Don't know who all here has had it. I am sure as many of you spend a lot of time in the woods that there are a few here who have. We have had more diagnosed cases in North Carolina this year that I personally know about than all my other years combined. I thought this article was helpful. Please feel free to add comments or debunk if this is actually garbage. http://www.mvtimes.com/2016/07/13/visiting-physician-sheds-new-light-lyme-disease/
I have picked 3 ticks off me and 4 off my 3yo in the past week. That's 6 more than I've seen in decades.
Thanks for the interesting article. Pretty sad how bad our testing and identification methods are. I had no idea the bullseye was only a 20% chance, or that there's almost a 70% non-diagnose rate.
Yeah this year has been absolutely insane for ticks. I pull 2-3 off my dog EVERY DAY and that's with flea and tick medication on him and weekly flea-tick baths. Luckily they don't really bother the horses for some reason (probably the tough skin) but they're all over the cow. The unfortunate part is that I can't spray for them because of the animals eating the grass, so we just have to keep and look out. I pulled 3 off my son at one time a few weeks ago.
With that high of an undiagnosed rate, there should be more preventative measures being taken like a vaccine.
3 of the ones I pulled off my son were at the same bath time. We had already checked him once that day after coming home from the barn and found none. Put him in the bath and found 3. Where they came from in the interim I have no clue.
For anyone who hasn't tried this, I highly recommend it. You spray it on your clothes before putting them on, and it lasts up to two weeks. Where I hunt the ticks are terrible. You pull several off you even just hanging out around camp. We started using this during spring turkey season. Four guys, three days, and miles of walking through woods and fields, constantly sitting in high grass. Not one tick. This stuff is great. http://www.repel.com/products/personal-repellents/clothing-gear/clothing-gear.aspx
^ Yea I bet it is permetherin based... I swear by that stuff... treat all my clothes I'm hunting in. Also, wear gators, and light colored pants (so they are easier to see)
A fine, relevant thread. I've been thinking of starting a tick prevention thread -- been really busy though -- but I'll post some ideas here. Background: my undergrad and grad study was in biology/ecology with a focus on entomology (bugs and their relatives). I had two courses in medical entomology and did a couple of projects with ticks back in the day. I'm an avid outdoors person living in a tick infested state (Maine) where deer ticks (especially) reign. I've been doing a LOT of research focused on how to avoid them in the first place, especially since I've known several here who are fighting Lyme disease. Even worse, there's now a tick born virus here (Lyme is a spirochete, a bacterium, which is vastly different and more easily treatable than a virus) that can kill in weeks if undetected and treated. I walk in the back woods 3 - 6 times weekly. Here's what I've been doing since March to avoid ticks. Not all of these will work for all, but hopefully some will be of use. I've raked out a path to my main work area (a few hundred yards), removing all plants that I might brush up against. I wear 15" Muck boots with my trousers tucked in. My field trousers and shirt are light colored; the ticks are darker. I can spot even a nymph crawling on them. I stop every few hundred feet to take a quick look on my clothing for any tiny speck crawling upward, especially if I have to get off trail. (A few minutes doing that is better than a few years of anti-biotics and debilitating illness or death.) I too have treated my clothing with Pyrethrin-based spray, good for a month or more, even through several washings. It kills any arthropod crawling on them without harm to me. When I return from the field, I follow this procedure. I remove every stitch of clothing immediately, and put it into a 170F oven for 10 min. (I have no drier, but that would work also.) This ensures that any ticks on my clothing are killed. While the clothes cook, I go into my intensely brightly lit bathroom (LED overheads are like the sun) and use the bathroom mirror plus a handheld magnifying mirror and check every mm of my body. (I've now seen places on my body that I've never seen before. ) I follow that with a hot shower using a scrub brush and one of those plastic bath brillo sponges to remove any larva. Nothing could hold on during that. I've been doing this steadfastly since March, and have yet to find a single tick on me. (But ask me next week.) If I do find one attached, I'll do the following. 1> use a proper method of removal that removes mouth parts (never just pull it off!) 2> contact my primary care physician to set up an emergency antibiotic treatment.
Wife and I have each had 4 ticks this year and the dog close to a 100. Hence my moniker. Deer heard is huge and the ticks rain down out of the trees, especially red cedar. We've battled them for years. One suggestion I started to use 3 years ago and has really worked is this; wear white when mowing etc. and the ticks won't go for you. Supposedly it is neutral to them so your not identified as an animal. I wear Long sleeve white t-shirt, white pants and sun hat when mowing and weed whacking. No ticks. Walk to the mail box or sit on the patio while wearing shorts etc. and your pulling ticks off. Seems the white works though it may be BS. The sprays only help to prevent. I do both.
Walked all the way down into the ravine today, 400 m into the swamp past some heavy undergrowth. Spent hours there. Got back after dark, did a tick check, and found none. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Strategy is working, so far ...
Yeah you might want to test that permethrin on a very small patch of skin first. Some folks have a bad reaction to it. I treated some clothes with it years ago and in the first rain and I felt like a zillion needles poking me everywhere. I came out of the clothes and haven't used it since.))
Not a bad idea, Mike. Thanks for the suggestion. However, so far, no reaction from my clothing. They've been damp -- both from sweat and a light rain -- but certainly not soaking wet. Also, I'm using permethrin, -- as you did -- which is a synthetic version of pyrethrin. The synthetics offer far more control over dosage (or so I read) than pyrethrin, which is extracted from flowers, and different plants have different strengths, etc. Harder to control. I read a bunch of articles about it, all of which recommended permethrin (instead of pyrethrin), and no one (that I saw) mentioned a potential problem until now with your story. But we're all different, and reactions may vary. Here's the brand I use.
I use a heavy duty concentrated Permethrin spray, designed for horses...its supposed to be mixed with water and brushed on them. I use it 100% concentration ,in a sprayer and soak my clothes. When i come back from a hike / camp/ 4x4 trip (esp lytton area, lots of ticks) i put the clothes in the dryer on the Whites setting then bag em in heavy duty construction bags until next trip. this is the stuff,basically fly spray for Equines http://parasitipedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3790&Itemid=4165 for safety : DO NOT USE PERMETHRIN around cats ....or pets in general, but esp cats. I put my clothes on a plastic tarp, spray them let then dry and bag em and keep them away from the cats. I also shower after wearing the treated clothes and before petting the cats.
I've pulled 4 off my 5 yr. Old son this year not including the ones he has pulled off himself, a funny story goes along with that...kinda. my wife has pulled off a couple and she has never had them before, I honestly can't count how many I've pulled off me or the dogs. I pulled almost 4 dozed off my pit a few weeks ago just after a light rain. We are super lucky though no lime disease reported in our area yet. I've seen more deer and bear here than I can ever remember. I dunno what that has to do with it but I agree with the white t shirt thing @Tick Bite brought up. It helps a lot or at least not wearing dark clothes.
Story in a regional paper today. "A bite from the lone star tick, prevalent across the eastern half of the United States, can cause severe symptoms to develop after eating mammalian meat such as pork, beef and lamb. Symptom include hives, shortness of breath and can lead to an anaphylactic reaction. A bite can even be fatal, according to Ronald Saff, an allergist from Tallahassee, Florida."
