Tick season!!!

[STICKBENDER98]

I never expected this amount of response to this thread, just wanted to offer up a reminder for everyone.  Thank you to all of you who have offered up a lot of good information.  I've been very lucky through the years, I've only had 4 or 5 on me, and none have been burrowed in, that being said I'm definitely not taking any chances with these nasty little critters.

Jason

On a canoe trip a ranger showed me what she does.  She puts a single drop of deet on the tick, when it start to look like it is fighting the smothering effects, she takes her pocket knife and gently rolls the tick over on it back, then takes a tweezers and grabs the tick by the head and pulls it out with its feet up.  She said that in that rolled back position the jaws of the tick are in the right position to slide out.

[Rob DiStefano]

deet, permethrin, nail polish, soap, heat - anything you do to tick a tick it off can make it unload it's internal bacteria into your internals.  like gambling?  feeling lucky?  your decision as how best to remove ticks.  i'll stick with the "neck/head" tweezer grasp - it has the ability to keep the bugger from barfing nasty bacteria into my blood stream.

[Dan bree]

Yep allways pulled them out of me and my dogs with tweezers  or my fingers . The head was stuck in me most of the times . Then I treated me and the bite with  my old doctor buddy . Johnny walker

I am allergic to almost all bug dope so I never use it.  The gently turning them belly up does seem to make them come out easier.

[last arrow]

I carry an adhesive lint roller with me in the woods.  When I see a tick on my dog (they are easy to see on a yellow lab) or clothing the lint roller picks it up before it can get hidden.  Don't forget to roll your back when you see one on your legs because there is usually one out of sight also (and then look closely at the dog because there is usually one working into her hair if you see one on the surface).  I try to keep them off so they can't get attached.

[nek4me]

Originally posted by D. Key:
[QB] Rob:

Thanks for the clarification.  I guess if it's on the internet, it isn't always true.    

Are we not on the internet?????

Anyway, dirtguy mentioned a few other nasties carried by ticks including Babesia that causes Babesiosis and can be fatal to those without a spleen or an otherwise compromised immune system. No one advised of that 5 yrs ago when mine was removed and I live in the Northeast where it is prevalent. So if you or someone you know is at risk be extra cautious of ticks in areas where  Babesia has been documented.  

Where I mostly play in the outdoors in N.E. VT I have not seen a tick in 16yrs I've been up there. But just 40 or so miles south I have so it looks likes they are coming. Anyone know how fast a tick crawls?

[Bowwild]

Informative but spooky thread.

[DannyBows]

My brother died at the age of 14 in 1975 from a tick bite on a visit to relatives in West Virginia. He was fine for a week after removing the tick, then he got really sick. The doctors misdiagnosed it as Scarlett Fever. Turned out to be Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Very nasty disease. I've got relatives that live there who got it and survived, but came away with damaged eyesight. He'd be 56 now but for an evil little bug.

[fmscan]

DannyBows, very sorry for your loss, to lose a brother at a young age must be very tough, especially to something like a small bug!

[Sam McMichael]

I believe that, if a tick has become imbedded, you already have inside you whatever nasty stuff he is carrying. Just my thought only. I spray my clothes very heavily with permethrin, but I still get a few. So far, I haven't contracted Lyme or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, but I did get Alpha Gal allergy, a really nasty thing that makes a person react allergically to any product from a mammal. It makes me wonder why I keep hunting deer since I can't eat it. As hunters, we would be really wise to seriously study ticks and the diseases they spread.

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by Sam McMichael:
I believe that, if a tick has become imbedded, you already have inside you whatever nasty stuff he is carrying. ...

no no, that ain't necessarily true for the most part - they're sucking yer blood into their stomachs, not injecting their stomach contents into yer blood stream ... UNLESS you get them upset by prodding, squeezing, painting with chemicals or heating them up with cigarettes 'n' such.

[Tajue17]

back when the tick thing really took of here in mass I new some landscapers and tree workers who wore pantyhose under their pants and then tucked under the socks,,,,under the pants nobody gives you that look..   they said ticks would not go thru the panty hose and it kept them off their legs and out of their privates..

I know for early pheasant hunting here in the scrub oaks I wore them under my briar pants and never got a tick on my legs or privates but I did pull a few off in  my waist band area above them  under the gut I have.  

had my wife pick me up a pair of skin toned XL's just in case I do find the time to go after turks ,,, ticks here  look under any leaf and you will find them,, I've pulled maybe a total of 300 off me since this all started and I always wonder if my problems now are from ticks because i heard one lyme test doesnt work and one does..

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by Tajue17:
... I always wonder if my problems now are from ticks because i heard one lyme test doesnt work and one does..

to date, there is NO proof positive test for lyme disease.  false positives/negatives abound.  

HOWEVER, there is a new urine test for lyme that may change that ... BUT until all the testing is done and 100% of all lyme laboratory test cases come back positive, and it becomes THE way to check for lyme, i would caution everyone to DO NOT RELY ON ANY TESTS FOR LYME DISEASE.  

once you have had a tick embedded in you, and if no physical signs of lyme emerge within 24 hours, you have essentially two courses of action ... 1) antibiotics, or 2) homeopathy.  the problem *I* have with antibiotics is the overuse of them and how as a result they can then fail you later on life when you really need them.

[STICKBENDER98]

My friend who had the tick in them found it on a Friday morning after showering, by that by that afternoon symptoms were showing up.  She was miserable Saturday, she uses homeopathy, and within a couple days was starting to have some relief from it.  I have been passing along the information that everyone has been posting on here to try to help out.  

Jason

[Terry Green]

Pavan.....ever been snipe hunting?

[Terry Green]

I started shaving them off years ago... just one quick swipe and they don't know what hit them ....no time to inject me I hope.

Any thoughts on that method Rob?

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by Terry Green:
I started shaving them off years ago... just one quick swipe and they don't know what hit them ....no time to inject me I hope.

Any thoughts on that method Rob?

if embedded ticks are grabbed with fine tweezers below the body at at or above the head, that'd be the best course of action to prevent the flow of their body fluids to get into yer bloodstream.

swiping does work - i've used it in desperation when not prepared - but it's more of a gamble than using good tweezers that'll choke the buggers from reversing their blood sucking into a hypo going into their host (me, you, us).

[olddogrib]

I've had two deer ticks embedded in the last three years, both discovered within 48 hrs.in mid-March and cold as the North Pole. The only thing sticking out was their butt, unlike a dog tick bite.  IMHO, anywhere I could have grabbed it would've squeezed body. I couldn't have gotten anywhere near the head unless I wanted to do the old snakebite X-cut...no thanks.  My doctor had already told me to come in any time one was attached and let him remove it, which he did by basically prying it out with a sterile needle, so I have to believe he also favored the minimum disturbance approach.  Having said that, there was no doubt in his mind or mine looking at that quarter sized purple bite area that I was already full of spirochetes, methylethylbads**t and God knows what else. I'll take a round of doxycycline every time, thank you very much, and if they build up a resistance to it I'll just have to pray they develop new ones. The bite area basically underwent necrosis as it healed, a lot like a poisonous spider bite, which I've also had the pleasure of experiencing.  It still doesn't look right. Don't rely on the bullseye rash, lots of cases never have one. If you really want to be depressed, there an rare oldy making a comeback that'll make you wish you it was Lyme.  Google Powassan Virus...no test, no cure, 15% of those infected and show symptoms are going to die and 50% of the rest will have permanent neurological damage....makes me want to go waller in the leaves!