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Okay, I am reading over logs of caches I found long ago.

 

I am seeing several references to "Ticks". And people actually dropping trow to remove them before they get "get inbedded in your skin?"

 

I do most of my caching in the city and wooded areas close to the city.

 

What exactly is a tick, and why do they embedd themselves into your skin?

 

What if they get embedded in your skin?

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hey wayne, the 'world wide web' is a pretty cool device. i would suggest typing "tick bites" or "lyme disease" into google or webmd(.com) and getting some advice there. i'd give you a link, but, you know.... that would actually take some effort. best luck, if someone doesn't give you the info by the morning, i may be able to fill you in.

 

I chose LaurenCat because LaurenKittenPoniesFlowersPinkSunshineFairyMeowMeowRainbowHeartLoveBunnyKissKiss was just too F-ing long.

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i just did a quick search of "ticks" on the forums and came up with five pages of topics and replies. this also might be a good place to start.

 

I chose LaurenCat because LaurenKittenPoniesFlowersPinkSunshineFairyMeowMeowRainbowHeartLoveBunnyKissKiss was just too F-ing long.

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Nasty little buggers. Found one on me while I was searching for Boundary Butte cache in Leavenworth. Luckily I found it on my pant leg before it had a chance to Dig. Gave me the heeber jeebers. I've heard you are supposed to wear light colored clothing to help spot them. also wear a hat.

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posted April 19, 2003 12:52 AM

hey wayne, the 'world wide web' is a pretty cool device. i would suggest typing "tick bites" or "lyme disease" into google or webmd(.com) and getting some advice there. i'd give you a link, but, you know.... that would actually take some effort.

 

 

response...hey Laurencat, BITE ME.

 

NOw back to the forum thread, since I thought it would be good to have a discussion on this topic. I did some searching around, and ticks can burrow in and pass on Lhyme Disease. And Laurencat that doesnt mean that if you get it you dont have to ask for your own LIME when your drinking a corona.

 

If you get burrowed into by a tick, then they recommend you take him out with a pair of tweezers and make sure his mouth is still intact, otherwise it is still inside you and they did not release.

 

recommends to tuck your pants into your socks, wear long sleeves, and wear a hat. Wear light colored clothes to see them better. You can do a search and find tons of stuff on prevention. THere are sprays and such out there.

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Well seeing as the ticks like to crawl up onto high points of grass's and shrubs, stick out their tiny little thumbs and hitch rides on anything that walks by, Red and I like to send the newbies down the trails first.

 

Or head to the local dog pound and ask to take a mutt for a test drive before you buy it, get one about knee high and real hairy. That way the mutt gets the ticks and you can just return it at the end of the day and those other people have to deal with the little buggers.

 

Man, I can just hear the flames now.

 

If your out and about cache hunting and see a lot of small rodents, if you are working along animal- game trails, your in good tick country.

 

Yes, if you wear light colored clothes, if you tuck pant legs into your socks and boot tops and put repellant on your clothes, you will stop a lot of them.

 

But, to be really sure you see them, go down to the army navy surplus store and get some of those hazmat coveralls that are all white. Slip into one of them and you will spot any ticks on you or your team mate real fast. You might even get some of those painters bib's and wear them.

 

But the real fun is the tick checks later on down the line.

 

As for getting them out, So far the two I have had in me this year, I was able to just pull them out real easy. When the little suckers are nice and flat, no problem... But, if they get nice and big and fat with your blood and you try to pull them out, they can pop and make a real big mess all over everything.

 

later, logscaler.

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Another note, if I may interject. For those of you who cache over in Central Oregon, the tick population is really high over here. Anytime you come in contact with juniper trees, manzanita or sagebrush, which is all the time really, you should be especially suspect for having ticks. Tick checks after you get home are very important. Ticks are nothing to fool around with, Lyme desease is very serious desease.

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Another thing

 

If you happen to get bit by a tick, try to check the bite mark every day for like a week. If you notice what looks like a target, or a ring of red outside and separate from the red bite mark, get yourself to a doctor pronto. You have the beginning stages of lyme disease. If caught early, it is very treatable.

 

And yet another thing. If you follow all the advice and use tweezers or your fingers to pull the tick out, do not just toss it on the floor or fling it out the door. They are tremendously hardy little beasties. What we do is put a little rubbing alcohol in a shallow dish or paper cup and drop the offending critter into that. This gives you the opportunity to watch it die up close. icon_mad.gif I have heard (but no way to confirm this) that they can survive pinching, twisting, light burning, flushing, just about anything we do to them. The guys at my work claim you have to hit them with a hammer to kill them. Alcohol seems to work fine for us. When lacking rubbing alcohol, whiskey works pretty darn good too icon_biggrin.gif

 

Also, they like soft warm skin, so they will seek out the warmest areas of your body. Do a thorough check of your thighs, behind your knees, your back, your sides, under your arms.

 

WARNING: I cannot be responsible for the above, as apparently my cats have learned how to type.

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Sunday, scratching my back, I felt a little lump and something else there. At first I thought it was you know...acne, but a little tug gave some hearty resistance, and i suddenly knew I had a tick. I got into a frenzy as my hubby was inspecting it and I demanded he just yank it out,pronto. He did, but left the head behind.

It's just a little scab now and I forgot all about until i read this thread. I thought Lyme disease was localized on the eastcoast, different ticks, different deer. Right now I can't see any target zone, but will check regularly.

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chub,

 

That happened to me after a cache binge up in Hood River. illDRIVE got so excited he just dismembered the thing with the tweezers. The head (i think) was still in my back.. like under my shoulder blade on one side. Make your husband inspect it daily. If he sees something trying to work its way out.. get the tweezers out again.. You don't want dead tick flesh in your flesh. And remember the target area.. Lyme is very treatable if caught early. Ticks are evil beasts

 

WARNING: I cannot be responsible for the above, as apparently my cats have learned how to type.

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Never heard that one. Just don't make a tick decoupage on your hide! I have heard of touching it with a qtip soaked in kerosene, or alcohol, but to me this goes against human nature, to have the wherewithall to locate these items while KNOWING you have a bloodsucking thing imbedded in your skin. I have also heard you can light a match then touch it to them and they will back out. Just hope no matter what you do, that the darn thing doesn't spew his dinner back into your bloodstream.

 

WARNING: I cannot be responsible for the above, as apparently my cats have learned how to type.

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Today, I forgot to use repellant while scouting for cache hiding places.

 

I knocked dozens off my clothes.

 

Then when I got home, we took 4 adults and 4 babies off my skin.

 

YUCK! If the repellant doesn't work next time, I may give up caching until next fall/winter.....

 

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case... icon_biggrin.gif

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This weekend we experienced our first tick. After placing a cache in Central Oregon, we got back in the car and Doug started driving. Then I looked down at my pants leg and freaked out, 'cause at first I thought it was a spider (I'm terribly afraid of spiders). Then I noticed it was a tick, opened the car door and brushed it off. After that Doug and I got out of the car and checked each other for more ticks. Just that one, thank goodness! Talked to my mom tonight. She's a nurse, and was concerned 'cause she knows someone that contracted lyme disease and has significant neurological damage from it. I told her I'd do some more investigation before we went back to tick country.

 

Temporarily French Polynesia's most prolific geocachers!

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Just a few minutes into the hike for Grande Rhonde Experience I spotted a tick on my leg. A few hours later when I got back to my truck I found several on me. On the 2 hour drive home I found a few more icon_redface.gif On the hike I also found a rattler in the trail. I think I preferred the rattler over the ticks.

 

I think most of the ticks were hopping onto my boots and climbing under my pants since I was mainly walking through tall grass. I always forget to pack my gaiters.

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We placed a new cache yesterday and when we got home illDRIVE noticed a small tick on his leg. Not imbedded. He managed to kill it with a knife he had handy. Then, the nightmare. At about 2:30 am while I was sleeping, me being Zzzoey, I shoved my hand between my pillow and my head just above my ear and felt something. Sure enough. A TICK ON MY HEAD! ARGHHH! I rushed into the kitchen and dropped it into the sink to see if it was indeed a tick. A medium sized one. The war has just begun.

 

Do ticks have a purpose? I mean really? Would some other lifeform die if ticks were eradicated? Let's get on that.

 

WARNING: I cannot be responsible for the above, as apparently my cats have learned how to type.

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I took another 2 ticks of me today at work!

Both from yesterday, and we hunted ticks on me and I had 2 showers since then.

 

I have no idea where they are coming from now. I sprayed bug spray on me and my clothes today, and did not anywhere other than my home and office, and car(my main suspect). I hate these things.

I am strongly contemplating giving up caching until the cold months.

 

Let's kill all the ticks. Where can I buy a flame-thrower?

 

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case... icon_biggrin.gif

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Dusty I feel for you. Perhaps a body cavity inspection is in order at this point. I am not sure how you fumigate out your car. Do you have a dog? Ours has been known to harbor ticks for weeks.

 

Do you want to hear something really creepy?

 

Ticks require high humidity and moderate temperature. Juvenile ticks usually live in the soil or at ground level. They will then climb up onto a blade of grass or the leaf of a plant to await a potential host. They will sense the presence of a host and begin the questing behavior, standing up and waving their front legs.

 

They are able to sense a vibration, a shadow, a change in CO2 level, or temperature change. When unsuccessful in their "quest" they become dehydrated and will climb back down the plant to the ground to become rehydrated. Then back up the plant, etc., until they are successful or they die. Some ticks have been known to live for over icon_eek.gif 20 years icon_eek.gif and they can live for a very long time without food. Their favored habitat is old field-forest ecozone.

 

Apparently a good tick trap is a block of dry ice because they emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, a host seeking stimulant. Traps are set in and around nesting areas of animal hosts. Soft ticks can be observed running along the surface of the ground towards the trap and are collected by hand, or inside a collection chamber in the trap. I don't have any dry ice on hand but I think it would be interesting to experiment with that from a safe distance.

 

WARNING: I cannot be responsible for the above, as apparently my cats have learned how to type.

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Dusty I feel for you. Perhaps a body cavity inspection is in order at this point. I am not sure how you fumigate out your car. Do you have a dog? Ours has been known to harbor ticks for weeks.

 

Do you want to hear something really creepy?

 

Ticks require high humidity and moderate temperature. Juvenile ticks usually live in the soil or at ground level. They will then climb up onto a blade of grass or the leaf of a plant to await a potential host. They will sense the presence of a host and begin the questing behavior, standing up and waving their front legs.

 

They are able to sense a vibration, a shadow, a change in CO2 level, or temperature change. When unsuccessful in their "quest" they become dehydrated and will climb back down the plant to the ground to become rehydrated. Then back up the plant, etc., until they are successful or they die. Some ticks have been known to live for over icon_eek.gif 20 years icon_eek.gif and they can live for a very long time without food. Their favored habitat is old field-forest ecozone.

 

Apparently a good tick trap is a block of dry ice because they emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, a host seeking stimulant. Traps are set in and around nesting areas of animal hosts. Soft ticks can be observed running along the surface of the ground towards the trap and are collected by hand, or inside a collection chamber in the trap. I don't have any dry ice on hand but I think it would be interesting to experiment with that from a safe distance.

 

WARNING: I cannot be responsible for the above, as apparently my cats have learned how to type.

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quote:
Originally posted by Zzzoey:

<snip>Perhaps a body cavity inspection is in order at this point.


 

I did check my belly button. icon_biggrin.gif

I sprayed RAID in my car and will do so again tonight.

 

Next weekend I'll do my permethrin on the clothes and 100% DEET on me. If that doesn't do it, I am going to concentrate on boating during the warm months.......

 

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case... icon_biggrin.gif

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I am just not sure if living in the grasslands area, and even the high desert area... will ever be a tick free life. That is, if you ever go outside. I guess we have to get used to them. I am still thinking of a dry ice trap. If I could put dry ice out in a general cache area about 2 hours before I find said cache, perhaps they would all be caught and coralled by then. icon_wink.gif

 

WARNING: I cannot be responsible for the above, as apparently my cats have learned how to type.

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quote:
Originally posted by logscaler:

Well i have been reading this thread and I thought you people might just be interested in http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/rbkimsey/caticks.html

 

Enjoy and learn a little bit about why I say to avoid rodent areas. Oh, you will also find those little buggers on Western Fence Lizards and Snakes.

 

logscaler.


Interesting site! I didn't know htat ticks attached themselves to reptiles.

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