Deer Ticks

[+dhenninger]

Returned from a quick visit to a cache in North Jersey and i had a deer tick on my arm. Removed it before it sucked my blood

 

Keep an eye out for ticks!!

 

I didn't think they would be out yet.

 

Dave (dhenning25)

[+briansnat]

Any warm day can bring them out, even in January, or Feb.

[+JMBella]

Yep learned that the hard way myself. If it's around 40 degrees or more there might be ticks out.

[+Salvelinus]

Ahhhhhhhhh...now I know spring is close by. The annual Tick thread has begun! Soon I know I will see my first robin.

 

No offense to anyone, but I have pulled numerous ticks off my hide over the years. I still am more concerned about my drive to the woods than my walk in the woods. I do think a quick "tick check" after venturing in the fields and woods is always a good idea.

 

Salvelinus

[+JMBella]

Ahhhhhhhhh...now I know spring is close by. The annual Tick thread has begun! Soon I know I will see my first robin.

 

No offense to anyone, but I have pulled numerous ticks off my hide over the years. I still am more concerned about my drive to the woods than my walk in the woods. I do think a quick "tick check" after venturing in the fields and woods is always a good idea.

 

Salvelinus

No not while driving. However, I have been known to talk on the phone, drink coffee, enter coords in my GPS and read a map while driving a 5 speed.

[+mogolloyd]

Soon I know I will see my first robin.

Saw my first 2 robins Valentines weekend in Rehoboth Beach DE. With that said it snowed @ my house in the eastern panhandle of WV all day long yesterday.

[+bob393]

You just got-a hate um.

I can't get out of the woods with out half a dozen on me!

I always have the wife check me for them when I get home.

[mistaken4sisters]

dhenning25, fear not, one of us got one while looking for your "sixth cents" suring the week...YUCK!

[+cachefamily]

I found more ticks than caches today!

[avroair]

Soon I know I will see my first robin.

Would that be the huge, groupie American roblin or the beautiful, dainty English Robin! Anyways, pulled two ticks from my clothing last weekend and saw Mossies in Washinton State Park in early Feb! Mosquitoes, hate mossies! Trying to finish as many swamp caches before the heatwave!

[+bob393]

Mosquitoes, ticks, black flys, horse flys. it's all part of the game.

How about copperheads and rattlers, we have plenty of them up here also.

[+briansnat]

How about copperheads and rattlers, we have plenty of them up here also.

 

Found a cache in Sterling Forest yesterday and one of the previous logs said it was near a rattlesnake den according to a ranger. I didn't know that before I went there, or I'd have been a lot more careful. I think it was still a little cold for the buggers, thank goodness.

[+Polgara]

I found a tick on my shirt yesterday, must have picked him up in my yard, lil bastard.

[+Patuxent Pirates]

Yep, I had to pull one off yesterday that got by me. It was a deer tick too. I'll have to keep an eye on it. Don't think from what I've read that you have to really worry about Lyme unless they are on you for over a few hours. Still, yuck.... I've heard doxycycline is nasty! Here's a helpful link for those who may worry....

 

http://my.webmd.com/hw/arthritis/hw77228.a...C-9531713CA348}

 

Guess the moral of the story is check & double check.

 

Grr I hate ticks!!!!!!!

 

[avroair]

Yup! Found one cache and 3 ticks yesterday! One got on me too. But I've been told the big ones are not the ones to worry about. Hate them, going to have to cover up!

[+Team Shibby]

Oh yes, those lil bastards are out for sure. I walked the dog in the park behind my house and found two ticks on her when I got her in the house. Grrrr....

 

Kar

[+SERG312]

Put me on the list also. Had to bring my dog ,Lacey to the Vet today because her face swelled up after a tick bite.

[+Planet]

I found a tick the other day too, it was about 40° out.

 

But this just in. Just when you thought you had enough to worry about this article was in the Danbury News Times this week. I hope it's ok to paste here, I am including the writer's name and such. I posted this in the New England forums too. Always tick check, even during the hike.

 

2004-03-17

Scientists fear rise of tick-borne disease

 

Mice with parasite found in Fairfield County

 

By Robert Miller

THE NEWS-TIMES

 

While Lyme disease has long been the tick-borne illness that people in Connecticut most fear, a second disease transmitted by ticks soon may be on the rise.

Researchers at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven have uncovered proof Babesia microti, which causes the malaria-like ailment babesiosis, is established in Fairfield County.

"It’s not a surprise it’s expanding,” Dr. John Shanley, a professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington said Tuesday . "I predict it will spread.”

"It’s something doctors should be aware of,” said Louis Magnarelli, an entomologist at the experiment station.

Magnarelli and John Anderson, director of the experiment station, found the protozoa in two mice. The station captured the mice in the yards of two Greenwich residents who were diagnosed with babesiosis in 2002. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s monthly report, "Emerging Infectious Diseases,” published their findings in its March edition.

Magnarelli said finding the protozoan in the mice is "hardcore evidence’’ the parasite is in the most westernmost town in the state. Previously, he said, researchers had found the same evidence of the disease only in New London County, with most of the state’s cases located there.

Humans contract babesiosis the same way they get Lyme disease — from the bite of a black-legged tick, a.k.a. the deer tick. Magnarelli and Anderson’s report points out that, with such a high incidence of Lyme disease in Fairfield County, "the number of cases of babesiosis is likely to increase appreciably in the future.’’

Thomas Forschner, executive director of the Lyme Disease Foundation in Hartford, said the same ticks can carry at least two other diseases in the state — human granulocytic ehrlichiosis and bartonella, or cat scratch fever.

In "Everything You Need to Know About Lyme Disease’’ Karen Vanderhoof-Forschner, the foundation’s co-founder, wrote that a 2000 study of babesiosis found 22 percent involved co-infection with Lyme disease.

Magnarelli and Anderson’s report said 290 cases of babesiosis were diagnosed in Connecticut between 1991 and 2000, with 230 found in New London County. Because babesiosis is more common in vacation spots along the East Coast — Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod, Rhode Island — the report said doctors have assumed many of these patients were infected elsewhere.

But, with the finding of the Babesia microti protozoa in the mice in Greenwich, the report said it’s clear the parasite also can be found in the western corner of the state.

"We’ve found it in Fairfield County, right next to New York,” Magnarelli said. "We believe it’s spreading.”

In Fairfield County, where Lyme disease is widespread, co-infection with babesiosis isn’t new. Maggie Shaw of Newtown, one of the founders of the Newtown Lyme Disease Task Force, has tangled with babesiosis. So has Mary Beth Olah, another task force member.

"It’s been four years, and I’m still being treated for both,” Olah said. "The doctors think, with co-infection, it’s harder to diagnose and treat the two diseases.”

"The physicians around here know so little about Lyme disease,” Shaw said. "They know even less about babesiosis.”

The Babesia microti protozoa attaches to human red blood cells, feeds on them and kills them. Symptoms of the disease include chills, fatigues, night sweats, muscle aches and headaches.

"The headaches were the worst,” said Shaw, who is still being treated for babesiosis.

Like malaria, it can be a hard disease to cure. Shaw is on a combination of Mepron, an anti-parasitic drug, and antibiotics.

"It helps, but it’s very tricky,” Shaw said. "I’m fine until I go off them. Then a few weeks later, I slowly begin to get sick again.”

Like Lyme disease, babesiosis probably is under-reported. People can mistake it for a summer flu. But unlike the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, doctors can do a blood test that can find the ring-shaped Babesia microti in red blood cells.

"You look at the labs, and if you have a low red blood cell count, you have to consider babesiosis,” said UConn’s Shanley.

The disease is most serious for the elderly, those who have compromised immune systems, or those who have had their spleens removed.

"Spleens are big filters,” Shanley said. "People without them are prone to infections. With something like babesiosis, they have trouble fighting it off.”

 

Contact Robert Miller

at bmiller@newstimes.com

or at (203) 731-3345.

[+Brianslost]

Yeah, I pulled a tick off of me this week. I'm pretty sure it was a dog tick but since I had him I dropped him in a film canister in case I get a rash or feel bad. With new tick diseases I'll look like I'm in "The Andromeda Strain" when I go caching.

 

My Grandmother used to tell me, "Don't eat, drink, or breathe and you'll be happy as long as you live."

[+Team Shibby]

Oh...Thats just great. You know its only a matter of time before it makes it way to NJ (unless of course its already here) so now, not only do we have to worry about Lime and Rocky Mtn. Fever, we have babesiosis to add to the list. I think its time to call my stock broker and invest in the leading manufacturer of Permethrin!!!!!

 

Kar of TS!!

Edited March 19, 2004 by Team Shibby

[+Squealy]

If you live in NJ, I would think those diseases are the LEAST of your problems!

[+haggaeus]

If you live in NJ, I would think those diseases are the LEAST of your problems!

Funny, I live in NJ and got my Lyme 2 years ago in NY (Clarence Fahnestock SP).

[+briansnat]

we have babesiosis to add to the list.

 

I thought that was an allergy to good looking women.

[+The Leprechauns]

Ticks are everywhere this year. I see log after log mentioning them.

[+Natureboy44]

From someone who battled Limes disease last year, I would highly recommend applying a good DEET containing insect repellant before caching. I'd previously been "comforted" by the fact that I could always find any ticks (the common dog ticks that is) that hitched a ride with me after an off road adventure. The same is not true for a deer tick. You will not see the deer ticks! They are so small that they can be easily missed long enough until it too late. A deer tick's body is about the size of a dog ticks head, and it only get a little bigger after it feasted for a day or two. Trust me and take the time to buy and apply a good repellent.

[+Polgara]

Lots of stuff concerning ticks going on. I'm trying to get together an info page for cachers to refer to on this , which will explain everything ya need to know, from the little ticks themselves to the medical tests used to daignose you with Lyme or other diseases.

 

But till then, make sure you shower after caching, even if the hike didn't get ya all sweaty. Why? Cause nymph deer ticks are CLEAR, they have no pigment, they are pretty much invisible. Showering will rinse them off you. This is why people get bit and never know it.

[+The Leprechauns]

Be sure that your webpage covers caching buddy full-body tick checks. Pictures to demonstrate the best techniques and positions would be much appreciated.

[hobo dude]

I know all to well about them little things. I work in the woods all the time so I am finding the Dog Ticks all the time. Never see the Deer Ticks though. Every once in a while I get one that I notice. I am glad that I am in the south for the next few months. The only thing that I really have to worry about here are snakes and gators, both of which you can see.

[+Polgara]

Be sure that your webpage covers caching buddy full-body tick checks. Pictures to demonstrate the best techniques and positions would be much appreciated.

For all your viewing enjoyment, Lep has graciously volunteered his sexy self to deomsonstrate the full body check for ticks....coming to the forums here soon...LOL!

[+Evil Chicken]

Lyme's Disease is definitely a huge concern. My 10yo daughter had a severe case last year and ended up on daily IV treatment for 8 weeks!

 

Besides DEET, we also carry the dreaded Scotch tape!!

 

When we find the little suckers on us, we stick 'em to the tape, wrap the tape around them so they can't get out & throw them in the trash at the end of the day. Suffocate them so they can't hurt anyone else!

[+TNT_Va]

Just found out today that one of my dogs has Lyme disease She will be ok but will have to be on meds.

 

[+Alan2]

Buddy's on antibiotics again. This time for Lyme. Once before was Lyme too and another for RMSF. Not fun at all.

Edited May 28, 2004 by Alan2

[avroair]

Came back from caching today. Did a tick check... nothing. Showered, cooked on BBQ and showered again... Wife found a tick in my back... little $%! It was a really small one too.. Those are the nasty ones... glad I got it all out...

 

I hate ticks...

[+Team Shibby]

So far I have found none attached, but I did find a number of them on me a few times so far this year. My team mate Krs has had two attached to him already, and we have plucked countless amounts off him throughout our hikes.

 

A few weeks ago we did a cache at night in Harriman SP and we gave up almost immediately due to the amount of ticks that were on us from a 50' walk through the grass. I came home, threw my clothes in the wash and jumped in the shower and went to bed. At 5:30AM I woke up to something crawling on me and just guess what it was? Thats right...A big fat tick

 

As much as I hate them, there are ways to avoid them, or at least decrease your chances of coming into contact with them. All you have to do is avoid tall grass and weeds at all costs! Don't bushwack unless it is totally necessary. Stick to the trail (if there is one) as much as possible. You may wish to tuck your pants into your socks, or if you prefer not to look like a dork on the trail, pick up a pair of gaitors. They are inexpensive and effective against more than just bugs.

 

So far my biggest enemy in the woods this year is mosquitos and biting flies. Using 24% deet repellant has not helped. They continued to bite me even after several applications. I'm tempted to get a head net soon!! LOL

 

Kar of TS!!

[+Alan2]

Well, you might as go all the way if you're going to be dorky with a net over your head and pull your socks up too!

 

I do the sock bit all the time. After a while it starts to seem in style.

 

Alan

[+IMLost]

Just added a new article on the Northeast Geocaching site about Lyme disease and ticks.