Tick burrowed in. What to do?

4k · July 19, 2009

Went on camping/caching trip. Ventured 120' into swamp to find cache yesterday. Shorts/barefoot. Found a sore swollen hole in my thigh today. It looks like tick holes from pics on google. All i can find on net and in medical books say how to remove a tick. There is nothing I can see to remove. Just a sore, swollen hole.

Sunday evening. Is this something I should worry about? It kind of bothers me thinking that a bug dug inside me and I guess is still there. I hate to page my Dr. and the hospital would just say come in. (Thanks lawyers!)

Any help is appreciated.

2.8k · July 19, 2009

Never had that issue but I'd say if in doubt err on the side of caution and find a Urgent Care Clinic or Emergency Room.

Better than Lyme or some other problem in the future.

Good luck!

2.2k · July 19, 2009

yep. Couldn't hurt to get a Lyme titer done. If it develops the "bullseye" mark (white center, then red ring spreading out) definitely go to urgent care. Also, if it gets really sore and you develop flu-like symptoms, get treatment!

Edit to add: it is unlikely that there is any bug still there, just the reaction to the bite. Also could have been a spider, or a single chigger although that's unlikely since they're a sociable bunch and like to eat together!)

Edited July 19, 2009 by hukilaulau

2k · July 19, 2009

I didn't even stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night so I can't diagnose medical problems. Go see someone who can. Urgent care centers are great.

4k · July 19, 2009

Fortunately for me a hospital is 10 min away and they almost always see you immediately. It's only about an inch across (redness) but this hole doesn't look so nice.

I should have been paying attention. I hear about them in others logs all the time. I've been caching for 2 years and never seen one (that i know of!). I actually thought I needed to look it up the other day but forgot. It was fun going into the swamp though. Well, an experience. My brothers second geocache! He was like, "120' that way? Let's go!"

Edited July 19, 2009 by Knight2000

July 19, 2009

Ticks do not usually burrow under the skin. They only stick part of their heads into your skin. Do you think you may have knocked off the tick and the head is still in there?

I've never seen a tick hole? Maybe a chigger bite?

snow

Edited July 19, 2009 by snowcrustracer

4.8k · July 19, 2009

From everything I know about ticks, they never burrow deeper than their head. With that, if their body becomes separated from their head, you could have a tick noggin in your leg and it would need to be excised. Not exercised since a ticks head can't really exercise unless it was still chewing.

I digress.

If it was a chigger, from what I remember, they burrow in to lay eggs but usually just itch. You can cure that easy enough by covering the chigger air inlet with nail polish. It suffocates them and they die and you end up with a chigger carcass in your body forever. You could even put up a little chigger headstone at that point, or at the very least a memorial tattoo.

Oops, digressed again.

It could be a reaction to the swamp water, which could be bad because you can get all kinds of things from stagnant water, the least of which is flesh eating bacteria which would actually help unearth the chigger that is buried inside of you but would totally ruin the cool memorial tattoo.

Oops, did it again.

Could be a spider bite in which case you are OK unless it's a poisonous spider and in that case you will know soon enough f you are going to die. If you see a blue line leading away from the spider bite, go to the hospital and spend an hour filling out paperwork before they will tell you that you are in deep trouble. If its a different type of spider you will get localized flesh eating symptoms which will hurt like hell but as long as it's not near the chigger cemetary, you are OK. No worries from damage to the chigger memorial with this one. If its close to your eyeball though, call the hospital so they can give you pointless information while they are telling you to come in and get it checked out. What would be really cool though is if you were bitten by a radioactive spider and turned into a spiderman. That would be AWESONE. You could end up with a chick like Kirsten Dunst. MMMMmmmmmmm

What you didn't suggest is the possibility that you fed a few leeches. No, I'm not talking about relatives at a BBQ. I mean the ones in swamps. They will latch on and drop some anesthetic into the area and when it wears off, it will hurt like the dicken and leave a red lump. The good news is that the leeches won't need another meal for a while but the bad news is you still have that chigger corpse in you cuz leeches won't suck out a chigger.

No matter how you slice it, you need to keep an eye on the area for more symptoms. You also need to keep an eye on your temperature and any numbness ANYWHERE. At the first sign of symptoms other than the localized swelling and pain, get to an urgent care facility.

As a little addition, you could get someone to look at the area with a magnifying glass (at the least) or a jewelers loupe to see if there is a bite, hole, or any item (like chigger teeth) in the middle of the lump.

4k · July 19, 2009

I do have a stiff neck. But I had that before the swamp. What the heck is wrong with geocachers!? :P

2k · July 19, 2009

I do have a stiff neck. But I had that before the swamp. What the heck is wrong with geocachers!? :P

In general we are all nuts. You specifically appear to have a head in your hole.

July 19, 2009

It's a pretty good policy to go see a doctor for any unexplained new swollen holes in your body. I vote go to the doctor.

Did you find the cache at least?

4k · July 19, 2009

Did you find the cache at least?

Of course! I have never earned a DNF!

10.1k · July 19, 2009

Does not sound like a tick bite. Any tick bites I've had, I never saw a bite mark. I didn't think ticks liked swamps, though you may have encountered it before the swamp. I usually encounter them in woodslands settings: mountain laurel, ferns, tall grass. My chigger bites never got that large (if they were chigger bites.)

4k · July 19, 2009

In general we are all nuts. You specifically appear to have a head in your hole.

hehe. You said hole.

Well. We were a good non-flat half mile from my boots. Probably more. The good hiking boots I had were what I needed to finish the day and the next. I didn't want wet boots to cache in. It was either wet boots, barefoot or no cache. The cache was also needed to complete the Ohio State Parks caching challenge. (Nice way to get us all driving around and staying at their parks.) Besides, a lot of people cache with shorts. I didn't intend to, it just kind of happened. I hadn't planned on getting this cache till later. When I realized how steep the hill was, I didn't want to backtrack. It doesn't help that a pill changed my super-duper fast metabolism and therefore am carrying around an extra 60+ pounds.

July 19, 2009

Watch Animal Planet on Wednesday Nights....they have a series on "The Animals Within"..... medical stories about insects that laid eggs in someone lungs, worms that live in the eyeballs....etc.

I watch it to see what I caught.....

2.1k · July 19, 2009

Ticks don't borrow in like that, and need to be attached for a good 20hours or so to get bacterial transmission.

July 19, 2009

Went on camping/caching trip. Ventured 120' into swamp to find cache yesterday. Shorts/barefoot. Found a sore swollen hole in my thigh today. It looks like tick holes from pics on google. All i can find on net and in medical books say how to remove a tick. There is nothing I can see to remove. Just a sore, swollen hole.

Sunday evening. Is this something I should worry about? It kind of bothers me thinking that a bug dug inside me and I guess is still there. I hate to page my Dr. and the hospital would just say come in. (Thanks lawyers!)

Any help is appreciated.

As Bittsen said, it may also be a spider bite. I had a large spider bite that looked like what you are describing. It could be nearly anything.

Last time I had something unusual going on from geocaching I went to the Urgent Care clinic. It turned out to be nothing critical (a serious swollen bruise from excessive mosquito bites in the one square inch of my arm not covered with bug dope), but I got some excellent information of what to worry about and what not to worry about while hiking in this area. I was a bit embarrassed that I mistook my mosquito bruise for Lyme Disease, but the information I got from them was well worth the trip and cost.

Carolyn

July 19, 2009

Ticks don't burrow past their tiny head and don't cause immediate redness because they don't inject venom, like bees, hornets, spider etc.. It takes several days for the bulls-eye to form. So if it was a tick you would have had to have not noticed it for several days. I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express, but grew up in Minnesota.

22k · July 19, 2009

Went on camping/caching trip. Ventured 120' into swamp to find cache yesterday. Shorts/barefoot. Found a sore swollen hole in my thigh today. It looks like tick holes from pics on google. All i can find on net and in medical books say how to remove a tick. There is nothing I can see to remove. Just a sore, swollen hole.

Sunday evening. Is this something I should worry about? It kind of bothers me thinking that a bug dug inside me and I guess is still there. I hate to page my Dr. and the hospital would just say come in. (Thanks lawyers!)

Any help is appreciated.

Kind of depends on how big it is. If it's about the size of a pencil eraser it's probably a boil or pimple. With the hole it's probably post eruption (Sorry folks). Small, it might be a chigger but those are itchy and yes, finger nail polish does work. (The clear kind if that's an issue) Your body will consume any remnants.

Give it a few more days. If it gets worse, see your doctor.

July 19, 2009

As for your issue, I've got nothin.

Just wanted to say this is the most entertaining thread I've read in a long time... It's true, cachers are NUTS - and a couple of them in this thread were at the front of the line when they handed out the crazy!

Good luck with your bite thingie - and if you die from it can I have your gps? (oh, like the rest of you weren't thinking it - I just asked first)

7.7k · July 20, 2009

I hope it's nothing serious. But just in case, you may want to light a candle to Saint Fester

4k · July 20, 2009

Got back from the hospital about 30 minutes ago. I'm just so beat from hiking.

A bite of some sort. The Dr. used a magnifying light. He said it did not have the markings of a tick with Lyme disease. They put neosporin on it and a bandage. Gave me a scrip and said if it gets bigger or started streaking or hurting to get it filled and take the antibiotic.

Thanks for the advice. It could have been lots of things. Who knows? Now that I think of it, if it was a tick it would have been hard to miss it, right?

4.8k · July 20, 2009

Got back from the hospital about 30 minutes ago. I'm just so beat from hiking.

A bite of some sort. The Dr. used a magnifying light. He said it did not have the markings of a tick with Lyme disease. They put neosporin on it and a bandage. Gave me a scrip and said if it gets bigger or started streaking or hurting to get it filled and take the antibiotic.

Thanks for the advice. It could have been lots of things. Who knows? Now that I think of it, if it was a tick it would have been hard to miss it, right?

Hey, at least you have a scrip for the antibiotics. I would fill it just so it's available if you do need them later down the line.

But thats just me.

July 20, 2009

Tick removal

http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/t...~I9UUAYccqJ5RqZ

July 20, 2009

Dood, I wanted to see a picture of this!!!! Glad to hear it wasn't anything toooo serious....

4k · July 20, 2009

Tick removal

http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/t...~I9UUAYccqJ5RqZ

I guess you didn't read the OP.

July 20, 2009

Jeese! Im Glad I read this thread. I go caching in the "Green Swamp" just NW of Orlando, Fl all the time. I find/pull two to three ticks off me every time I get to the truck. Snakes, Spiders (Bannana spiders) and Gators dont really bother me much, ...... but ticks just CREEP me out.

So do infamous Florida COCKROACHES.............. : ( :0

4k · July 20, 2009

Jeese! Im Glad I read this thread. I go caching in the "Green Swamp" just NW of Orlando, Fl all the time. I find/pull two to three ticks off me every time I get to the truck. Snakes, Spiders (Bannana spiders) and Gators dont really bother me much, ...... but ticks just CREEP me out.

So do infamous Florida COCKROACHES.............. : ( :0

I dare you to do it barefoot in shorts.

July 20, 2009

Got back from the hospital about 30 minutes ago. I'm just so beat from hiking.

A bite of some sort. The Dr. used a magnifying light. He said it did not have the markings of a tick with Lyme disease. They put neosporin on it and a bandage. Gave me a scrip and said if it gets bigger or started streaking or hurting to get it filled and take the antibiotic.

Thanks for the advice. It could have been lots of things. Who knows? Now that I think of it, if it was a tick it would have been hard to miss it, right?

I'm glad you're ok! I'm sure that you and Angie will sleep better tonight knowing that you've had it looked at.

If the tick is still there, it's pretty obvious. They have that "Don't mind me, I'm just hanging out here" look as they cling to your skin and suck your blood. If the tick has eaten and left, it is not so obvious that it was a tick.

Carolyn

July 20, 2009

Jeese! Im Glad I read this thread. I go caching in the "Green Swamp" just NW of Orlando, Fl all the time. I find/pull two to three ticks off me every time I get to the truck. Snakes, Spiders (Bannana spiders) and Gators dont really bother me much, ...... but ticks just CREEP me out.

So do infamous Florida COCKROACHES.............. : ( :0

I dare you to do it barefoot in shorts.

There are people who do the swamps here in shorts and sandals. I am in awe.

Carolyn

4.1k · July 20, 2009

My geocaching record for pulling live ticks off of me (before they bite) is 59. I pulled another 20-30 off the dog the same day -- but we found the cache so all was well. Sometimes they sneak by me and take a bite. At least in my area I can say a thanks to the western fence lizard. Ticks feast on them and end up purged of the lyme disease bacteria, so the odds of getting lyme disease where I live is far less than in the Eastern part of the country. Still, they can be annoying little things.

Ticks. Spiders. An occasional rattlesnake. Another day of caching.

1.1k · July 20, 2009

Hey, at least you have a scrip for the antibiotics. I would fill it just so it's available if you do need them later down the line.

But thats just me.

It might be a good idea to keep some in your extended first-aid/survival kid. Only problem is that you need to keep an eye out for the expiration date.

14k · July 20, 2009

Jeese! Im Glad I read this thread. I go caching in the "Green Swamp" just NW of Orlando, Fl all the time. I find/pull two to three ticks off me every time I get to the truck. Snakes, Spiders (Bannana spiders) and Gators dont really bother me much, ...... but ticks just CREEP me out.

So do infamous Florida COCKROACHES.............. : ( :0

This was in a swamp, right? I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned something even creepier than ticks. Leeches.

19k · July 20, 2009

To all that continue to give tick advice:

itwasnotatickitwasnotatickitwasnotatickitwasnotatickitwasnotatickitwasnotatickitwasnotatickitwasnotatickitwasnotatickitwasnotatickitwasnotatickitwasnotatickitwasnotatick it was not a tick. Ticks do not burrow in. They are nasty, but they do not cause 1/2" holes in your thigh. itwasnotatick Thank you.

Doubtful that it was a leach, either. They attach themselves and hang on for all its worth. And they don't leave a hole, either.

I have seen spider bites leave *scars* that looked like a hole, but I don't know what those looked like when they were fresh. Good luck with this, and let us know how it's doing, OK?

4.2k · July 20, 2009

If it was a chigger, from what I remember, they burrow in to lay eggs but usually just itch. You can cure that easy enough by covering the chigger air inlet with nail polish. It suffocates them and they die and you end up with a chigger carcass in your body forever. You could even put up a little chigger headstone at that point, or at the very least a memorial tattoo.

No.

Chiggers do not burrow under the skin. The bump you see is your body's reaction to the chigger bite.

Myths About Chiggers
One of the biggest myths or misconceptions about chiggers is that they can burrow under your skin and drink your blood. This leads to the common treatment for chiggers of putting clear nail polish on chigger bites to suffocate the chiggers. Since chiggers don't actually burrow under your skin, this 'treatment' is unnecessary.

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/dermatology...06_chiggers.htm

4.7k · July 20, 2009

last may i got an infected tick bite. we do not know with what the tick was infected, but she was obviously dirty. a day after i picked her off i did indeed have a hole where she had bitten me and some nasty lookin' surrounding flesh.

they gave me the doxy when i went to the ER, which meant that i was safe in case the infection was lyme, but also made me safe from anthrax for the next six months.

just because it isn't lyme doesn't mean it's not an infection.

4.8k · July 20, 2009

If it was a chigger, from what I remember, they burrow in to lay eggs but usually just itch. You can cure that easy enough by covering the chigger air inlet with nail polish. It suffocates them and they die and you end up with a chigger carcass in your body forever. You could even put up a little chigger headstone at that point, or at the very least a memorial tattoo.

No.

Chiggers do not burrow under the skin. The bump you see is your body's reaction to the chigger bite.

Myths About Chiggers
One of the biggest myths or misconceptions about chiggers is that they can burrow under your skin and drink your blood. This leads to the common treatment for chiggers of putting clear nail polish on chigger bites to suffocate the chiggers. Since chiggers don't actually burrow under your skin, this 'treatment' is unnecessary.

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/dermatology...06_chiggers.htm

http://www.biteremedy.com/Chigger-Bites.html

Biteremedy.com explains that it's the chiggers larvae that burrows and nail polish is the answer.

It's hard to tell which is correct but I have had good results with the nail polish remedy.

Biteremedy.com is a good page to look at for identification of different bites

http://www.biteremedy.com

I found the page very informative.

BTW, I am not arguing with you as I can't tell what the actual fact is about chiggers now that you posted that link. Without a microscope, some chiggers and a willing attractive female assitstant, I won't research them myself.

4.8k · July 20, 2009

This was in a swamp, right? I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned something even creepier than ticks. Leeches.

Hey now, I mentioned leeches

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...d=4002694

19k · July 20, 2009

If it was a chigger, from what I remember, they burrow in to lay eggs but usually just itch. You can cure that easy enough by covering the chigger air inlet with nail polish. It suffocates them and they die and you end up with a chigger carcass in your body forever. You could even put up a little chigger headstone at that point, or at the very least a memorial tattoo.

No.

Chiggers do not burrow under the skin. The bump you see is your body's reaction to the chigger bite.

Myths About Chiggers
One of the biggest myths or misconceptions about chiggers is that they can burrow under your skin and drink your blood. This leads to the common treatment for chiggers of putting clear nail polish on chigger bites to suffocate the chiggers. Since chiggers don't actually burrow under your skin, this 'treatment' is unnecessary.

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/dermatology...06_chiggers.htm

http://www.biteremedy.com/Chigger-Bites.html

Biteremedy.com explains that it's the chiggers larvae that burrows and nail polish is the answer.

It's hard to tell which is correct but I have had good results with the nail polish remedy.

Biteremedy.com is a good page to look at for identification of different bites

http://www.biteremedy.com

I found the page very informative.

BTW, I am not arguing with you as I can't tell what the actual fact is about chiggers now that you posted that link. Without a microscope, some chiggers and a willing attractive female assitstant, I won't research them myself.

I don't think those articles disagreed with each other. Biteremedy does not claim that chiggers can "burrow under the skin"... they simply state that nail polish will suffocate the chiggers.

I'm just glad that we don't have them up here!

4k · July 20, 2009

I'm sure it could have been a tick, after the fact. All i know is that I had a hole. I'm only numb on my right side, so it's not that bad.

4.8k · July 20, 2009

I'm sure it could have been a tick, after the fact. All i know is that I had a hole. I'm only numb on my right side, so it's not that bad.

Your entire right side, correct?

13.7k · July 20, 2009

Back when the Dead Sea was just sick, I was stationed in SC for basic training...

Got two ticks embedded and broken off at the "neck", right where my boot blousing went (anyone remember boot blousings?)

Went to sick call and after removal, left two holes in my leg. Deep enough, they're still visible today.

Just two years ago, after finally getting over an almost two year battle with lymes, I got bit by a brown recluse spider in of all places, an old outhouse. Sick for three days. Left a hole where the skin was destroyed by the evil little critter.

Now it's deet everywhere and permethrin on all outer clothes.

Cache safe.

4.2k · July 20, 2009

If it was a chigger, from what I remember, they burrow in to lay eggs but usually just itch. You can cure that easy enough by covering the chigger air inlet with nail polish. It suffocates them and they die and you end up with a chigger carcass in your body forever. You could even put up a little chigger headstone at that point, or at the very least a memorial tattoo.

No.

Chiggers do not burrow under the skin. The bump you see is your body's reaction to the chigger bite.

Myths About Chiggers
One of the biggest myths or misconceptions about chiggers is that they can burrow under your skin and drink your blood. This leads to the common treatment for chiggers of putting clear nail polish on chigger bites to suffocate the chiggers. Since chiggers don't actually burrow under your skin, this 'treatment' is unnecessary.

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/dermatology...06_chiggers.htm

http://www.biteremedy.com/Chigger-Bites.html

Biteremedy.com explains that it's the chiggers larvae that burrows and nail polish is the answer.

It's hard to tell which is correct but I have had good results with the nail polish remedy.

Biteremedy.com is a good page to look at for identification of different bites

http://www.biteremedy.com

I found the page very informative.

BTW, I am not arguing with you as I can't tell what the actual fact is about chiggers now that you posted that link. Without a microscope, some chiggers and a willing attractive female assistant, I won't research them myself.

I don't think those articles disagreed with each other. Biteremedy does not claim that chiggers can "burrow under the skin"... they simply state that nail polish will suffocate the chiggers.

I'm just glad that we don't have them up here!

I read the link and got the same impression. The wikipedia article says:

Some claim that the chigger is still in the bite, perhaps mistaking the tiny red center of the bite for the chigger itself. In some cases, the chigger is still present when the bite appears. A 10X magnifier can be used to see the chigger and it may be removed with fine-tipped tweezers. Once it is gone, covering the bite with nail polish, calamine lotion, Vaseline or other petroleum jelly, baby oil, or anything else may help the pain and itching, but will neither suffocate the chigger nor help the bites heal any faster. Medication such as antihistamines or corticosteroid creams may be prescribed by doctors, and might help in some instances.

Oh and knowschad, you probably do have them up there, you just haven't found them yet. I didn't run into them in 30+ years of stomping around the woods in Alabama and one day, wham-o.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Distribu...ombiculidae.png

Edited July 20, 2009 by Castle Mischief

19k · July 20, 2009

Oh and knowschad, you probably do have them up there, you just haven't found them yet. I didn't run into them in 30+ years of stomping around the woods in Alabama and one day, wham-o.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Distribu...ombiculidae.png

I guess you're right, but not very common here:

One of the banes of summer is attacks from chiggers. Although they are generally not very common in Minnesota, chigger bites can be very annoying. (from http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden...LN-Aug0104.html )

19k · July 20, 2009

I guess they do have chiggers in New Jersey, but at least you can get a smiley for them!

7.7k · July 20, 2009

Suddenly, urban park and grabs don't look so bad anymore. Assuming your tetanus shots are up to date, of course.

July 20, 2009

Back when the Dead Sea was just sick, I was stationed in SC for basic training...

Got two ticks embedded and broken off at the "neck", right where my boot blousing went (anyone remember boot blousings?)

Went to sick call and after removal, left two holes in my leg. Deep enough, they're still visible today.

Just two years ago, after finally getting over an almost two year battle with lymes, I got bit by a brown recluse spider in of all places, an old outhouse. Sick for three days. Left a hole where the skin was destroyed by the evil little critter.

Now it's deet everywhere and permethrin on all outer clothes.

Cache safe.

gotta watch where you "sit"

July 20, 2009

i thought the leg would have to be removed. whew.

2.2k · July 20, 2009

Here's a chigger bite itch remedy that I read in another thread that sounds unlikely but I tried it and it actually worked: Listerine mouthwash! The blue kind. Relieved the itching for several hours.

Even further off topic. if you're not sure whether it's chiggers or poison ivy (severe chigger bites can look like a rash) try running scalding hot water over the area. if it feels good, it's poison ivy. If it just burns, it's chiggers.

July 21, 2009

This brings up something I was thinking while cacheing the other day. We all should be pretty well versed in identifying poisenous plants and animals for the areas we go to. Also basic first aid classes are very handy in the types of situations we find ourselves in. Just My opinion.

WV J

7.2k · July 21, 2009

I get a kick out of the "nail polish on chiggers" remedy. Since itching doesn't start until after they detach most of the time, you are not going to kill what isn't there any more. I think that is probably an urban legend started by someone who wanted to see if they could get someone to put nail polish on their skin, then laugh at them behind their backs for actually doing it.

Since they basically vomit in you, you are encasing the vomit and are holding it inside your skin longer. Think about it. You would actually increase the time you would be affected by giving the enzymes more time to work on you. It is best to wash the area thoroughly with soap and hot water and then use the anti-itch creams rather than encasing their digestive fluids inside the infected area longer. Seem to be common sense.

Tick burrowed in. What to do?

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