[getFOODnow]

I am wondering about all you guys who go into the woods, do you worry about ticks and particularly about lyme disease? what can you do to prevent getting bit, if anything?

 

[kev1n69]

deet stock pile it!!! my ex wife got lyme
we used to deer hunt together. this was before the publicity kicked in on lyme.
her doc never did catch on as their was no bullseye rash, i figured it out by reading the symptoms from a news article.
you definitely dont want it especially if you dont have access to hi power anti-biotics.

 

[stairman]

Powdered sulpher dusted on your boots/ socks helps keep them off, chiggers too. I try not to sit on the ground or on stumps etc. Pine thickets seem to have ticks the worst.

 

[LiftRanger]

DEET!
Also, tall socks; pants legs tied and tucked into boots. Layers, overlapped and tucked in, when appropriate (cool enough.)
If they do get in the skin, use tweezers, pinch the head at the skin and pull. Or, soak tick, still embedded, in alcohol. That'll kill it, then tweezer it.
Ticks are bad, but it's the chiggers that are my arch enemies! They're worse than poison ivy.

 

[GramercyRiff]

Avon Skin so Soft oil work great for mosquitos. Not sure if it works on ticks.

 

[jane333]

ALWAYS worry about ticks, even if you live in an area where it has never been reported.

In 1994, I was bitten while picnicking on the Ft. Lewis range area open to horsebackers and the public in general. No signs were posted, nothing. The doc I spoke to at Madigan says that the troops bring the Lyme-infested ticks from back East in their gear, then take hikes here on post spreading the little buggers. No one says anything. It hasn't been in the news.

My emergency room doc got the diagnosis wrong (he thought that huge bullseye was a spider bite), but treated me early with doxycycline. It was a couple of weeks later when I was extremely sick that I saw an infectious diseases specialist who prescribed 10 days of IV antibiotics (Ceftriaxone). Tho it helped a lot, I had relapses every summer for four years until the symptoms finally went away pretty much for good. I was very lucky.

My sister who contracted Lyme on the East coast went untreated for many years. She developed life-changing fibromyalgia and mental illness, but was finally diagnosed and treated while in Germany.

 

[haha49]

Avoid tall grass.. put your socks over your pants.. its hard for them to get you if you all covered up and tucked in..

 

[PAbackwoodsman]

I got Lyme disease last summer.

-wear bright clothes so that you can spot ticks.

-check your self regularly.

-get thorough showers

-use tick repellent.

 

[rjjr]

I pulled the first tick of the season off my best friend today ( dog ). It only takes a few warm days to get them rolling.

 

[Mortimer]

We had ticks pretty bad when we first moved onto the property, however now we have about 40 chickens free-ranging the place, we don't have a bug problem anymore.

A "family feature" all the men in my family have is a severe reaction to pretty much any kind of bug bite. Not life-threatening, just swells up WAY more than normal. My mosquito bites swell up like half-dollars for a day or two before going back down to a "normal" size.

One fortunate side-affect of this is that I rarely have a problem with ticks. Within a few seconds of being bit it starts itching like mad, I realize it right away and can always pluck them out before they're buried too far in.

 

[trukboss]

i have lyme disease now, you dont want it. dont know if its allowed here but lymenet.org has all the info you will ever need on ticks, what repellants to use and what not to use.

 

[justin_baker]

I dont worry about it much. I walk in shorts through shoulder high grass in the summer through tick country and i still dont get them too often. Just every once and a while. I think that wearing pants and long socks is too much of a hassle for a small risk.
Oh, and almost every time i get a tick its when im wearing pants. When im wearing shorts and a t-shirt i can pull up the short legs and take off my shirt easily while in the field and find them before they even bite. If your wearing pants, they get under there and you dont see them until you get home and into the shower. By then they have already been feasting on you.

 

[corndogggy]

her doc never did catch on as their was no bullseye rash, i figured it out by reading the symptoms from a news article.

Lyme is highly misunderstood due to things like this. It is actually much rarer than most people think in many places like Kentucky, yet everybody thinks they have it, mainly because it affects people in wildly varying ways, so much so that it is nicknamed "the great imitator", as it imitates tons of other diseases and conditions, there is not a strict set of symptoms that is unique and everyone gets. Because of this, it is virtually impossible to diagnose by matching up the symptoms as you did, especially if there was no bullseye rash. Without the rash, it's extremely hard to diagnose, even with blood tests, which often show false positives... you have to have multiple tests and cross reference them.

 

[joes]

Where i live there are ticks and lyme disease.....I had one on the top of my head once..When i work or hike in heavy brush i wear a hat now.....Also use Deet.....

 

[Pinhead]

One advantage of being hairy like a '70s porn star is I can feel ticks/bugs crawling on me long before they bite.

 

[BadgeBunny]

One advantage of being hairy like a '70s porn star is I can feel ticks/bugs crawling on me long before they bite.

That's a visual!!

My dad was a vet ... he used to have all us kids tuck our pant legs into our boots and then put a flea and tick collar around each ankle when we went out hunting or had to go to the back of the property for anything. Rubbed Avon's Skin So Soft on exposed skin and then we stripped and showered the second we got home. I don't ever remember having a problem with ticks, fleas or chiggers and we had dogs, cats, cattle, horses, sheep, goats, rabbits, birds, a pet skunk, you name it ... it was a friggin' zoo at our place ... :

 

[summitlb]

in central oregon we dont have many tics ive never got one or any of my dogs. but here in ft campbell area we have tons not much you can do about it just check yourself and have a buddy check you. lots of deet is good. here you just have to live with it youll probably get one ive had 27 on me once and i havnt gotten sick. or have heard of anyone getting sick

 

[tagfactor]

Avon Skin so Soft oil work great for mosquitos. Not sure if it works on ticks.

skin so soft works great for chiggers and ticks, i never leave home without it

 

[denvernative321]

OMG my skin is crawling just reading these posts. I hate tics and chiggers. I keep my head buzzed all year round and when im out in the woods i check for them all the time. I would rather strip down and shake my clothes off after collecting wood and look like a nut than let those bastards chew on me.

 

[messiah]

ALWAYS worry about ticks, even if you live in an area where it has never been reported.

In 1994, I was bitten while picnicking on the Ft. Lewis range area open to horsebackers and the public in general. No signs were posted, nothing. The doc I spoke to at Madigan says that the troops bring the Lyme-infested ticks from back East in their gear, then take hikes here on post spreading the little buggers. No one says anything. It hasn't been in the news.

My emergency room doc got the diagnosis wrong (he thought that huge bullseye was a spider bite), but treated me early with doxycycline. It was a couple of weeks later when I was extremely sick that I saw an infectious diseases specialist who prescribed 10 days of IV antibiotics (Ceftriaxone). Tho it helped a lot, I had relapses every summer for four years until the symptoms finally went away pretty much for good. I was very lucky.

My sister who contracted Lyme on the East coast went untreated for many years. She developed life-changing fibromyalgia and mental illness, but was finally diagnosed and treated while in Germany.

???

I spent time at Ft Lewis, and never heard of soldiers transporting ticks with them in their packs. That's actually one of the most retarded things I've read here. They were supposed to post signs that ticks might have been transported by the military? Are you serious? Sorry if this comes off as harsh, but people need to stop blaming others for what happens to them, and start accepting the consiquenses for their own actions.