Beware Tick Time

[xcopperstax]

The past week or so has been pretty uneventful but I tried. Listen to my story it could save your life. Perhaps this is too dramatic but it was a surprise to me:

Hopefully we all know by now that it's tick season. The woods spot I always go to is home to deer so I would assume there are deer ticks there. I've probably been there 40 times since August and have not ever found even 1 tick. I stepped into the woods and had not even brushed a plant and there was a tick on my hand. A deer tick! It must have parachuted out of a tree or something. I got the little bugger off me. I kept a pretty good eye on my clothes and through out the hunt I found 6 ticks on me. I always tuck my pants into my socks and try to always tuck in my shirt. I found plenty of targets but nothing worth mentioning... I pretty much find an ox shoe every time I go here so I think I found one of them. My philosophy is that as long as there are targets there could be something there. After a fruitless couple hrs I went home. My wife is pretty scared that I will get lyme disease or bring a tick into the house. We have a strict protocol: take off all clothes, put them in a garbage bag, look at naked body, take shower. I stuck by it and over the next day or two my skin was crawling itchy... I truly think it was triggered by my mind after having the ticks on me. Well two days later my wife was cleaning the tub and found a dead deer tick in there. It had certainly hitchhiked on me. I was shocked that I had missed it. My rationale is that it couldn't have bitten me or lodged in me and probably got washed off by the water before it had a chance to bite. That was a close call!

Next hunt was with the silver bandit. He had a new spot to try. It was an old farm field turned woodland that had been clear cut for development. Much of the site was crisscrossed with 2 foot deep 3 foot wide tire tracks and tree stumps. Not ideal conditions but we tried anyway. He found a shoe buckle frame from the 1700's and a shield nickel. I was optimistic but it was really a hard spot to swing. In my couple years of detecting probably the hardest spot I've ever tried to detect. After awhile we gave up and parted ways. I went on to "chase silver" where I find a spot with some wheats and imagine that there must be silver there for me to find. Ended up finding 5 Wheaties and no silver. Kind of abysmal. It's discouraging but I know there are some good hunts around the bend.

Time to buy some permetherin spray.

 

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[Inspector]

PLEASE take this subject very seriously, because if you don't it could change your entire life for the rest of your life.

 

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[Johncoho]

Yup...definitely tick time. Heidi got me up to let her out at 1:00AM, so I went to pee myself. On the way, I felt an itch, and discovered a tick attached on my lower abdomen. Had to go find the tweezers to get it off. Treated with antibiotic. Seems fine this morning, though sorta red.
Jim

If you develop a bulls eye rash and or flu like symptoms, see your doctor asap.

 

[ticndig]

permethrin is the ticket , deep woods off works pretty good too> I always shower with hartz flea and tick shampoo after returning from the woods . get wet , lather up , wait 5 min's then rinse.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

If you develop a bulls eye rash and or flu like symptoms, see your doctor asap.

Yup...I know. I've had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever before. I'll be watching for any symptoms the next several days. Last time, no bullseye, but had a severe headache as the indicator. Four days after the bite. Also had deep fatigue, and flu-like symptoms. Doxycyclene fixed me up, but didn't get back to normal for a few weeks.
Jim

 

[desmobob]

I was in the woods this morning with my detector. While having lunch later at home, a tick crawled out of my shirt onto my hand.

That's a pretty solid reminder for me to break out the Permethrin from winter storage.

Good hunting,
Bob

And just three days later, I found an embedded tick on my upper stomach/lower chest. Guess I better take my own advice and get busy treating my outdoor clothes with Permethrin.

It's absolutely amazing how little has been done regarding this epidemic problem with tick-borne illnesses. One of my buddies works in the agricultural chemical business and, years ago, he sent me an industry magazine article about why people aren't working harder on this. It was extremely interesting and I wish I would have saved a copy of it. One of the big issues, IIRC, was a large, successful lawsuit from someone participating in a drug test program. It made a lot of pharmaceutical companies gun-shy right at the beginning.

It has gone from a regional problem to a national problem and not much seems to be happening to deal with it.

Good hunting,
Bob