I am TICKED OFF

DougA · May 15, 2015

Went for the usual walk with the dogs yesterday and an hour after I got home, I felt something crawling on my neck. Grabbed it and it turned out to be a tick. Yes, I know ticks are in the area and I know that some can cause Lyme disease which can be a horrible, debilitating and very hard to diagnose disease.

My concern is, how did a tick get on my head? Usually, the best protection is long pants, high socks and boots. They can't jump that high and they don't climb trees and wait so they can jump kamikaze style onto a passing person/animal. At least AFAIK! This tick was not wearing a balaclava so I assume it was not a ninja tick.

I was walking, not crawling, not rolling, didn't even pet the dogs. Wow, I'm amazed and peed off that I now need to be much more careful. A friend who works outside has to strip naked and have his wife inspect him every time he gets home from work. She finds 2 or 3 every week. I'm just not sure my wife is into that kind of inspection role 4 times per day, let alone me stripping constantly. I also know that deet is the only thing that works but it's not that great a protection. I am not going to coat my body in deet 4 times a day.

Anyone else getting ticked off? As I sit here typing, I feel things crawling all over me.

I forgot to add that I have a friend who gardens and he ended up buying a full Hazmat suit because ticks were so bad. I asked for a photo to post but he hasn't sent me one. Gotta go, something crawling in my you know what.

velvetfoot · May 15, 2015

I like this: http://www.otom.com/how-to-remove-a-tick

They say perimethrin (sp?) is a good repellent, but you have to spray it on clothes and then let it drive (no skin contact wet). I might try some on my pants legs when I start making the garden trail through the woods.)

DougA · May 15, 2015

Permethrin is toxic to cats, so be careful. We have cats. I'm also pretty sensitive to a lot of stuff now. I used to spray malathion and I think that caused me to be super sensitive. If I go near malathion or formaldehyde I get an instant migraine. Funny thing is that I never get headaches or migraines, just from certain chems. in the last decade.

Lake Girl · May 16, 2015

Ticks are here too - found a couple the other day when out with our dog. They generally try to migrate to warm body areas - groin, armpits, back of neck. They are tenacious little things that can climb and cling to clothes.

Permethrin is found in many pet shampoos as it works on fleas too.

Highbeam · May 16, 2015

DougA said:
Permethrin is toxic to cats, so be careful. We have cats. I'm also pretty sensitive to a lot of stuff now. I used to spray malathion and I think that caused me to be super sensitive. If I go near malathion or formaldehyde I get an instant migraine. Funny thing is that I never get headaches or migraines, just from certain chems. in the last decade.

Ha! Of course it's toxic to cats and everything else, it's poison. It's all about dose. Water is toxic if you drink enough.

They always told us that ticks are in the trees and have evolved the ability to drop onto a warm body as it walks below the branches. We're you walking under branches.

billb3 · May 18, 2015

ticks are usually on tall grass waiting for an opportunity to transfer to an animal when it brushes against the grass.
Tall grass, low brush. They don't jump out of trees.
They might not like being in your lawn due to the short grass but they love flower gardens. Probably vegetable gardens too.

The tick on your head likely walked up your clothes from somewhere between your shoes and hips.

johnpma · May 19, 2015

We just got our 9 week old chocolate lab "Luna" from WI I have been training her in the woods for this seasons bird hunting. Every night we come from the woods you can guarantee there is at least 3-4 ticks on her and at least 1 or 2 on myself. It has become the "normal" around here.

Ticks are carried on the white tail deer and we have a huge influx of deer in our area due to the limited amount of open space accessible for hunting, and the "Anti's" who are against the sport of hunting..........

Once you disrupt population control of a wild animal and we arrive at an over abundance then in some way shape or form it has an effect on something else in the cycle......in this case humans, and your pets.

begreen · May 19, 2015

Yuck. The problem is a lack of natural predators. Introduce wolves and coyotes and the deer population should go down. In lieu of that, increase the length of the deer hunting season.

DougA · May 19, 2015

How about a tick hunting season.

In our area there are deer but the numbers are actually down over the decades as habitat is lost to housing. Lyme disease has gradually spread north to us and is here to stay - or until the next ice age.

billb3 · May 19, 2015

The "deer" tick and the dog tick both feed on rodents at the nymph phase.
Rodents are the hosts for Lyme, and several other diseases and dog ticks can actually pass a disease onto its eggs.
Deer ticks have a tendency to climb higher in the canopy than dog ticks to find a host and hence the association with deer.
Tick populations are increasing as their hosts are being crowded into smaller and smaller areas increasing their feeding and breeding opportunities.

There are a number of diseases associated with dogs( and pets in general) and ticks so protect your pets even if they venture no further than the back yard.

Whitepine2 · May 19, 2015

begreen said:
Yuck. The problem is a lack of natural predators. Introduce wolves and coyotes and the deer population should go down. In lieu of that, increase the length of the deer hunting season.

O the ticks won't go to the wolves and coyotes thus spreading the tick population.Coyotes around here
are loaded with ticks all summer long.

sportbikerider78 · May 20, 2015

billb3 said:
The "deer" tick and the dog tick both feed on rodents at the nymph phase.
Rodents are the hosts for Lyme, and several other diseases and dog ticks can actually pass a disease onto its eggs.
Deer ticks have a tendency to climb higher in the canopy than dog ticks to find a host and hence the association with deer.
Tick populations are increasing as their hosts are being crowded into smaller and smaller areas increasing their feeding and breeding opportunities.

There are a number of diseases associated with dogs( and pets in general) and ticks so protect your pets even if they venture no further than the back yard.

This is correct. Mice/rats/rodents are the biggest spreaders of ticks...NOT deer. Now, deer serve another purpose and that is to fill my freezer.

Ticks can get you anywere. They are all over the place. The best thing you can do is to kill the mice by baiting traps around your property and to inspect yourself and animals as soon as you get inside.

I have dug them out from under my nipple, groin and one that was deep into my arm. All with a jackknife for manpoints.

begreen · May 20, 2015

If it is mice and rodents then don't put out poison traps, use mechanical traps instead. Coyotes, owls, raptors and snakes all prey on rodents and help keep the population in check.

jeff_t · May 20, 2015

I've lived in this house for almost my whole life. I had never ever seen a tick here until about three years ago, and I was everywhere as a kid. The last two years were really bad, but we've only found one so far this spring.

johnpma · May 26, 2015

I was listening to talk radio and heard a disturbing report that the government created Lyme disease as a bio-weapon experiment off the coast of CT.....and we have become the guinea pigs once again......

Growing up in the northeast and being that boy that played non stop in the woods from tree forts, to dirbikes I can honestly say I have never remember my mom saying"tick check" as a kid.....

Must have pulled two dozen off the dogs over the weekend......

billb3 · May 26, 2015

johnpma said:
I was listening to talk radio and heard a disturbing report that the government created Lyme disease as a bio-weapon experiment off the coast of CT.....and we have become the guinea pigs once again......

Well if you apply Goodell's NFL standard of preponderance of evidence, then more probably than not the European bacterium entered the United States via that path.

BrotherBart · May 26, 2015

"More recent studies revealed that Ixodes ticks and B. burgdorferi were present in the northeastern and Midwestern regions of the U.S. in pre-colonial times and many thousands of years before European settlements were established in the U.S. "

HeatsTwice · May 26, 2015

I have been told by those who own chickens that ticks are their favorite food. The exact words they use are: "Chickens decimate tick populations whenever they are let loose in a field."

sportbikerider78 · May 26, 2015

I've heard the same thing about wild turkeys. I have at least 50 that frequent my property and have few ticks around.

Dune · May 26, 2015

HeatsTwice said:
I have been told by those who own chickens that ticks are their favorite food. The exact words they use are: "Chickens decimate tick populations whenever they are let loose in a field."

guinea fowl were released on Nantucket, as well as extremely liberal deer hunting rules but to little avail.

Whitepine2 · May 26, 2015

johnpma said:
I was listening to talk radio and heard a disturbing report that the government created Lyme disease as a bio-weapon experiment off the coast of CT.....and we have become the guinea pigs once again......

Growing up in the northeast and being that boy that played non stop in the woods from tree forts, to dirbikes I can honestly say I have never remember my mom saying"tick check" as a kid.....

Must have pulled two dozen off the dogs over the weekend......

I can here my Grandmother stating that wood ticks were not around before 1938.She always said
that after the 38 hurricane they arrived brought up by the wind or on wood that was floated on the seas.
Don't know if this is true or not??? And yes that the gov. was doing strange stuff on the island and some got away,folks often spoke of this but who knows and if they did would they tell the truth.

BrotherBart · May 26, 2015

begreen said:
If it is mice and rodents then don't put out poison traps, use mechanical traps instead. Coyotes, owls, raptors and snakes all prey on rodents and help keep the population in check.

Whoops. That coyote I shot last week is out of the game. I will live with the ticks.

jb6l6gc · May 27, 2015

My husky lab had a tick last week just under her eye by about an inch. At first me and the Mrs. thought is was just a speck of dirt, I did learn a valuable tip for removing ticks recently and it worked wonders. Just soak a cotton ball with dish soap and water and put it on the tick for a minute or two and the tick will release then its a piece of cake to remove them no worries about the head. Well I tried it and I must say it worked like a charm. Living in the woods means living with the occasional ticks amongst other insects. Our seasonal mosquito infestation has just started, thanks god for the mosquito vac. Hope they dont stick around too long!

mass_burner · May 27, 2015

sportbikerider78 said:
I've heard the same thing about wild turkeys. I have at least 50 that frequent my property and have few ticks around.

We have had way more turkeys this year. Does that mean that the rodent population is up? More rodents mean more ticks, more ticks mean more turkeys.

johnpma · May 28, 2015

Dune said:
guinea fowl were released on Nantucket, as well as extremely liberal deer hunting rules but to little avail.

I'm surprised in this liberal state the "do gooders" haven't done research and initialized a "tick relocation program"

I am TICKED OFF

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