Jump to content

First tick sighting of the year

Vanillahip
Followers 2

Recommended Posts

Miragee

+Miragee

Posted
Posted

Nope . . . nothing . . . :ph34r:

 

Around here, we've been seeing those nasty, icky, creepy, crawly things for a couple of months . . . yikes.gif

 

If cachers live in an area where ticks abound, it is a good idea to learn about Lyme disease and other diseases ticks can carry. Keeping ticks from attaching, knowing how to get them off if they do get attached, and knowing what treatment is necessary to keep from becoming seriously ill is important.

 

Here is a page with pictures to help with identification of the different types of ticks.

Link to comment
top con

top con

Posted
Posted

i'm sure if you look hard enough you can find out the niche that the tick fills. it probably is important SOMEHOW, albeit not to humans necessarily. all insect are good...even malaria carrying skeeters, and spotted fever riddn ticks. it does stinkt o ahve to pull em outta yur skin tho!

Link to comment
minxyy

+minxyy

Posted
Posted

get enough and you get a gold star off the teacher? ....aww no wrong type of ticks! Thanks for bringing these fascinating little critters to mind again! another thought to ponder or maybe just plain know the answer " do dogs get lymes disease?" many thanks minxyy

Link to comment
vtmtnman

vtmtnman

Posted
Posted

Anything good? :ph34r: yea-no...sorry.

 

Westchester county,NY is probably the number one place in the country for the best chance of contracting Lymes disease.Growing up I knew several folks that had it,and it's only getting worse as the deer population increases.My buddy that still lives there is paranoid about caching around there,and I can't say I blame him.I don't think there was one time I went in the woods around there without coming out with a tick on me.Thankfully most of them were wood ticks,although one time I had a deer tick on...umm...well,a very dear area of mine....scary to say the least,but it wasn't a carrier thankfully.REAL fun gettin' THAT one off.. :D:ph34r::D:D

 

My father retells the story of a good friend of his that shot a huge eight pointer(this was sometime in the 70's when you could actually hunt there,even though there's an actual bow season for the area every year...now people would just call the cops on you),he had it hanging in his garage,and because the deer was dead the ticks detach themselves from the animal and move to a live host animal.He said there was so many deer ticks on the deer the head of the deer was black.Super sadness to have all those ticks in my garage... :D

Link to comment
PlantAKiss

+PlantAKiss

Posted
Posted (edited)

I was shocked to find a tick IN me (behind my right ear) just a week ago. :ph34r: I haven't had a tick get in me in years (although growing up running amuk in the woods I used to find them all the time). What surprised me was it had been a good two weeks since I was in the woods (caching in a park). I have never found a tick in my yard so unless that bugger was crawling on me for two freakin' weeks, I don't know where it came from. That is VERY early to be finding ticks here. But we had such a warm winter, I guess maybe they didn't die off?? I don't know...but I wasn't too happy about it. I guess I need to buying some bug products for caching this spring and summer. :ph34r:

 

Wow...someone's never heard of a chigger? lol Yeah, they're a pain. But having recently experienced fire ants, chiggers aren't too bad. :D

Edited by PlantAKiss
Link to comment
Miragee

+Miragee

Posted
Posted (edited)

It is a good idea, if the tick has been attached, to remove it very carefully and then have it tested at your County Extension office, or whoever does that sort of thing locally, to make sure it is not infected with the Lyme bacteria or other parasites.

 

Getting a prescription for antibiotics from your doctor, even if you have no symptoms yet, can prevent infection.

 

If the red rash occurs near where the tick was attached, run, don't walk, to the doctor to get antibiotics!

Edited by Miragee
Link to comment
Miragee

+Miragee

Posted
Posted

Many years ago I worked as a biologist and we were in the area north of Rifle (east of Grand Junction). There were many, many deer there, and many ticks.

 

After each long day in the field, we did "tick checks," but even so, one of the consultants working with us, a man from Boulder, got Rocky Mountain Spotted fever and nearly died.

 

Ticks are nasty, nasty, nasty creatures . . .

Link to comment
nekom

+nekom

Posted
Posted

I'm with you on that for sure. I hate ticks with fire of a thousand burning suns. Just the MENTION of them immediately prompts a tick check. That being said, I don't see them on me too often, thankfully. Maybe it's my high-garlic diet? They say that helps.

Link to comment
cachephrase

+cachephrase

Posted
Posted

Vanillahip,

I think we're in the same area and let me tell you, Branched Oak is chock full o'ticks already. The dog and I collected over 20 in a half-hour jaunt through the WMA part (below the dam.) The yuck factor was very high -- they were BIG and fast-moving. Gives me chills just to think about it. Only found one of the tiny variety, but I am wondering if it was a deer tick or an immature wood tick. Soak yourself in bug repellent if you go after any of my upcoming new caches..... :laughing:

 

For those of you looking for a positive, or at least more intriguing, twist on ticks, be sure to read Dick Francis's "Driving Force." An interesting take on a different kind of low-tech germ warfare. :laughing: And a hoot if you don't know anything about Cockney Rhyming Slang, too.

 

cachephrase

Link to comment
Harry Dolphin

+Harry Dolphin

Posted
Posted

Well, I pulled off four deer ticks last weekend. (Three in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey.) One of these days, I'm going to have an accident tossing those buggers out the window when I'm driving.

I've played in the woods since I was a kid (about 50 years), and I never even saw a tick until about 10 years ago. But I've had Lyme twice in the last two years. And I never saw either of the two buggers that got me.

Are we sure that geocaching is good for me?!?

Link to comment
Celtic_cacher

+Celtic_cacher

Posted
Posted

Wow...someone's never heard of a chigger? lol Yeah, they're a pain. But having recently experienced fire ants, chiggers aren't too bad. :laughing:

Say it ain't so! Something worse than chiggers? :laughing:

 

I do hate chiggers, but after spending some time in Texas I would say that fire ants are a bit worse. The only + for fire ants is that they're big enough to see when they bite you so you can kill them. The bad thing about them is, they hurt like the blazes and the only way to make them let go is to kill them.

 

As for ticks, haven't seen any around here yet, but with the number of deer we have running around on this place, I'm sure the ticks are just waiting to come out of hiding.

-CJ

Link to comment
MN-CACHE-TRACKER

+MN-CACHE-TRACKER

Posted
Posted

I can't be the only guy who hates ticks so much can I? I don't even want to go caching myself let alone bring my kids along. I'm afraid my "tickophobia" may be rubbing off on them.

 

Can anyone tell me something good about ticks? Anything?

 

One good thing is they dont like snow... We got 7 inches here today, so I dont think anyone caching in my area has to worry about them yet...

Link to comment
nonaeroterraqueous

nonaeroterraqueous

Posted
Posted

One good thing about ticks: I've never gotten one. Spent my teens running straight through the brush on an almost daily basis, too. Someone told me about a couple of guys getting absolutely loaded with them in the same places where I had recklessly tramped, and I found that astounding. Went camping once, where I was one of only two in a group of about twelve that didn't get a tick. They just don't like me.

Link to comment
angevine

+angevine

Posted
Posted

i'm sure if you look hard enough you can find out the niche that the tick fills. it probably is important SOMEHOW, albeit not to humans necessarily. all insect are good...even malaria carrying skeeters, and spotted fever riddn ticks. it does stinkt o ahve to pull em outta yur skin tho!

 

It's true. I've been reading about bees and how suddenly a great many of them appear to be disappearing (no bodies left behind ... hmmm ... alien experimentation?) and how they're primordial for the functioning of our ecosystem. I expect that ticks, too, play an important role.

 

Lyme Disease is serious business, and we do have to be careful, though perhaps not to the point of letting it ruin one's geocaching adventures!

 

--- Jeannette

Link to comment
Isonzo Karst

+Isonzo Karst

Posted
Posted

ticks in Florida never stopped this mild winter....

 

one good thing? they're less of a disease threat than mosquitoes....

 

people really don't use near enough DEET - it works for both pests, but only if you actually apply it liberally to your body - carrying it around in your pack is not useful.

Link to comment
CYBret

+CYBret

Posted
Posted

Took about four off of me after caching in Indiana last weekend. Temperature was up to the mid 70's and they seemed to be lovin' it.

 

Today it's 31 degrees. Maybe if it gets just a little colder it'll can kill some of those early-risers!

 

eeeh...probably not.

 

Bret

Link to comment
PlantAKiss

+PlantAKiss

Posted
Posted

Wow...someone's never heard of a chigger? lol Yeah, they're a pain. But having recently experienced fire ants, chiggers aren't too bad.

 

Say it ain't so! Something worse than chiggers?

 

Well...what I didn't know at the time when I put some on my hand and smacked them to see what it was like... :lol: ...was that the stings have lasting results. They do hurt but not terribly (unless of course you get stung many times). Its the fact that within 24 hrs the stings blister, then turn to pus and then a sore which leaves a scar. :lol: Live and learn. Like your Momma said: "Don't play with fire...ants."

 

So chiggers are itchy but at least you don't get pus-filled sores. :lol:

 

I can't see my tick bite so I don't know if its red or not.

Link to comment
Alan2

+Alan2

Posted
Posted (edited)

I am going to get fitted for a permethrin suit.

 

I use Buzz Off - shirt, pants, socks and hat. Buzz Off impregnates their clothes with permethrin. So far after 15 or so wears I haven't seen any ticks on me.

 

Lyme desease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever etc are serious stuff. I've had antibiotics, my dog has has both deseases and got so sick last year with something he almost died. He was on two antibiotics for 4 months.

 

Use preventive measures such as Permethrin, Deet, keep your shirt tucked in your pants (I wear my socks over my pants) and check yourself frequently.

 

Antibiotics are great when used early.

 

Ticks frankly ruin caching and being in the woods. Nothing like winter caching when it's 20 degrees and snow on the ground!

Edited by Alan2
Link to comment
Sioneva

+Sioneva

Posted
Posted

Cachephase and Vanillahip - hopefully the cold weather the last two days and continuing will kill 'em. I'm hoping. Because I had like six on me after a recent cache trip, and I was freaking out. I grew up running wild in the woods in VT, and there were no ticks. None. Nada. Those things are damned near impossible to kill, too!

 

Vanillahip,

I think we're in the same area and let me tell you, Branched Oak is chock full o'ticks already. The dog and I collected over 20 in a half-hour jaunt through the WMA part (below the dam.) The yuck factor was very high -- they were BIG and fast-moving. Gives me chills just to think about it. Only found one of the tiny variety, but I am wondering if it was a deer tick or an immature wood tick. Soak yourself in bug repellent if you go after any of my upcoming new caches..... :laughing:

 

For those of you looking for a positive, or at least more intriguing, twist on ticks, be sure to read Dick Francis's "Driving Force." An interesting take on a different kind of low-tech germ warfare. :laughing: And a hoot if you don't know anything about Cockney Rhyming Slang, too.

 

cachephrase

Link to comment
chstress53

+chstress53

Posted
Posted

You wanted something good about ticks

 

Scientists working for NERC's have identified molecules from blood-sucking ticks that could be used to treat asthma.

 

Chemical Ecology is a wonderful field and ticks are in the fore front of assisting in eliminating diseases ( Molecularly)

 

"Biological diversity reflects an underlying molecular diversity. The molecules found in nature may be regarded as solutions to challenges that have been confronted and overcome during molecular evolution. As our understanding of these solutions deepens, the efficiency with which we can discover and/or design new treatments for human disease grows. Nature assists our drug discovery efforts in a variety of ways. Some compounds synthesized by microorganisms and plants are used directly as drugs. < Ticks are one of these> Human genetic variations that predispose to (or protect against) certain diseases may point to important drug targets. Organisms that manipulate molecules within us to their benefit also may help us to recognize key biochemical control points. Drug design efforts are expedited by knowledge of the biochemistry of a target. To supplement this knowledge, we screen compounds from sources selected to maximize molecular diversity. Organisms known to manipulate biochemical pathways of other organisms can be sources of particular interest

 

AND THE TICK IS ONE OF THEM.

Link to comment
niffir

+niffir

Posted
Posted (edited)

I still sometimes think the 3 found at once on my shoulderblade last year are there. Creeps me out. Haven't picked up any out caching yet this year (at least none that I've disovered yet), but my husband somehow picked one up at a wedding we attended a couple weeks ago-- it attached to his neck somewhere between the reception and a visit to a craft store. They REALLY freak him out, so he wasn't at all pleased.

 

Edit: Oh yeah...and I got a mild case of some tick disease from those ticks last year. There were a grand total of 5 stuck on me after that camping weekend-- 2 on my inner thighs and 3 on my shoulder blades. I found the 2 thigh ones within a couple days, but didn't discover the shoulder ones for a couple weeks. One day about a week and a half after the camping trip, I broke out in a rash on my ankles and arms. Looked up tick diseases-- and sure enough, that is one symptom. Being uninsured and therefor unable to afford to run off to a doctor any time I'm a bit ill, I decided to give it a day or so to see if i got worse. I didn't have any of the really bad symptoms that were said to indicate serious trouble. The rash cleared up quickly and no other symptoms appeared, but boy was I scared. ICK! TICKS!

Edited by niffir
Link to comment
Belfrypotters

+Belfrypotters

Posted
Posted

Ticks are also good for comic relief. I'll take the liberty of linking to El Diablo's web page Geocaching and Ticks, because it's great for a laugh if you haven't read it before.

And I also still give my husband a hard time for what we call "the tick incident" in a restaurant in a small town in Saskatchewan last summer. While we were waiting for our meal, he found a tick wandering about on his arm. He put it on the table and tried to squash it with his finger, which of course is impossible. Every time he lifted his finger the tick marched ever closer to the edge of the table. Inevitably it plopped off the table onto his lap. Shorts. Bare legs. Fast tick. Uh oh. He swung sideways out of the booth and started groping up the leg of his shorts, and this was the point at which the waitress appeared with our supper. She never said a word, just set our plates down and walked away. He did find the tick, and this time he flicked it across the room with his finger for some other hapless diner to find the hard way. Some days I'm afraid to take him out in public!

Link to comment
Vanillahip

+Vanillahip

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I must have felt a phantom tick on me 5 times just reading to the end of this thread! Belfrypotters, your story reminds me of a terrible DNF I had last year. Here is the log:

 

"April 6, 2006 by Vanillahip (340 found)

This was one of the most frustrating times I have ever had while 'caching! I was stopped by the fence at first so went back to the car to check the palm-pilot and realized there was a gate. The GPS took me to the spot no problem, but I could not find anything. After almost 45 minutes I finally gave up. There were just too many downed trees and tall grasses for me I guess. To top it all off I was in my car heading back east to Omaha, fuming and cussing, when I noticed 2 ticks on my leg! I know they are part of the deal but they kind of freak me out. I jerked over to the side of the road and slammed on my brakes like they were king cobras! I jumped out of my car, with semi's slamming past me at 1000 mph, and flicked the freakin ticks off me. I then practically strip down by the side of the road trying to check every inch of my body. That is a quite a feat (and I imagine quite a sight) in 32 degree weather with 40 mph winds by the side of an extremely busy Interstate Hwy! (I am still going to vaccuum the car later)"

 

I just checked my neck AGAIN.

Link to comment
frivlas

+frivlas

Posted
Posted

Uggg. I should know better than to open a topic that mentions Ticks. I now have a serious case of the itchy's. I guess because of the mild weather out here, we seem to encounter them all year round. Last April, our first encounter involved our then 4 year old getting bitten by a deer tick. Then in may the 6 year old ran afoul of a dog tick. In november, a CITO event on a foggy/rainy day didn't end without me getting bit by a deer tick. Then at a CITO event in JANUARY the now 5 year old got bitten by another deer tick. That's it....I'm avoiding CITO events...come to think of it, 3 of 4 were at some type of event and the 4th was while caching with a group.

 

I did learn however that dog ticks don't carry lyme disease and that the ticks have to be attached for around 24 hours to transmit disease. shudder

Link to comment
Skyfire & RandomConfusion

+Skyfire & RandomConfusion

Posted
Posted (edited)

We had to remove the first one 3 weeks ago over spring break. UGH. We had a very informative session with the kiddos about not touching the tick if they find any on them and make sure they tell one of us if they do find one. As a child, I didn't tell my parents about the tick I tried to remove....and ending up having to have lots of test for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (can't remember if I had it or not) because I didn't get it all out and had a horrible knot where it had been.

 

Something about ticks? Hmmm................Oh yeah, Brad Paisley has a new song out called Ticks. Funny stuff. Check it out.

 

Every time I hear this song I laugh....it is going to be the geocacher theme song. :laughing:

Edited by skyfire97
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
Followers 2
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...