers are caught in the "V" and you can see their legs wiggling.
I've never seen a tick twister but it looks great, almost too easy. It looks like it would twist the head off, but apparently it doesn't? I guess they just get dizzy and let go....
I'll be ordering a few.
Ticks are just a part of everyday life around my area. You check at the end of the day to make sure you didn't miss any as the day wore on.
Nasty business. Never see none of them up on the glaciers. :snowball: ;D
Swamper, just wait til that ice melts you will have them, any temp above freezing. Went bird hunting in nov. there was a hard white frost sat down to rest and picked twenty something ticks off my pants. I wish that Lyme vaccine had worked out. I tell my doctor the ticks bought him a new car, he didn't deny it. Frank C.
In the woods all day in the spring until winter, never seen a deer tick. I have seen 2 wood ticks up here in 50 years.
In Nova Scotia, wood ticks are bad, seen lots down there around Bridgewater. But never seen deer ticks.
I was fortunate to get the Lyme vaccine back in the 90s just before it was pulled from the market.
Only have had 1 tick bite since, got it off within 4 hrs
Quote from: petefrom bearswamp on January 28, 2017, 11:04:55 AM
I was fortunate to get the Lyme vaccine back in the 90s just before it was pulled from the market.
Only have had 1 tick bite since, got it off within 4 hrs
Why was it pulled ?
Google is your friend: LINK (https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/prev/vaccine.html)
Quote from: Magicman on January 28, 2017, 03:29:32 PM
Google is your friend: LINK (https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/prev/vaccine.html)
Thanks...
Kb, just a note, it was not necessary to quote what I said. Your reply immediately followed mine and the train of thought/conversation was never broken. Notice that I did not quote your question before I answered it.
You had also quoted petefrom bearswamp's reply which was unnecessary.
Unnecessary quotes tend to clutter up the reply and are just that. Unnecessary.
I just wanted the thanks to go to the right person.
Swamper, count your blessings the trouble with deer ticks is you usually don't see them until the itchy red lump. I fear like wild hogs and killer bees ticks are moving north. When I was growing up back in the 50's we didn't have deer ticks just the old big dog ticks and you could feel or see them easily. Stay warm mate. Frank C.
I understand Kb, but read back through and you will see my point.
Jeff has often threatened to woodshed the quote because of redundant quotes. Sometime replies contain quotes of quotes which is certainly confusing at best. smiley_dizzy
Yep... Got it ... Thanks
That OTOM TickTwister looks incredibly useful. Thanks for the link.
The problem with tests for Lyme is that they are notorious for being unreliable. I don't know if they have better tests today.
I've read that the fall is the most active time for deer tick activity as the ticks are trying to find something warm to latch on to.
Problem with deer ticks is that they are very small , much smaller than wood ticks.
I read somewhere if you eat pickled garlic it will repel ticks, I do that when I plan on being in tick territory and it seems to work. My wife is a tick magnet and doesn't like pickled garlic she always gets them and I almost never get bit. Or kissed by her ;D
We used to swear by sulfur to keep pests away. used to eat Sulfur cream of tarter tablets when chiggers were bad. Grandpa used to dust sulfur in his shoes thinking his skin absorbed enough to keep skeeters and ticks and chiggers away. He used to drop a drop of syrup in sulfur and roll it around to make a ball he'd swallow. I know neighbors around an Artesian well that was high in sulfur and we'd be swatting skeeters like crazy and they would act like nothing around them. I assume sulfur works with ticks as well as mosquitoes and chiggers. May be like chicken soup - can't hurt and might help.
In my landscaping business some people will spray a solution of cedar oil around the yard to repel insects like ticks. I would seriously consider spraying my clothing down with cedar oil solution and perhaps even wiping it on my skin . There are other natural oils and extracts also used to repel insects.
Dont know where I have been the past couple of months but just got back on this thread.
Lynn thanks for the link, I had my vaccination in the late 90s so maybe I have been living with a false sense of security.
Our local publication, the NY outdoor news runs an ad by a doc specializing in Lyme stuff with a lengthy list of symptoms.
I'll have to be more careful.
I have a tick spoon but the twister is intriguing.
Plantman, spraying your self with cedar oil can't hurt, very worst you will smell like a hope chest. I'am in the woods often and find if I don't rub agents brush and check my pants for crawlers I get by. Frank C.
Try using "REPEL", it contains permethrin and according to the label it repels and kills ticks!
Spray it on your boots, pants cuffs backpacks, and the ticks stay away!
I got mine in a 3-Pack at Walmart 2 years ago, a spray-down can last up to 2 weeks!
I've been bit by deer ticks about 6 times in the last 3-4 years....so far no problems but it makes me nervous.
There seem to be at least 3 kinks of the very small ticks around here....tiny black ones, brown ones, and black with a white spot, as well as the bigger wood ticks that we've always had.
I've gone to using permethrin on my jeans, boots & sometimes t-shirts. (available at Walmart https://www.walmart.com/ip/19887389?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227016955202&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=40968071432&wl4=pla-78911120912&wl5=9017898&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla_multichannel&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=19887389&wl13=&veh=sem ).
One thing that seems to help as much as anything is blousing my pant legs into my boots military style (I wear desert boots so it's easy)
That way ticks can't crawl up the inside of your pants and attach to your sensitive parts they seem to love. With the permethrin on my jeans, I've seen wood ticks crawl up to about my knee, start acting funny, then fall off dead.
Had one doctor seem surprised I knew about permethrin....said it's the same thing they use to treat scabies.
Quote from: plantman on March 19, 2017, 09:50:22 PM
In my landscaping business some people will spray a solution of cedar oil around the yard to repel insects like ticks. I would seriously consider spraying my clothing down with cedar oil solution and perhaps even wiping it on my skin . There are other natural oils and extracts also used to repel insects.
I use "cedarcide" ... It's freezing awesome...Ticks and fleas die die die.
Quote from: tareece on March 23, 2017, 10:52:01 PM
Quote from: plantman on March 19, 2017, 09:50:22 PM
In my landscaping business some people will spray a solution of cedar oil around the yard to repel insects like ticks. I would seriously consider spraying my clothing down with cedar oil solution and perhaps even wiping it on my skin . There are other natural oils and extracts also used to repel insects.
I use "cedarcide" ... It's freezing awesome...Ticks and fleas die die die.
Cedarcide ? I'll have to look for that one. "freezing awesome" ? is that anything like neat-o' awesome ? So what you are saying is that it works well , correct ? I'm a little skeptical of these products because the mix appears very modest using a natural product. How exactly do you use this "cedarcide" product ?
Quote from: plantman on March 24, 2017, 01:41:06 PM
Quote from: tareece on March 23, 2017, 10:52:01 PM
Quote from: plantman on March 19, 2017, 09:50:22 PM
In my landscaping business some people will spray a solution of cedar oil around the yard to repel insects like ticks. I would seriously consider spraying my clothing down with cedar oil solution and perhaps even wiping it on my skin . There are other natural oils and extracts also used to repel insects.
I use "cedarcide" ... It's freezing awesome...Ticks and fleas die die die.
Cedarcide ? I'll have to look for that one. "freezing awesome" ? is that anything like neat-o' awesome ? So what you are saying is that it works well , correct ? I'm a little skeptical of these products because the mix appears very modest using a natural product. How exactly do you use this "cedarcide" product ?
My goodness, I don't know why this is not better publicized but you should spray all outerwear with Pyrethrin, it is tick killing chemical but has natural origins; it is in lots of products and they will all work. This is the only really safe thing to apply to clothes to kill ticks (fleas, redbugs, etc) that will crawl on you. If your pants, boots, socks are sprayed and not washed it will last for some time (read label!). Keep everything tucked in and don't leave gaps. If you do this properly you will have done the maximum and best effort to keep disease free. No guess work, no "try this it worked for my friend"; no off label crap that could give you cancer.
Permethrin Pyrethrin is an awesome insecticide in aerosol form. I installed a battery-powered dispenser at my cabin and it is like the wall of death for mosquitos and deer flies. Practically harmless to mammals and birds, but it does have an effect on fish. My dispenser has a warning not to use it near fish tanks.
Edit: Whoops, got the wrong product. Pyrethrin is a general insecticide and repellent derived from chrysanthemum. Permethrin is apparently a synthesized variant that is more potent. Permethrin does have a toxic effect on cats.