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Geocaching On Hold For The Summer :(


LokiDucks

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We started geocaching in around the October time, where it was cold and we weren't worried about insects.

 

My geocaching team has been on a bit of a hiatus as of late, and today, two of us decided to get back into the swing of things to keep up with the competition. What a mistake...

 

From the start, i was worried about ticks, and took along OFF! Wipes, as the container said it helps prevent ticks. I swiped some on me, tucked my shirt in my pants, zipped up my track jacket (despite the heat) and took off.

 

I did my best to avoid tall grasses and contact with plantlife, but you know how it is. Gotta do what ya gotta do. We found two caches and had to give up on a third out of frustration. On the ride home, my friend spots two "spiders" (later proven to be ticks) crawling on his jeans. He pulled over, got out of the car on the road, and swipped them off. Two minutes later, a third appears on his pant leg. Now i'm feeling the pressure too (neither of us has ever had a tick before).

 

I got home and ran inside as my friend sped off in his car for his own home/shower. Before i reached the stairs to my room, i already was down to my boxer shorts. I threw my clothes into the dryer for 30 minutes on medium-high heat (as i had read that that will kill any that are on there). And made for the mirror. All seemed well until...*brush*...i touched one on the back of my knee, right in the crevace..

 

I panicked! What to do! I felt utterly defeated. As thoughts of lyme disease raced through my head, i made for the internet: Removal tips. I googled and i wikipediaed. Some sites said to use petrolyum jelly, others said to spray it with insect repellant, some said to burn it, what to do?! Finally i found something i felt could be trusted--the CDC. Their official website said to use sharp tweezers to grab it by the head and pull it out. I did just that and then combined the tips from the other sites: i trapped it in a cup and marked it with my name and date, i put an antiseptic on the bite site.

 

Phew...hopefully crisis averted...

 

So, is anybody else cancelling caching until the winter? Cuz (as you can tell) ticks freak us OUT!

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So, is anybody else cancelling caching until the winter? Cuz (as you can tell) ticks freak us OUT!

 

No way ticks dont "bug" us to much, I worry more about snakes then smalls bugs

 

If you are that freaked out about it you could do urban only caches.

 

Great Idea!

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Buzz Off clothing is impregnated with Permethrin, which kill ticks (Deet is a repellant). I use Buzz Off socks, pants, shirt and sometime their hat. Seems to be working however, I do watch very carefully, try to minimize the high grass in the warm months and like caching better in winter because of ticks.

 

Article.

 

The pants and shirt are light colored so you can see ticks better although I have n' t seen any on them since I started using. I even tuck my pants into my socks. I little nerdy but what the heck. I keep my shirt tuck inside my pants. I check my clothes every once in a while. Check before I get in my car. Check when I shower at home. I undress in the shower and stick my clothes in a plastic bag just in case.

 

Hmmm. Might be easier to to climb mountains!

Edited by Alan2
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Ticks are around pretty much throughout the year in these parts. An extended freeze will keep them down for a while, but I've seen ticks in every month (even this past January and Feb).

 

So there really is no getting away from them.

 

Best thing to do if you really are afraid of them:

 

1. Wear light colored clothing so you can see them crawing on your clothes.

2. Treat clothing with Permethrin spray

3. Treat skin with DEET repellent

4. Tuck pants into socks (if you don't mind the high geek factor look).

5. Have fun and screw the ticks

6. Check your body at the end of the day.

Edited by briansnat
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I just removed 3 yesterday after caching. I would much rather deal with a few ticks than a few hundred hungry skeeters. So don't let some stupid spider ruin your caching fun. I have been camping for over 25 years. Ticks are just part of being outdoors. When you do get home check everywhere because they like softer skin areas best. All you need to-do is take some tweezers to remove them and treat it with some sort of antiseptic. The bite will heal like a skeeter bite. If it remains irritated or swollen then get it seen about.

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Buzz Off or anything with permethrin will keep the ticks away.

For a more natural approach, I find the Badger Anti-bug Balm to be pretty good. It has citronella and geranium oil. The tick hate geranium oil. Plus it will make you smell all pretty on the trail. :lol:

 

Check yourself periodically on the trail. I usually check while at the cache and once I return to the trail head.

Light colored clothing is you best deterrent to. Not only can you see the ticks better on contrast to white and bright cloths, but they may also avoid bright colors in an effort to hide from birds that might eat them.

 

Since tick are attracted to heat, the hotter it is out, then less likely they will grab on to you. I've found spring and fall to be the worst for ticks. On hot summer days, I usually don't collect ticks in my travels.

I save those days for chiggers. I rather pluck of a dozen ticks off of me after caching then walk through a nest of chiggers.

 

Don't let the fear of thorns keep you from the rose. Take the precautionary measure before caching and do periodic inspections while caching and you should be good. Besides, it's nothing six to eight weeks of penicillin can't fix. :tired:

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If you are that freaked out about it you could do urban only caches.

 

That sounds like a good idea. However, yesterday I did three urban micros and two 1/4 mile walks through the woods. The two walks were uneventful. The parking lot micro under a lamppost skit was uneventful.

But at the guard rail micro and the corner bench micro I picked up a tick each.

 

Go figure. I thought it was pretty funny.

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I rather pluck of a dozen ticks off of me after caching then walk through a nest of chiggers.

 

I'm with you on this one Nik... :rolleyes:

The chiggers are so small, that you cant see them until it's too late. They go right for your ankles and waist line, which means it will be very painfull to wear a belt or socks for days after getting them on you..

 

Mythbuster???

I heard if you had Lymes Disease in the past and got treated for it early enough, that your body will have the anti-bodies in place to fight it if you get bitten by another infected tick in the future. Has anyone else heard of this?

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I hear you! I was out on Saturday doing the northern half of the Beaverdam Creek Reservoir (Ashburn, VA) with two other friends. We were stopping after each find for a tick check. I only found one on myself early on...and then we got to the last cache of the day. We had to cross a grassy field and enter the tree line to get to the cache. While signing the log, one of my friends asked me to check the back of one of her socks which was covered with a bunch of dots. Taking a closer look, I thought it was a dozen or so baby spiders. I then realized they only had six legs instead of eight! I looked down at my own boots...I easily had about a dozen or so on each boot/sock...we all did! It was as if we had stepped on an ant nest...except with ticks. Suffice it to say, we rushed back to the trail and removed boots and socks in order to get them all off. I've never seen so many ticks in my life. I like to think that the Deep Woods OFF (i.e. 25% DEET) kept them off my legs, but just barely. After that little experience, I have a new found appreciation for light post micros. I'm definitely done with the great outdoors for this summer.

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I like to think that the Deep Woods OFF (i.e. 25% DEET) kept them off my legs, but just barely.

Go with 95% or higher DEET based products (e.g. Deep Woods OFF for Sportsmen) - I have very good results (down from 1-2 attached tickes per month (removed immediately within the first few hours) to zero since I started using it about 2 years ago - just be careful touching any plastic with body parts or clothing parts that are treated. I had a cellphone melt on my ear (it thankfully didn't get stuck to the ear but it was toas nevertheless).
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I hear you! I was out on Saturday doing the northern half of the Beaverdam Creek Reservoir (Ashburn, VA) with two other friends. We were stopping after each find for a tick check. I only found one on myself early on...and then we got to the last cache of the day. We had to cross a grassy field and enter the tree line to get to the cache. While signing the log, one of my friends asked me to check the back of one of her socks which was covered with a bunch of dots. Taking a closer look, I thought it was a dozen or so baby spiders. I then realized they only had six legs instead of eight! I looked down at my own boots...I easily had about a dozen or so on each boot/sock...we all did! It was as if we had stepped on an ant nest...except with ticks. Suffice it to say, we rushed back to the trail and removed boots and socks in order to get them all off. I've never seen so many ticks in my life. I like to think that the Deep Woods OFF (i.e. 25% DEET) kept them off my legs, but just barely. After that little experience, I have a new found appreciation for light post micros. I'm definitely done with the great outdoors for this summer.

 

Do your research.. They weren't ticks.

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I rather pluck of a dozen ticks off of me after caching then walk through a nest of chiggers.

 

I'm with you on this one Nik... :anitongue:

The chiggers are so small, that you cant see them until it's too late. They go right for your ankles and waist line, which means it will be very painfull to wear a belt or socks for days after getting them on you..

 

Mythbuster???

I heard if you had Lymes Disease in the past and got treated for it early enough, that your body will have the anti-bodies in place to fight it if you get bitten by another infected tick in the future. Has anyone else heard of this?

 

Sorry but I don't think you build up any immunity from prior Lyme infection. I just got my first dose of Lymes two weeks ago. Caught very early as I was lucky enough to find the tick and had an early bulls eye rash. Doctor told me that Lyme is very strange in that I will have antibodies in my blood now that may trigger a positive reaction to any blood test but will not ward off future infections.

Edited by RoyalRed
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I would just like to add to the thread that you should never let something like a tick control your life. The best defense is awareness and taking precautions. We as a family lost a whole summer to Lyme, and we've learned a lot that basically came down to if you want to Geocache, you'll have to deal with ticks. Geocaching won!

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Lyme is a bacterial infection. You can not build up a resistance to bacterial infections; only to some viral infections.

Funny. I went 45 years playing and hiking in the woods, and never saw a tick until ten years ago. I've seen plenty in the last ten years!

I hade Lyme last year. That has not stopped me from hiking, and geocaching.

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I get freaked out by ticks too! But, I wasn't about to let it prevent me from geocaching.

 

I now use a permethrin product on my clothing which kills and repels them and a deet based product on my skin. The permithrin product I use is Sawyer Family (http://www.sawyer.com) in a 6oz pump spray bottle which I get from REI (http://rei.com) and I've seen it online as well.

 

There are other permethrin products that you can check out at REI and other outdoor stores. You still need to check yourself afterwards, but this will reduce the chances of finding something. I went from picking up a couple of them every time I went out to zero found.

 

Please don't stop caching. These products work well and will reduce your chances of having tick problems.

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We went out yesterday and pulled at least 10 off of each of us when we got home, besides the ones we caught before getting home, it was really bad. It doesn't freak me out as much anymore. I have orderd a spray with permethrin in it but didn't get it yet.

 

My son has one bite on him that I think needs to be checked out.

 

It wan't stop us from caching, we run the risk of getting them in our yard. We just won't go out again until we get the spray, just too many darn ticks to track down.

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I use Deep Woods Off, and it seems to work pretty well. I also use Original Skin So Soft bath oil on my skin. (Not the bug repelleant Skin So Soft, that doesnt work for ticks or greenheads) I havent had many ticks this summer, no more than I do in the winter. Ticks dont freak me out, but a big spider will send me screaming! :laughing:

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Ticks are everywhere and unless I stay indoors it is not at all unlikely that I'll pick one up in the next week or two even if I don't go geocaching/hiking.

 

I've gotten ticks in my yard and walking dogs at the local animal shelter (once in a small wooded area and a few times from sitting in the grass). I picked a tick off our indoor cat a few weeks ago, it must've hitched a ride home from the shelter. I now check carefully after leaving there. I've picked up ticks doing a simple lunchtime cache that just involved ducking through some bushes at a local park. This was my only tick bite.

 

We all have to be very careful. I use spray, stop frequently while hiking to check for ticks and always right after going through brush. It is creepy to pick off 5-10 ticks at a time but it happens. It seems most ticks I pick up are dog ticks, not so bad since these don't carry Lyme. Deer ticks are smaller and I do worry that I've missed one. So far, so good.

 

I've picked up ticks in the winter too so you just have to be careful out there. Stay indoors and you let the ticks win.

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Alot of the ticks we had yesterday were very tiny. We will not go out again unless we have some spray, it was not a wise idea to do it yesterday, even with long pants and long socks, nothing helped.

 

Thanks for all of the great information contained here.... My skin's a little creepy-crawly just reading about it. I guess it's time to up my deet content and get some permethrin.

 

How about the effects of deet on children? Mrs. A and I like to cache with my 3 year old and my 1 year old, but am concerned with using an insect repellent that is high in deet. Any thoughts?

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DEET is not good for kids. But whether it's worse than a tick-born disease is a toss-up. There is a fairly new product that is supposed to work just as well as, if not better than DEET and it's supposedly much safer for kids. It's Picaridin and it's in Cutter Advanced. I think someone else mentioned it earlier in this thread. The best part is that it smells nice!

 

The benefits of Picaridin over DEET:

* As effective as DEET but without DEET's drawbacks

* Truly odorless

* Won't harm fabrics or plastics

* Child friendly

* Repels ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, no-see-ums, gnats and fleas.

 

Target has been carrying a two pack bundle for $6 while a single bottle usually runs around $5.

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Picaridin as well as Deet are repellents. Permethrin is an insecticide that kills ticks. I can't find on the web much field evidence or data yet that Picaridin is effective against ticks. Until field use and subsequent reports indicate differently, I'd still go with the proven Permethrin sprayed onto clothing for ticks.

Edited by Alan2
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Back in my Adirondack days there was a product called "Old Woodsman". If I remember correctly, it was made of pine tar, camphor, and citrionella. That stuff would keep everything away. It is probably no longer made.. at least in the original formula, but I'll bet it was effective for ticks.

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Sorry man I think you are screwed. The tick only has to be embedded for 10 minutes to inflict Lyme Disease. Once you have you have it for life. I'm sorry, hope the treatment works for you.

 

This about the most incredible thing I have seen on here! Every other report I have seen from entemologists, etc says 24 hours or more. I might even believe 12 hours but 10 minutes - I don't think so!

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I cache and I seem to be a tick magnet this year! It won't stop me from caching, just annoys the heck out of me. Last month, I went in to see the doc about needing some blood work. As I have been bite several times within the past few months, Lyme and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever were thrown into the mix. I contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever last Sept and guess what! I have it again. Oh the joys of loving the outdoors. Never have had Lyme though. And does this slow me down.....not for long. while on antibotics, I have to stay out of the sun so I can't do much caching. After that, back to normal.

 

Life is way too short to worry about what ifs and I should haves. I don't want to sit on the front porch in 20 years going, I wish I had or I should have tried or what if I had only. Instead, I'm going to sit there and go remember when we, or when I went, or we should do xxxxx again.

 

Terri

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I just got my spray from Avon, it is their Skin So Soft Bug Guard Plus with Picaridin, it says it is suitable for the entire family and gives special instructions for the kids, like don't put it on their hands as they touch their face and eyes too much.

 

My kids have dr. appointments coming up soon and I am going to talk to their doctor about it, maybe get some bloodwork done to make sure they are ok at this point or if we need to get them on some antibiotics. My son reacts to any bug bites so even if he reacts to a tick bite, it may not mean the same thing as it does for other people, but they will get checked out anyway.

 

I can't wait to go out again, our family is hooked, I love that we spend more time outdoors now.

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Sorry man I think you are screwed. The tick only has to be embedded for 10 minutes to inflict Lyme Disease. Once you have you have it for life. I'm sorry, hope the treatment works for you.

 

This about the most incredible thing I have seen on here! Every other report I have seen from entemologists, etc says 24 hours or more. I might even believe 12 hours but 10 minutes - I don't think so!

 

Methinks Tiff's sarcasm detector could use a tune up.

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This about the most incredible thing I have seen on here! Every other report I have seen from entemologists, etc says 24 hours or more. I might even believe 12 hours but 10 minutes - I don't think so!

 

Unfortunately, Lyme and other tick born diseased CAN be transmitted that quickly. How the tick is removed is as important as how long it's been embedded. Anything that makes it regurgitate its saliva into you can transmit disease. That's why they say not to burn it, etc. The tick that gave my daughter Lyme last year was embedded for less than 2 hours. My Lyme tick was embedded over 24, also giving me Ehrlichiosis. My youngest daughter, on the other hand, had a Lyme infected tick (tested positive at the lab) embedded over two days, yet she never contracted Lyme. Go figure.

 

The point is, you can't let the fear of disease rule your life. Be proactive when it comes to ticks and know what to do if one slips by.

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DEET is not good for kids. But whether it's worse than a tick-born disease is a toss-up.

 

Thousands of children die every year from insect born disease. You will have to look long and hard to find a single death that has been proven to come from the proper use of DEET in over 60 years and hundreds of millions of applications. I wouldn't call that a toss up.

Edited by briansnat
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DEET is not good for kids. But whether it's worse than a tick-born disease is a toss-up.

 

Thousands of children die every year from insect born disease. You will have to look long and hard to find a single death that has been proven to come from the proper use of DEET in over 60 years and hundreds of millions of applications. I wouldn't call that a toss up.

 

Brian, I have to disagree to an extent. Yes, people die from insect born disease and yes people do die from DEET exposure, although rarely. But you can't deny that DEET is not good for kids. I'd rather use a safer repellant than knowingly apply a toxic substance to my kids on a regular basis. It's just a matter of parental preference. The kid's doc doesn't like DEET so I try to avoid it. Why use it on kids when there is a safer product that is equally effective?

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ticks freak us OUT!
Slightly off topic: here is my log for cache on June 11.
This was a really beautiful day and we could not stand being indoors anymore. So, outdoors we went. The cache is at a great location, but this time of year, I would recommend most folks to stay away: there are LITERALLY millions of gypsy moth caterpillars creeping and crawling all over the place. Yep: literally millions. All of them voracious. About 90% of the trees between Stage 1 and Final have all been stripped bare by the ravenous caterpillars. The trees look like mid-winter trees: zero leaves!

 

Now, I am a pretty outdoorsy person and am not usually skeeved out by bugs or cobwebs or animals or such: today, I was absolutely skeeved out. If we stopped even for just 1 minute or two: at least 5 caterpillars would crawl and climb onto each of us. Even when we did not stop, they would fall onto us.

 

And I have not even talked about the high number of deer ticks yet!

 

It took a lot of will power for us to soldier on to Final and do our thing at the WELL-STOCKED ammo box. Thanks for such nice things to choose from: I took an emergency candle and I left my usual Sharpie

 

...[snip]...

 

Many many thanks to my valiant hiking partner for taking care of the trading and other cache "chores" - I just stood on a rock and tried not to freak out any more than I already was freaking out.

 

I really really would recommend this cache for other geocachers: just not right now. Please wait 2 weeks or 3 ...

 

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DEET is not good for kids. But whether it's worse than a tick-born disease is a toss-up.

 

Thousands of children die every year from insect born disease. You will have to look long and hard to find a single death that has been proven to come from the proper use of DEET in over 60 years and hundreds of millions of applications. I wouldn't call that a toss up.

 

Brian, I have to disagree to an extent. Yes, people die from insect born disease and yes people do die from DEET exposure, although rarely. But you can't deny that DEET is not good for kids. I'd rather use a safer repellant than knowingly apply a toxic substance to my kids on a regular basis. It's just a matter of parental preference. The kid's doc doesn't like DEET so I try to avoid it. Why use it on kids when there is a safer product that is equally effective?

 

I've never read of an instance of someone dying from the use of DEET as directed. I figured if this was a problem Google would turn something up. It took a while, but I did find this:

 

Fatalities Due to Dermal Exposures to DEET

 

From 1961 to 2002, eight deaths were reported related to DEET exposure. Three of these deaths resulted from deliberate ingestion of DEET (Tenenbein 1987). Two deaths were reported in adults following dermal exposure to DEET (Bell et al. 2002). The remaining three cases were all female children, with ages of 17 months, 5 years, and 6 years (Zadikoff 1979; Osimitz and Murphy 1997). All three children had been described as having "heavy, "frequent" or "nightly" applications of DEET. The 6-year-old had congenital ornithine carbamoyl transferase (OCT) deficiency, a potential lethal hyperammonemic condition, which may have contributed to her death.

 

So you have 5 deaths over the last 40 years that have been attributed to the use of DEET on the skin. In at least three of those cases it was not being used as recommended. Considering that millions of people have applied the product hundreds of millions of times over this period, DEET is far, far safer for children than aspirin, Tylenol, and peanut butter.

 

Picaridin is only other insect repellent that has proven to be as effective as DEET in controlled trials. Picaridin has been on the market since 1998. Deet has been around since the 1940's. I think I'll take my chances with DEET and its extremely long track record of safety.

Edited by briansnat
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