Protect Yourself From Ticks

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Sep 22, 2013
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TOP TEN FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TICKS
Courtesy of www.tickencounter.org

10. Ticks crawl up - Ticks don't jump, fly, or drop from trees onto your head and back. If you find one attached there, it most likely latched onto your foot or leg and crawled up over your entire body.

9. All ticks (including deer ticks) come in small, medium and large sizes

8. Ticks can be active even in the winter - That's right! Deer Ticks in particular are not killed by freezing temperatures, and will be active any winter day that the ground is not snow-covered or frozen.

7. Ticks carry disease-causing microbes - Tick-transmitted infections are more common these days than in past decades. With explosive increases in deer populations, extending even into semi-urban areas in the eastern and western U.S., the trend is for increasing abundance and geographic spread of deer ticks and Lone Star ticks; and scientists are finding an ever-increasing list of disease-causing microbes transmitted by these ticks: Lyme disease bacteria, Babesia protozoa, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and other rickettsia, even encephalitis-causing viruses, and possibly Bartonella bacteria. Back in the day, tick bites were more of an annoyance but now a bite is much more likely to make you sick.

6. Only deer ticks transmit Lyme disease bacteria - The only way to get Lyme disease is by being bitten by a deer tick or one of its "cousins" found around the world.

5. For most tick-borne diseases, you have at least 24 hours to find and remove a feeding tick before it transmits an infection
Even a quick daily tick check at bath or shower time can be helpful in finding and removing attached ticks before they can transmit an infection. Lyme disease bacteria take at least 24 hours to invade the tick's saliva.

4. Deer tick nymphs look like a poppy seed on your skin - And with about 1 out of 4 nymphal deer ticks carrying the Lyme disease spirochete and other nasty germs in the northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and upper mid-western U.S., it's important to know what you're really looking for. They're easy to miss, their bites are generally painless, and they have a habit of climbing up (under clothing) and biting in hard-to-see places.

3. The easiest and safest way to remove a tick is with a pointy tweezer - Using really pointy tweezers, it's possible to grab even the poppy-seed sized nymphs right down next to the skin. The next step is to simply pull the tick out like a splinter.

2. Clothing with built-in tick repellent is best for preventing tick bites - An easy way to avoid tick bites and disease is to wear clothing (shoes, socks, shorts or pants, and shirt) with Insect Shield� tick repellent built-in. http://www.insectshield.com/basics

1. Tick bites and tick-borne diseases are completely preventable - There's really only one way you get a tick-transmitted disease and that's from a tick bite. Reducing tick abundance in your yard, wearing tick repellent clothing every day, treating pets every month and getting into a habit of doing a quick body scan are all great actions for preventing tick bites.
 
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I'm not a big fan of tics but with a spaniel I've learned to deal with them. I must say though they are not nearly the problem in Wa as they are in most other places.

My one and only trip to Mt was for a late May wedding in Billings. A friend, his wife, their three labs and my spaniel and I planned it so we had a week to fish and camp our way home. After visiting Little Big Horn we stopped by the Yellowstone river for a picnic (river was flooded). I took one look around and knew we were in a bad spot. My buddy and his wife let their dogs out and start setting food out while I left Sage in quarantine stating that this was a bad spot. We'll it didn't take long before we were all scrambling for the safety of our trucks.

With a tic hatch fresh in our minds we decided to head for the hills so I got to spend the next three hours behind my buddies truck watching them in full on tic wig mode. It may have been the most entertaining three hour drive ever watching those two flailing around like their pants were on fire :). They estimated that they tossed or squished over 100 tics on that drive. I only found one :).

Thinking of that day still makes me laugh!
 

ethan

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Dec 7, 2013
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I live in the Tennessee mountains and we deal with ticks...a lot! One piece of advice I can give a fella is to get a pair of light weight gaiters and keep them sprayed down with permethrin or permanon. You can buy the concentrate from most feed or tack stores and mix it yourself. One bottle will last you 10 years!
 

Whisky

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Even spraying your shoes and pants/legs with bug spray really helps. Been running trails in a tick infested hell hole and since I started spraying I've reduced the number of ticks on me greatly.

For the dog I went to NexGard this year and have been very satisfied with it. Only ticks I've pulled off him are either fresh ones that haven't dug in yet, or day old ones that are dead but still sticking a little.
 
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In Northern CA lyme disease is becoming an epidemic in some areas (Sonoma , Santa Cruz, and Mendocino Counties , Grass Valley / Nevada City regions to name a few). I know several people who have contracted the disease and they are chronically ill. I carry DEET spray that I coat up with head to toe especially when I am field dressing and butchering.
 
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Where's Bruce?
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Just sprayed my hiking clothes with Permethrin...ordered two more bottles so I can treat my tarptent and pack.
 

Schleppy

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Coleman has a permetherin spray that they sell at Wal-Mart or other stores that have camping supplies. DEET is pretty much worthless for ticks especially deer ticks. Here in WI Lyme Disease is epidemic. I've been treated for it and so has my mother. Many of my friends and family have had it also and it is no joke. Permetherin is a pesticide not a repelent. It KILLS ticks. You are not supposed to spray it on your skin though so you have to pre-plan what youre going to wear and pre apply and let it dry before you put that clothing on. Permanone was or is a brand name of Permetherin so it's the same ingredient as the Sawyer products. I would also look into having the process down correctly before buying the concentrate ingredient from a feed store and doing it yourself. It is a pesticide and therefore a poison and you want to be sure to get the mixture just right. I have been dealing with this for several years and there is a lot of information on the web about the dangers of "mixing your own" out of the concentrate. Maybe it's the cat's ass and maybe it isnt, I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do here just saying use caution and good luck.
 
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Yep. I got one yesterday. Lucky that I got it off before it was latched in real well. I was wearing a pretty good amount of DEET on my bare skin ankles, shins/calves, and around my waistband. Then I sprayed my clothes and shoes pretty darn well. Not sure how many I would have got without the DEET but I did get nailed by one little bugger!
 

bradb

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Usually for morel season I take a pair of pants and a shirt soak them in the permetherin dog tick dip, let dry and just wear the same ones for the season. Usually have to spray for mosquitoes also so that helps also. Seems to work very well. First night this year I probably had 15 I found crawling on me and 30 on the dog......then I treated the cloths as i usually do. The last time out I didn't' have any on me. Dog still had some. he also gets a double treatment of tick stuff
 

colonel00

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Ugh, I hate ticks. I pulled probably 10 off of me yesterday. Partially my fault as I was ill prepared to be in the weeds with shorts on. I will take the blame on that one but that still doesn't mean those little bastards shouldn't be wiped off of the earth. I am cool with just about anything. Snakes, bears, glowing eyes in the dark, but the creepy crawlers can stick it. I'm not a big fan of spiders creeping in on me but at least they serve a purpose in controlling other insects and they really have no interest in humans. Ticks on the other hand wage an all out attack on us and I really cannot think of a ecological benefit that they provide.
 

PA 5-0

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TOP TEN FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TICKS
Courtesy of www.tickencounter.org
10. Ticks crawl up - Ticks don't jump, fly, or drop from trees onto your head and back. If you find one attached there, it most likely latched onto your foot or leg and crawled up over your entire body.

Just a quick story regarding #10: We were in the police academy which started in the winter. As Spring approached and we were prepping for the range phase of the training, the instructors were always telling us horror stories about the ticks. Telling us to wear hats, with long sleeves and pants no matter how hot it got. So we get there the first day, and its a big giant blacktop parking lot. Being a hunter and all to familar with ticks, I was thinking how the hell we gonna get ticks at this joint. Now it was a big lot, like 300yds square, but was surrounded by high mature trees on 3 sides. Not a blade of grass in sight. Let me tell ya how evertyime the wind blew, we literally had to do a tick removal drill. If the wind gusted, we immediately paired up and started picking ticks off each other. We put them in plastic cups which we then burned in a barrel. And they were always on our heads, hats and upper bodies. On the equipmant bags too. I couldn't see any other way those little mothers got on us but blowing in from those trees.
 
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Schleppy (or anyone else), What experience with DEET do you have that makes it "worthless" ? I use it with confidence and like that it goes directly on my skin but am open to other on the skin products that work better. Anyone else here feel that DEET doesnt work ? It certainly is marketed for ticks (not that that matters much). Thanks
 

William Hanson (live2hunt)

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Schleppy (or anyone else), What experience with DEET do you have that makes it "worthless" ? I use it with confidence and like that it goes directly on my skin but am open to other on the skin products that work better. Anyone else here feel that DEET doesnt work ? It certainly is marketed for ticks (not that that matters much). Thanks

It helps a little but not well. I have literally sprayed myself naked head to toe with 40% DEET and reapplied when I got to the woods and still ended up with 10-15 ticks. Permithrin on the other hand is amazing.
 
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Does permithrin have an odor or anything that wouldnt be favorable for archery hunting ? Does it mess up your clothes at all ?
 

William Hanson (live2hunt)

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Does permithrin have an odor or anything that wouldnt be favorable for archery hunting ? Does it mess up your clothes at all ?

It has a strong odor at first but by the time it dries it's gone. I use it everyday archery hunting and noticed no difference in getting winded. Never noticed it doing anything negative to clothing
 
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