ticks, Ticks, TICKS !!!!!!!!!!!!

[3 Hawks]

I guess I must stink like greyhounder because I’ve only seen one tick this spring and it had just fallen out of a pine tree onto my arm. I’ve only had to have two ticks pulled in my whole life.

Maybe they sense that I’m semi-immune to Lyme disease since I take one Doxy every day for an eye condition.

Now if I could only find a way to be less desirable to mosquito’s! I have the nastiest reaction to mosquito bites. My wife doesn’t seem to be bothered my mosquito’s or their “bites”.

[elfdoctors]

Small rashes that show up within 48 hrs of a tick bites are actually more commonly due to local reactions to the tick than to Lyme disease. If you know the tick was not implanted for more than 36 hrs, it is perfectly acceptable to remove the tick and watch the rash. If the rash disappears within a few days and no new symptoms develop, no further treatment is necessary. The delay of a few days will not make any difference if it does turn out later to be Lyme disease.

I break out in similar reactions every time I get bit by a deer tick. I know it is allergic because I had the same reaction to a second deer tick while I was on antibiotics. I’ve had 5 deer tick bites myself this year and I have not used antibiotics for any of them.

The state does not allow physicians to diagnose a rash (even with a bulls eye) as a Lyme rash unless it is larger than 5 cms as too many of the smaller reactions have nothing to do with Lyme.

In my experience, tick populations will crash after about July 4th. By the end of July it will be hard to find ticks (at least until Labor Day when populations start to rise again – but nothing near spring levels).

[jenhen1]

Thanks for the info, elfdoctors!!!! Your insight into tick related ailments has been very helpful!

Black circle hasn’t grown and is now purplish and doesn’t look nearly as “nasty” as on Sunday. I’ll take that as a good sign! I’ll keep watching it, though.

Just pulled one off the cat. Those buggers are everywhere!

[cheezehead]

I just had to tell you all about what happened to me tonight.

I went out to hit a brand new cache just 10 miles from home. I knew the location and thought cool! Well after an hour of walking and thick bushwhacking I gave up. I had noticed a few ticks on my jeans and just kept brushing them off. As I got back to my truck, I started a closer inspection. The crotch of my jeans was covered in brown. There had to be 50 tick there! There were also digging into the seams. I got home, stripped down to my skives and had my wife pull off about 50 ticks from me! 😯 I did not spy anything on them before I went out. And my poor dogs. I have spent the last 3.5 hrs de-ticking them. Their lags and chests where just covered. It was like they had the chicken pox. I just put Bio-spot on them last week.

In my almost 27 years of living “UP North” I have never seen them like this before. Never! 😯

I will be treating my cloths with Permanone before I go out next time!

[LightningBugs Mum]

@elfdoctors wrote:

I break out in similar reactions every time I get bit by a deer tick. I know it is allergic because I had the same reaction to a second deer tick while I was on antibiotics. I’ve had 5 deer tick bites myself this year and I have not used antibiotics for any of them.

Same here. I just watch the bites and wait to see if I get any flu-like symptoms. So far I’ve been lucky….

One word to cheezehead: EEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

[3 Hawks]

I think cheezehead should change his caching name to “tick bait”.

There must be some explanation for the tick bloom this year. Are tick population booms cyclical?

I know that on most population growth charts, you will see logarithmic growth spurts followed by large die-offs and lower populations in subsequent years. Could the high numbers this year be a sign of better years to follow?

[Team B Squared]

@3 Hawks wrote:

There must be some explanation for the tick bloom this year. Are tick population booms cyclical?

Mild winter? I have no clue but that would be my guess without researching it.

Also, the ticks do not seem any worse then normal up here in the central UP, although in the past it was not uncommon to come out of the woods with 20+ ticks after a short walk, so take that for what its worth. Although I know quite a few people who have contracted lyme disease, it seems from reading posts on here that you guys in Wisconsin see deer ticks a lot more frequently than we do. I have only had 1 or 2 deer ticks (that I know of) in my life.

[tuck-a-way]

Wood tick….Deer ticks….can’t kill them all. (darn it) North of Crivitz I got them in my mowed lawn. No tall grass at all.

[Grandma & Grandpa]

Lots and lots and lots of them in the Tomahawk area the last few days. Did not keep a count, but it certainly was in the dozens per person. We stayed on top of them with numerous body checks per day. We did find a few deer ticks attached, both the little bitty nymphs and the adults, and we are keeping close watch on the bite sites.

Are the nymph deer ticks potential Lyme transmitters, or just the adults?

Grandpa

[LightningBugs Mum]

@Gram&Gramps wrote:

Are the nymph deer ticks potential Lyme transmitters, or just the adults?

Grandpa

According to my web research, the nymphs are actually MORE likely to transmit Lymes. It’s the reason that so many people who contract the disease didn’t even realize they were bitten – cuz those things are so TINY!

[djwini]

so i had lucky at the vet today, and the test they run showed her positive for tick borne diseases. something that started with an a and lymes. and she’s on frontline. but she’s had 3 ticks so far this year, all of them on her face. so check your geodogs too.

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

enough tick talk. You all are making me nervous. We’re about to spend the next entire week in the woods ya know! 😀

[elfdoctors]

@djwini wrote:

so i had lucky at the vet today, and the test they run showed her positive for tick borne diseases. something that started with an a and lymes.

The disease starting with “A” is anaplasmosis. This was formerly called Ehrlichiosis (or Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis). I am aware that some veterinarians treat based on the positive test. I probably would not treat my own dog based on only a positive antibody test for this disease. My reasoning is that I know that in humans, there are no chronic forms of this disease and that most healthy adults fight this without antibiotics. Most confirmed cases in humans are over age 70 (whom can get VERY sick and even occasionally die). We just had our first confirmed human case this week.

Our clinic helped culture the world’s first two positive cultures for this disease. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/brief/334/4/209

[zuma]

@Gram&Gramps wrote:

Lots and lots and lots of them in the Tomahawk area the last few days. Did not keep a count, but it certainly was in the dozens per person. We stayed on top of them with numerous body checks per day. We did find a few deer ticks attached, both the little bitty nymphs and the adults, and we are keeping close watch on the bite sites.

Are the nymph deer ticks potential Lyme transmitters, or just the adults?

Grandpa

I found my fourth nymph on me today. As I understand it the nymphs are not able to transmit lymes for 48-72 hours after they bite you, and they slowly grow, suckin in blood. If you check yourself daily and remove the nymphs, you will not likely get lymes. The problem is when they find a spot to hide, stay on and grow or several days, and then can transmit lymes.

zuma

[Mole_n_Opossum]

We had some problems with monthly application liquid tick/flea/fly preventative not working well. The vet informed me that I shouldn’t apply it right after a bath, as the dog’s natural oils help it spread uniformly over the animal. Instead, we should go three days before and after application without bathing. Some very basic and limited testing shows this to be the case for my labs.

Both Mole and I don’t venture out without boots, long socks, pants, long-sleeve over short-sleeve shirts, hats, and DEET spray. We spray our socks and pant cuffs, shirt cuffs, and any warm areas (such as armpits and where our legs meet our torsos). Shirt collars and hats are sprayed before the shirt is put on, as we don’t like a face-full of bug spray.

This usually stops ticks from crawling on us, but not always. We check the dogs after every cache hunt, not just after a day of hunting. This lets us comb out the buggers before they embed themselves, which is much easier than pulling them out later. This also keeps them from coming home with us and finding they don’t really like the tick repellent on the dogs, and then jumping off when in the house, potentially finding you without DEET applied.

We’ve never been able to stop 100% of the ticks 100% of the time. The preventative chemicals and clothing help a lot, but promptly checking our caching partners (dogs in the field, people in private) has kept us healthy.

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