Ticks

I had one wish asked to be a chick magnet because of my accent they thought I said tick magnet bam tick magnet I am

 

Problem with ticks in New Hampshire is that most of the problem diseases are carried by Deer ticks and they are very small and hard to find. The natural vector is from deer to mice or voles and then to humans. You now find deer every where in our area, and with no hunting allowed within x hundred feet of a dwelling, most private land posted, the anti hunters out in force, etc, and most of the small rodents now carry the ticks and Lymes disease etc and the deer allow them to move rapidly from one area to another. It is a serious disease now and would be very bad if modern medical treatments weren't available. If SHTF, it would be as great a threat as people out to take our things. Didn't even exist here 40 or so years ago and while fowl do a good job on the larger ticks, they don't on the small dangerous ones. We use DEET on shoes and cuffs every time we go out and still worry. It appears as in our moose population may be severely reduced as the moose ticks are killing more and more of the young during their first winter. Seacowboys is very correct, in most of the USA, insect borne diseases, Lymes, West Nile, etc are the greatest danger we face in the woods and our yards.

 

Doxycycline is one of the common antibiotics used to treat Lyme.
Anyone who has been deployed to Afghanistan has them given to them like Halloween candy and probably has at least 3 months worth of them.

My uncle got Lyme in the 90s. Got bit by a tick, developed the bull's eye bite mark immediately made an appointment with his Dr and by the time he could get to his Dr appointment it was gone and the Dr didn't believe him. And he got real bad lyme and fucked him up pretty bad.
It was the peak of the HMO insurancw years.

 

Augggh, don't burn, Vaseline or oil them! Yes its true they breath through there skin so this sometimes makes them back out but before they do that they will regurgitate their stomach contents back into your bloodstream along with any nastys (ie Lyme ).
& DO NOT leave the head in if at all possible or 9 times out of 10 the area will get infected & ive seen some pretty nasty infections result from not getting the head out.

Best way to remove them is to gently turn/spin them until they let go. you can get tick removal tools but ive always found my fingers or tweezers/hemostats work best (just dont squish them while removing)
Oh and best way to dispose of is toilet,fire or wrap them up in a bit of tape. Smooshing them causes all the lyme/disease containing insides to arisol-ize in the air & you really dont want to be inhaling that.

 

@runswithdogs, good info i did not know they regurgitated, i just dont like to leave the head in as it will leave a hole in your or your pet for up to a year. so you just gently twist the body?

 

just spin it around like your unscrewing it....dont pull, it will come away on its own if you just keep turning it. some dig in pretty deep so it takes a bit more.

 

No ticks here as yet because we still have a freeze 2 or three times a week. Not looking forward to tick season. One has to be careful and makes sure dogs and cats etc are all ready and people take precautions when going outside along with good checks afterward. Good Luck. Oh make sure your screw them counter clockwise.

 

Plies song I got ticks on me ticks on me ok maybe that's bricks on me.

 

LOL! I am having a blonde moment so I have to ask.... is that a joke or are you serious.

 

I know this to be true & have done many , We have small deer /vole ticks & we have very fine tweezers with ultra thin surgical tubing on them just for ticks . My dog had them bad in southern USA twice.
As for the CCW or CC rotation , I'll let Sara speak

Sloth

 

honestly I dont actully think it matters but yeah, ive usally heard to unscrew counterclockwise. its easier to do it that way anyways

 

It's the way they put their heads in that counter clockwise seems to work the best. One year when we lived in Southern MO. we took over 1000 ticks off of the kids and us. That was 9 months worth of ticks as the tick season is sometimes end of March through much of Nov. I loved the area but not the long tick season.

 

If they sucked off me (not the other way )
They might die from Glenlivet !

Good to know Ms S

Sloth

 

@RightHand

Whats the drug your taking to deal with this ?
doxycycline

Movie to watch is Under our skin !! Here : Under Our Skin (2008) - IMDb
Sloth