Ticks

About 23 years ago when my work life was surrounded by cubical walls, one of my work friends wanted to go on a local backpack with my wife and I. So her, her husband, Patty, and myself went on an over night in Mason Valley on the backside of Palomar Mountain in San Diego County. If you know anything about hiking in San Diego, you know this is best as a March or April trek; lots of water and the flowers are popping. Mason Valley itself is only a little over 2000 ft elevation, but because of it's proximity to Palomar it gets very cold at night.

The hike up is under a beautiful clear sky and we arrive early enough to explore the canyon down stream from our camp site. There is lots of deer sign around, and we follow a deer trail for much of the way to get to the water fall and pools further down stream. Now, I've gone into the bush, come back out and spent 20 min just looking for ticks on my body; I think my record is 8. Pretty gross, but you just got to do it if there are a lot of deer around. So anyway, we go through this one section and I'm thinking I've GOT to have ticks after that and start looking on myself and Patty. When our 2 friends show up, immediately they ask what the heck we are doing with very disturbed looks on both their faces. "Oh, you need to inspect yourself for ticks", I answer. They both commence to yelling, jumping, and tearing each others clothes off frantically. I know they were freaked out, but I couldn't help but laugh my ass off.

For me the pattern is first behind the ears and comb out the hair, then around the neck (shirt line), off with the shirt and along the top of the pants, and lets just say continue on down with emphases on nooks and cranneys. So ... work from the top on down. Oh yea, this is all while you are not standing in the bushes. I do it automatically now immediately after going through deer trails in the warmer periods of Spring, Summer, and Fall.

I have to say Tica is easy to check for ticks; that dog has very short hair and no undercoat at all. She is like a leggy chiuaua.

Yeah, tick checks are an everyday thing here. When I was growing up in No IL I never saw a tick. I spent the summer `69 in Texas outside of Ft. Worth and learned that tick checks were a part of coming inside after playing outside all day.

In all of my hikes in CA I never saw but one tick, that was near Castiac while hiking in the NF there.

Here, in the Spring, it's not uncommon to step into a nest of baby ticks and have hundreds crawling on you within a few seconds.

As much as I hate doing it, I now spray my outside work clothes with Permethrin. That stuff is amazing, and it is wonderful to be able to work outside without getting bit to smithereens. It's a trade off, but I've spent too many years being all bit up.

I've found that the California coastal regions and the US 101 corridor are crawling with ticks in spring. I discovered that it's really important to comb the dog before putting him in the car; he invariably has lots of hitchhikers looking for a home.

Up here in Oregon, it's the eastern half of the Columbia Gorge and the foothills east of the Cascades that are crawling in spring. For some reason I haven't run into any in the Willamette Valley, Coast Range or the coast.

My defense against ticks: For me, spray shirt, pants, shoes, gaiters with Permethrin. (Don't get it on your skin, and do your spraying outdoors and upwind of what you're spraying. Carefully read and heed label precautions.) Shortie gaiters are useful to keep the critters from crawling up your pants legs. Then a line of DEET repellent around your cuffs and collar. With this stuff you probably won't have any ticks on your clothing, but brushing off before getting into the car and removing your clothes in the bathtub when you get home (easy to see them crawling on the white porcelain) and checking your body is a really good idea.

For the dog, regularly monthly treatment with K9 Advantix or Frontline. It has recently been reported that Frontline isn't working on ticks as well as it used to. Check with your veterinarian. Many of the cheaper over-the-counter treatments don't work. Talk to your veterinarian! Again, check the dog and comb him out both before putting him in the car and again before bringing him into the house. If your dog has a thick coat, the ticks will probably still be crawling around looking for a home. If you have a short-haired dog, the ticks may have latched on. The topical treatments take an hour or two to kill the ticks after they bite; however, they generally zap the ticks before the nasty little arachnids can release their stomach contents (with attendant disease organisms) into the dog's bloodstream.

Oh, and if you itch, always look first before scratching! Yes, I'm itching right now as a result of this discussion, and I bet you are, too!

It's tick bite prevention week. The tick remover tool would make a great stocking stuffer.
http://www.tickbitepreventionweek.org/

My vet said not to worry about ticks or fleas in Central Oregon, and no meds needed unless I drove down through California. I've had one tick on me in 7 years here and never seen one on my dogs.

I have cut a tick out of me and sucked it with a venom extractor that I only carried once in my life and used it on that trip. Probably wasn't a good idea but I was in the middle of nowhere and it seemed a better choice to lose a bit of flesh snipped out than to burn it or leave it in.

Hello my name is Jim and I hate ticks. I used to hate spiders also, now I merely avoid them but let them live in my house if they aren't too pushy.
Jim

Ticks... got Rocky Mountain Tick Fever in 1999. An absolute bummer. Took over a month to get over. Literally felt like I was slipping out of my body at times (think LSD).

I didn't see the tick removal tool thing there, but I've heard of a few.

I generally just rip the little vampires off and put some anti-itch cream I get at a local drug store on the bite until it quits itching.

A friend posted a Facebook thing that said if you take a cotton ball soaked with dish soap and place it on a tick for a minute or so it will come off stuck to the cotton ball. I haven't tried it yet, but I will. I also heard the same thing except to use rubbing alcohol, but I didn't find that worked very good.

The general consensus of those in the know regarding the "traditional" treatments of alcohol, gasoline, hot match head, vaseline, etc. indicates that all these treatments tend to make Mr. (or Ms.) Tick upchuck all the organisms he/she carries into your bloodstream--which is what you don't want!

http://www.bada-uk.org/products/tickremover.php#sectionNav

I've tried vasoline, hot match etc etc, and the reason there are so many methods is that none of them work reliably after he buries his head in you. Let me ask you, if he already has his head inside your skin, how is that you think you can drown him? When I had a tick in my achiles heal, the medic in emergency gave me a shot in the area then dug it out with a scalpel. Why would he do that if its so easy to get them out?
Jim

I tear ticks off of me almost everyday here in the summer. I think the reason we call them "Ticks" is because they make a ticking noise when you pluck them off

I was splitting firewood the other day; that night I got in the shower only to noticed a bump on back of my rib cage, and it was a white tick! I pried him off and he left a nice little bite scar. I've been applying anti-itch/biotic cream for last few days. I hope I don't have Lyme disease........

They have to be attached to you at least 24 hours, and generally more than 72 hours for you to get lyme disease. I wouldn't worry about it, but keep an eye on the bite and if it gets a red ring around it go to the doctor and get some anti-biotics.

There's no red ring, but it's still red and all at the bite mark.

There are worse things than Lyme, believe it or not...

I'd go get antibiotics now.

I had a huge rash after an embedded tick - it was spreading a few inches every hour or so. Probably not Lyme, but they threw everything in the arsenal at it just the same. I'm glad they did.

http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/diseases/

Wow, I don't about that Lori. How long was the tick on you?

Seriously, I get bit dozens of times each season, and so do all of my neighbors. We couldn't possibly take anti-biotics every time we got bit. It's common to pull a dozen ticks off of yourself in a single day here, and even several times that if you walk into a nest of the little buggers.

It's normal for a tick bite to be red and a leave a little itchy lump. That lump will stay there for a long time too if you keep scratching at it. So don't scratch at it. Get some itch relief stuff and use it generously. I carry itch cream with me from about now until late October.

Keep an eye on the bite. If a rash develops, or the ring, then do go get anti-biotics, and don't waste anytime about it.

You said it was a "White" tick. If by that you mean it was swollen with blood, that could mean it was on you for too long. If it was there for more than 24 hours you need to be aware that you could have been infected, so be aware of the symptoms and if you think you might be, go get the antibiotics. But if you do get anti-biotics, after you're done with them be sure to get some probiotics and take those to rebuild your immune system.

You also need to be aware that just because you got bit by a tick doesn't mean you contracted a disease. You can get a disease from a mosquito bite too, but you probably won't. I used to go to Wisconsin for vacation when I was a kid, I've probably been bit by a million of those

I recently moved to the prairies of Saskatchewan (Canada). We have loads of ticks here. Last summer I was forever pulling them off dog and I. The alcohol does work well for getting them to let go. I took a tissue soaked in alcohol, dabbed it on the little beggar and pulling him off was supper easy. We were told to be carful not to pull him off and leave the head inside. I also have Advantix but by the time I got it the tick season was over. I think by the end of this summer I will be an expert on ticks.

Lyme disease is so nasty that, even though I try to avoid antibiotics, I'd sure go ahead with them if a tick bite results in a rash. Yogurt (with live cultures) is a good idea to restore intestinal flora afterwards, but avoid it or other milk products while taking the antibiotics.

If a tick has been on you quite a while and is engorged, or the tick's head doesn't come out, save the tick in a bottle and head for the doctor. That way they can test the tick (insist they do that). Better safe than sorry. For old-timers here, remember Earthling! [Has anyone heard from him, by the way? It has been 3 1/2 years since he last posted.]

It isn't just Lyme--a lot of people used to die from Rocky Mountain spotted fever, too. While growing up in Wyoming, I got shots for it every spring. That was discontinued in the mid-1950's when more effective antibiotics arrived on the scene, but it's still important to get treatment at the very first symptom and not wait around until you're really sick. The disease is still out there and people still die from it!

Be careful with that alcohol or other topical treatments; they often make the tick disgorge its stomach contents into the host's bloodstream prematurely, which is just what you don't want. Use the alcohol after the tick has been removed.

If you have a rash, why would you take the chance?

New ones are being found all the time. I was looking for an article I read that talked about a woman who died two days after being bitten by a tick, because I couldn't remember which disease it was she had. And I ran across another one I'd never heard of.

www.health.state.mn.us/news/pressrel/2011/pow062911.html

You may not want to go by whether or not a rash can be observed. I am not sure of the statistics, but it may be 30% of the time no rash is seen with Lyme. The tests can give either a false positive or false negative, too. Maybe prevention is the best defense. I try to treat my clothing and fabric gear with Permethrin at least once a season and use repellent on exposed skin when appropriate.

CM

I have taken to spraying down my pants in spring with Permethrin. Last weekend when others were picking ticks out of their shirts I was tick free!

I hate the thought that I'm using those chemicals but it sure beats having a zillion of the little buggers chewing on me.

Me too. I avoided it for years, but decided last year I'd been bit enough. It does work amazingly well, and while I hate the idea of using chemicals it is wonderful to not get bit so darn much.

I don't recall who here mentioned it, maybe Pika, but they said that after you spray your clothes down and let them air dry you should toss them in the clothes dryer, set it on high heat, and let them tumble for about 20-30 minutes. This helps the permethrin bond to the material. Hopefully that helps keep it off of yourself.

If you use the dryer, you might want to wipe it out before drying anything more in it. Sort of a case of not wanting to use the stuff on things that don't need it.
Here are the Department of Defense instructions for using Permethrin and Deet the most effectively.

Note that permethrin is deadly to cats, so keep cats well away from permethrin treated stuff as well as the spray.