Ticks

[dickenscpa]

My son had Crossover for Scouts this past Friday night. After the ceremony, my wife took our 2 yr old daughter home and my son and I camped out. When we got home the next day my wife had pulled about 12 ticks off herself and I think 4 off our little girl. I had one embedded in my waist line and my son had 1 under his arm.

My wife doesn't eat meat. Our little girl barely eats enough to keep a bird alive. My son and I eat anything that moves. I have really high iron and I'm sure protein levels. I can grow a 3-day beard by 5PM and I get my 5 o'clock shadow at 9AM. I have to trim my nails every other day. Anything metal on me turns green and falls apart - watch bands, wedding band, eye glasses, etc.

I wonder if that has anything to do with me not getting many ticks. They either taste me or I emit something they don't like. Timestepper already told me I didn't smell too good. Also, mosquitoes don't seem to prey on me either.

Brad

[StPatrick]

I can grow a 3-day beard by 5PM and I get my 5 o'clock shadow at 9AM.

Brad

Ha! I like to joke that I get my 5 o'clock shadow at 9, but won't be able to grow a decent beard at this rate until I'm 50. I played golf yesterday, and the way I play is the way that requires multiple excursions into the high grass. Maybe I was lucky, but the only tick I saw was a deer tick (I think...bigger than the little guys, maybe 2-3mm across and all black) that I flicked off my shirt. Myself and my playing partners did the whole "check the spots the ticks like" after the round, separately, and found none. I'm guessing the course was treated, because we all spent a bunch of time tromping around in 30" grass, making plenty of noise to warn off our shoulderless friends.

[Oh Shoot]

.... I had to hold my son down while my wife took tweezers and pulled well over 200 dug in ticks out of him.

...my wife had pulled about 12 ticks off herself and I think 4 off our little girl. I had one embedded in my waist line and my son had 1 under his arm.

That's a lot of ticks -- you must be talking about those tiny "seed ticks" from the plateau westward? Not the larger wood ticks like we mainly have in the east?

- OS

[Guest Riverrat]

None of the bugs like me. Now that blackberries are ripening I'm in the middle of a lot of bugs. I can rub poison ivy on me and not break out. But my wife and son they look at it and they have it. Change to flees some. My 2 dogs that come in and out all day long were covered with flees. I bought 3 gallons of a spray on from the coop that has permethrin in it. $18.00 per gallon. We would spray them, rub it in and spray some more to the point of dripping. Lay a towel on the floor for them to dry off. It would be covered with flees. 3 days later the dogs were covered with flees again. I got the pills from the vet and haven't seen a flee yet.

[dickenscpa]

That's a lot of ticks -- you must be talking about those tiny "seed ticks" from the plateau westward? Not the larger wood ticks like we mainly have in the east?

- OS

We have the larger ticks here too, bigger brown ones and the bigger brown ones with the white dot. You're right though, these were the small seed ticks that you can barely get a set of tweezers on.

The last time I got a mess of ticks on me was August of 2001. Even at that it was the first time in a long time I got a bunch of ticks on me. My 10yr old son was also conceived on this little camping trip.

I was on a mtn biking team and we camped out at LBL for the Dog Daze 50 miles race. There was a storm and some trees went down. In a really tricky piece of single track a tree had fallen and you didn't see it until way to late. I bailed and slid down a little 10' slope. After dinner, my wife took out the tweezers and pulled Lord knows how many of those seed ticks off my feet. I was 30 at the time and I can't remember having that many ticks on me all the back to being a child. Did get into some chiggers cleaning out a fence row for Granny at around 7 yrs old.

Brad

[FJCrusing]

Was out scouting on my hunting property in Hickman County last weekend and came home with two small wood ticks attached to me. Knocked one off my pants leg while I was out there. Clothes had been covered with permethrin the day before but my shirt became untucked and they slipped right in on me. It appears that they are going to be just as bad as usual this year.

[dbla]

I was out photographing the guys from Gunblast.com a few weeks back, when I got home I pulled 15 ticks off me, not counting the 7 or 8 crawling on my clothes. :-/

[Chris]

Permetherin for clothes, DEET for the skin.

If Deet doesn't work for you then check out Avon's skin so soft product line.

It's got something in it that works pretty well. My wife swears by it.

[Oh Shoot]

...then check out Avon's skin so soft ...

Skin So Soft is a staple in FL for no-seeums, makes all the diff tween pleasant time and torture on land in the Keys on a still day for example.

But never heard it helped against ticks or fleas or anything else, really.

- OS

[Timestepper]

Skin So Soft is a staple in FL for no-seeums, makes all the diff tween pleasant time and torture on land in the Keys on a still day for example.

But never heard it helped against ticks or fleas or anything else, really.

- OS

Never really heard that either, but my wife uses it when we pick blackberries and never has a problem with ticks, although she'll always pick up two or three if we go down to the creek and she doesn't use it - doubt that a placebo effect would extend to bloodsucking critters, but I guess you never know.

[DWARREN123]

Be careful out there. A friend and co-worker has found out he has Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick fever. He has been felling tired and run down for about two months and after seeing his doctor a few different times he had been told what he has and started meds/treatments.

[New Hunter]

I never paid too much attention to ticks until this year. I found one attached in my armpit and then about two weeks later I started feeling real bad so I went to the doctor. They tested me for Rocky Mountain, the test takes over a week to come back so they went ahead and started treating me. I'm glad they did because sure enough it was Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I got the tick while fishing down from the Cedar Creek Marina in Mt. Juliet.

[enfield]

Walmart has permethrin in sporting goods. Farm co-ops and old-timey hardware stores carry permethrin in dog spray/dip formulations. The veterinary permethrin is a lot cheaper than the people type.

If you'll look it up on the web, you'll find that ticks drink DEET, but permethrin will knock 'em for a loop.

I'm taking antibiotics now for an infected tick bite -- little bastard latched onto my shoulder blade near my armpit. It helps to have someone else help check you for ticks, as there are areas on your back that you can't reach and don't normally see.

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is a nasty disease - people die of it.

Edited July 21, 2012 by enfield