Those pesky critters were almost more numerous than the caches. All throughout the weekend, it became a little game for all of us to do a ‘tick check.’ After certain caches, one of us would find a tick, then we’d all check each other. At one location we counted over a dozen ticks on the four of us. We even found a tick in our clothes when we were unpacking at home on Sunday, and another in the cachemobile the next morning.

They definitely were quite pesky at Hartman Creek. Luckily they didn’t damper the great fun had at the campout!

[This message has been edited by Folk Trakers (edited 05-18-2004).]

In all our years of camping, and three years of geocaching, we have never seen ticks like this. Eryn ended up (so far) finding 10 ticks on her, Arlene had 6, and I had 3. Due to my bum leg, we ended up staying at a nearby motel rather than camping, and Saturday night after the night caches, we were going back up to our room after a late swim and found one on the wall outside our room waiting for us!

I don’t think it was just that park, friends back home said they had problems with ticks after just spending an afternoon at a park outside Whitewater.

Ticks you say?

I found 5 on my while at the campout of the wood variety and one of the deer variety.
One managed to make it home on my jeans and one crawled onto my hand on a dark ride home on Saturday night.
I will say that they were worse in Eau Claire when I was there a couple of weeks ago.
I think this is going to be a very bad year for them. Not being an expert, I wonder if the very mild winter and great spring have anything to do with the record populations?

It was a problem but I’m used to them now so it doesn’t bother me much.. I actually bought a case of DEET type spray on sale last fall (grins) and have several cans easily in reach.. I have ticks right in my back yard up until July.. then they aren’t a bother after that..

My first year up here was a TRIP (smiles) My daughter told me to have a small vial of rubbing alchol and drop them into it.. well with finding my first tick on my head.. I DASHED into the shower and started dumping the rubbing alchol on my hair.. until I realized I had a cigarette in my hand (faints) I never turned on the shower so fast in my life.. after that ‘stunt’ I now NEVER panic over the lil suckers again..

When I was in FL they had tiny lil ticks that actually would hurt after attaching.. I wish our ticks here would do that so they’d be quicker to locate/know about.

~The Lil Otter

If you are worried about Lyme Disease, NEVER crush a tick on removal! See link for the right way to remove ticks. Personally the Tick-Off device mentioned has worked well for me…http://www.aafp.org/afp/20020815/643.pdf

quote:

---

Originally posted by kbraband:
Mary called me early Sunday morning to tell me she had a tick in her leg and was asking how to get rid of it. I was sleeping when she called so I wasn’t understanding what she meant. I knew she had probably been running that morning so I thought she meant a tick like a stitch or a spasm in her leg. After I finally realized what she was talking about, I suggested placing a hot extinguised matchhead against it. That worked for her. Immediately after we hung up, I checked myself and found one on my neck. Eeeewww! I didn’t bother with a match. I just pulled that sucker off and crushed it.

---

[This message has been edited by timberlane74 & pumpkin (edited 05-19-2004).]

quote:

---

Originally posted by AstroD-Team:
Well, I am paranoid about ticks

---

Maybe a little knowledge would be power! If it’s Lyme Disease you are worried about, know that it only comes from the tiny deer tick (smaller than a sesame seed), and not the larger wood tick. And infection is very unlikely if the tick is attached to you (not just sitting on your pants leg, but firmly attached) less than 36 hours.

It’s not what the tick carries (diseases) that makes me paranoid. It’s the whole parasitic thing – it grosses me out. But I can say, I actually picked one off my son instead of the freaking out that I normally do.
On a side note, what is the ticks purpose? Are they a food source for something or do they exist just to annoy us? Always wondering about that.

Lt Kat