Ticks

In my part of the country [ Kentucky ] ticks are bad this year. I check myself after I've been outside and have my wife look at my back just to make sure because I had been feeling a little rough the last month and had been bitten by 3 ticks, so I went to see my Dr.
She ran tests for Lyme and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Lyme came back clear, but I do have the other. 2 weeks of Doxycycline and I'll be back to normal, but when it hits, it's a PITA.

These are some of the symptoms and you may have 1 or 2 but not all. Or you may have all of them.

Fever.
Headache.
Rash.
Nausea.
Vomiting.
Stomach pain.
Muscle pain.
Lack of appetite.

I felt run down and tired, with a very localized rash around the bite area, a bit of occasional upset stomach. Not really nausea, just a bit blah if you know what I mean and none of the others, but it was the fatigue that worried me. I'm an avid fisherman, LOVE to go fishing and when I didn't even fell like going, I knew something was up.

This is no joke, it can be serious or even deadly if ignored. If you have had a tick bite and any of these symptoms, you might want to get checked out.

www.cdc.gov...

When left untreated, the bacteria can cause damage to blood vessels throughout the body leading to organ and tissue damage. RMSF can be fatal, even in previously healthy people. If not treated correctly, death can often occur within eight days of symptoms starting.

a reply to: DAVID64

Thank you plum island...

a reply to: Terpene

Yeah, I have a friend with chronic fatigue from that.
Cannot be too careful.
Damn those experiments.





a reply to: DAVID64

Glad you got medical attention.....and pray you heal 100%!!!

a reply to: DAVID64

Whew! Damn David! I thought it was COVID! Seriously...nature preserve last night: 2 ticks me, 1 dog, 1 wife.

Nasty things. Many kinds. Always ck!

If anyone or their animal has an attatched tick, please try this before removing with another method and leaving nasty bits behind in the bite.

Place a finger on the ticks abdomen and rub it in either direction in a circular motion repeatedly. Just like you're rubbing in a blob of ointment or similar.

I think the tick has a reaction that makes it relinquish it's grasp to gain a better one due to disorientation, but actually lets go and falls off on it's own instead.

Then stamp on the little critter and obliterate it from the food chain.

Stay safe and healthy folks while you frolick among Mother Nature.

I’ve had 3 ticks as well, one hurt like hell for a few weeks. Never had pain from a tick before. I tested negative for lime after feeding run down for a few days. don’t think they tested for anything else.. Not had any symptoms since no rash.

a reply to: DAVID64

a reply to: nerbot

I removed three ticks from my cat's fur and underneath two of them was a tiny, what I assume to be a baby tick. They weren't attached to the cat but to each other. Anyone seen anything like that? I certainly didn't expect it!
I think just stepping on them doesn't kill them. They are extremely resilient. I wrap them up in a tissue and burn them to be sure.
Interesting method, just watch out for those extra ones underneath big ones! I was too disgusted to examine them or try to detach them from one another but I assume they could detach through rubbing. Just watch out people for those hitchhikers while trying this method!

The American Dog Tick, very common around here. Then less common is the Lone Star and Black Legged. I get one or two dog ticks a day in the early spring, then a couple a week until midsummer. Then maybe once a month until winter. I check everyday regardless, and I don't like my flabby old body and my sagging parts, but I look it over good. Then, even though the cats have flea and tick medicine, the ticks take a ride on them and end up on my chair or in the bed.

This all began around 12 years ago around here, never had them before unless I went down by the river in the spring. I so sensitive now, that I can tell without feeling them crawl on me, I just know they are there most of the time I find them on me.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Have you come to any conclusion as to why they are so much more common than in the past?
I could see if it was a new variety of bug, like the stick bugs that hopped over from other parts of the world.

a reply to: DAVID64

We were overwhelmed by those little buggers this year. My wife would get a couple on her everyday. Last year I got lime disease from a tick bite

I finally had enough, and ordered a product that was all natural (I have a dog), that contained cedar oil as the main ingredient, and sprayed my entire 1 acre. First, it smells great, second, we haven’t seen a tick since. I highly recommend that stuff. I guess it kills on contact.

I will be spraying that stuff every spring from now on. I hate ticks, especially deer ticks. Them buggers are small and hard to see.

a reply to: DAVID64

I am unable to eat meat derived from mammals after a series of Australian tick bites. The condition is called MMA (not mixed martial arts) or Mammalian Meat Allergy. Contract that and you can kiss your crispy morning bacon goodbye. They literally will have to prise it out of your cold dead hands. I was told the condition is more so associated with Australian ticks as they habitually suck marsupial blood.

www.allergy.org.au...

If the W.E.F wanted to decrease global demands for meat products ....... I won't say, as they may get (ahem) ideas.

a reply to: HilterDayon

I've heard of that. Must be pretty bad if you give up bacon

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Have you come to any conclusion as to why they are so much more common than in the past?
I could see if it was a new variety of bug, like the stick bugs that hopped over from other parts of the world.

They have been heading East from Lake Michigan more or less, from what I heard on the news broadcast some years back. Ticks are all over the place around here now, when at most you'd get them down by the river, because of the deer going down to the water to drink. Ticks will climb up trees eight to ten feet up and jump down on you as you pass by, despite what the "experts" will tell you. They do jump at least a foot, so no need to brush up against a tall weed or some bushes to get them.

They are pretty intelligent as well, I put a dozen in a one-gallon pickle jar and experimented on them. One day I put the lid on the jar cockeyed, and they immediately climbed up and started to get loose. I pulled a big fat engorged female tick off the dog and put it in a jar of Isopropyl alcohol and it lived for four days submerged before it finally died. These were the American dog ticks I did my mad science on.

originally posted by: bipolarnightmare
I think just stepping on them doesn't kill them. They are extremely resilient.

I actually said STAMP on them. I'va also burned a couple like you have done in tissues, but the disgust of these things prompts a violent destruction most times.

I have removed perhaps half a dozen from my cats in the past and a few from friends dogs using the method I mentioned over the years.

Never seen the hitchikers though.

Bromeliad , found in fresh pineapple, is known for flushing tick bite bacteria out of your body …. Also, the Lone Star tick has been showing up across the country and its bite can cause the same symptoms while shutting down your liver … the tick bite give you , erhlichiosis ( spelling is probably not correct ) . It can affect both humans and pets …A simple Blood test can tell if you have that . And a certain antibiotic will kill the bacteria in you body … if you don’t get better , maybe have that test done too … in the mean time, I hope you get better soon !

I have had ticks on me many times during the last sixty some years and never got anything other than a little spot around where they were. I don't think there used to be much diseases from ticks here in the U.P years ago. I guess people around here I know have gotten lyme disease, but so far I have not. This year I have not had a tick stuck to me even though I was out in the woods cleaning up the trees that had fallen from the huge wet snowfalls we had in late winter this year. The ticks are only out for a couple of months around this neck of the woods, so you try to get your main work done in risk areas in the early spring or late summer or fall. I still need to go blueberry and raspberry picking yet, so I may wind up with one or two yet this summer. I learned to check myself when I get home and to shake my clothes outside and wash them when I bring them in after my shower when I pick berries.

I do not know how bad they are going to be when I go pick blueberries, I need to get three quarts for my winter pies, one for thanksgiving, one for Christmas dinner, and one for Easter dinner.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

I heard something about their ability to drop down on you. Good thing we don't walk in the woods in the spring.
But living 4 days in alcohol? I guess you really do have to squash them or set them on fire.
Scary that they are such good escape artists.

Is their a cyclical reason there are fewer as the summer progresses, or just some local observations?

Maybe the ticks over here in the UK are a little different considering what I have read here?

Anyway, many years ago, my neighbour brought her young son to me as the kids (hers and mine) had been out playing in the woods at the end of our road. He had a tick on his leg. I got out Thyme essential oil and put a drop on the bugger. Within seconds it 'let go' and fell off. Thyme is well researched and known to kill off strep and staph infections in 20-30 minutes for example. I then added a drop of Lavender eo as that has some antihistemene properties. He was fine thankfully.
I've recommended this process to many people over the years (particularly dog walkers) and it seems to work.
Rainbows
Jane

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

I heard something about their ability to drop down on you. Good thing we don't walk in the woods in the spring.
But living 4 days in alcohol? I guess you really do have to squash them or set them on fire.
Scary that they are such good escape artists.

Is their a cyclical reason there are fewer as the summer progresses, or just some local observations?

The first wave of ticks coincided with logging on my property. It was winter and the fresh treetops had the place totally overrun with deer. By spring, every inch of the property was covered in deer crap, so when summer hit and there were ticks everywhere, I thought it was the logging that did it. Well, the tick-festation has lasted for years and based on reports on the local TV news, everyone has had a tick problem since then.

It has been getting less severe for the past three years and bad winters seem to have a negative effect on their numbers. There may be other factors involved in why the tick population has been dropping, but I never have looked for any studies on the subject.

Hope you start to feel better! I had a little deer tick and now have Lyme's. After 4 weeks on doxycycline, I'm still feeling the effects. I don't get the joint pain and arthritis as much, but the fatigue is the worst part. There are times when I can't string two coherent thoughts together.