Tips To Deal With The Great Tick Invasion

[Glenn MacGrady]

"I discovered a tick embedded in my crotch." — Kevin Callan

Ticks Are Coming To A Campsite Near You. Here's What To Do.

Try these techniques to avoid getting ticked off.

paddlingmag.com

So did I, discovering it during this run of Rock Springs in Florida in April 2006:



Three months later I came down with a debilitating fever of tick disease while paddling on this trip in the Cobscook Bay/Machias area in Maine:



The ER doctor at the Machias hospital was unfamiliar with tick diseases but gave me some antibiotics, and my friends drove me back to Connecticut while I slept the entire journey in the back of my van. The symptoms were exactly like the diagnosis of ehrlichiosis that I had received at home a few years earlier from a tick bite on my own property. The debilitation and weakness is so bad that I would contemplate wetting the bed rather than engaging in the Herculean effort of walking six steps to the bathroom. Thankfully, the antibiotics resolved the disease within a week both times.

After the Maine experience, I bought socks, pants and shirt factory-impregnated with permethrin, plus some permethrin to spray on my tent.

 

[Chip]

Bears, sharks, snakes, hippopotamus. All are animals you could possibly encounter while canoeing or camping. If you do encounter them, there's a small chance the animal will attack you. If attacked, you could be injured or killed. Ticks on the other hand, if you are in their range, you WILL encounter them. They WILL attack you. And when, not if, they attack you it's pretty likely they will make you sick, possibly with a disease that will cripple you, and can kill you. Protective measures, like permethrin infused gear, are very appropriate. Heck, vital.

 

[jdeerfoot]

This is what I carry with me for tick removal. Oddly, I have used it on other people way more than I have personally needed it.

While the LYMERix vaccine was available many years ago, I got the series of shots. I don’t know if having been vaccinated, I am now unpalatable to ticks since I don’t seem to pick them up very often.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

While the LYMERix vaccine was available many years ago, I got the series of shots. I don’t know if having been vaccinated, I am now unpalatable to ticks since I don’t seem to pick them up very often.

According to the CDC (if you believe that bureaucracy):

"A vaccine for Lyme disease is not currently available. The only vaccine previously marketed in the United States, LYMERix®, was discontinued by the manufacturer in 2002, citing insufficient consumer demand. Protection provided by this vaccine decreases over time. Therefore, if you received this vaccine before 2002, you are probably no longer protected against Lyme disease."

Lyme disease vaccine | CDC

Information about the previous Lyme disease vaccine and products under development.

www.cdc.gov

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

Lyme disease, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, anaplasmosis, Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness, Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever, tularemia, Colorado tick fever, Powassan encephalitis, Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), and Q fever. As many diseases as there are hairs on a dog.

The lone star tick carrying AGS is moving north into our area. The health department did what they called a 'drag' (basically dragging a used pillow) through our woods to see if it has arrived. How much must you have ticked off the boss to be put on drag detail.

 

[Alan Gage]

While it's not impossible to get sick from our local tick (wood/dog tick) it seems less likely to carry disease that many other tick species.
Here they're prevalent in grasslands and not in woodlands so avoidance during their 2 months of main activity in the spring is pretty easy. But if I want to take a walk in the prairie with the dog in May it's not uncommon to to remove 50 ticks from the two of us during the course of a couple hours.

I have experienced deer ticks during their peak season in northern Minnesota and that was a completely other level. Not only in numbers but also the difficulty in finding and removing them due to the much smaller size.

In the past I've had success spraying my clothing below the waist (which comes into contact with vegetation) with bug spray.

Alan

 

[JohnSand]

We're pretty much at ground zero for Lyme. I've suffered joint pain all my life, I suspect from the numerous tick bites in my childhood. In recent years I got Lyme again, and Babesiosis. I have friends with the acquired meat allergy. I won't bushwack any more, as much as I love the woods.

 

[dogbrain]

Last spring I was out 3 nights paddling Gates of the Mountains on the Missouri River and had done a few of the hikes accessible by water. I knew it was tick season and pulled many dozen off me over a couple days. In the tent and even after I got home I pulled a few off. Days later I had some chafing just below the naval. I had checked there for ticks, I always do. I have always worried about one getting in there. I got a bright reading light and looked again. There it was, the arse end of a tick way down in there.

Went to the clinic and had them remove it. That evening I became as sick as I’ve ever been. Chills, muscle and joint aches, splitting headache, nausea. I went to my doctor in the morning, unable to stand still I was in so much pain. I got the doxycycline which made things even worse. Since I couldn’t hold it down I had to take an anti nausea med with all its side effects.

Luckily the worst of the symptoms subsided over a few days, however, the fatigue did not. It took a full 6 weeks for me to recover completely. It felt like having a bad hangover every day. At the end, I woke up one morning and realized right away it was gone.

Ultimately I got results from a lab, wherever they sent my blood sample. I think it’s a centralized place that studies these tick diseases. No on Lyme and yes on Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Check that naval!

Mark

 

[ppine]

Trips in California in the spring have plenty of ticks. I have taken a few off myself each time. I took 42 off my dog on one trip and 36 on the second one. There is a little device called a "Tick Tornado" that can be used to extract them without breaking off the head.

I give my dog Ivermectin for heart worm, which protects ther from several tick borne diseases. Humans need an equivalent. I am going to try to only do fall trips much have few ticks.

 

[Boatman53]

I got anaplasmosis the first summer here in Maine just building a garden shed in the side yard. Two friends from Long Island now have the meat allergy from those little buggers. Thirty years I lived on the east end of Long Island and never got sick although had many ticks on me.
More permethrin in my future.
Jim

 

[BWCA66]

I've always wondered why my dog can chew up a pill and be protected from ticks but there isn't one for us larger mammals.

 

[scoutergriz]

I've always wondered why my dog can chew up a pill and be protected from ticks but there isn't one for us larger mammals.

I asked the same question to my doctor, he said it was slow uptake, fear of side effects, and fear of another "unneeded" vaccine for a "rare" (at the time) disease make it unaffordable to continue to stock it

 

[goonstroke]

This is more on the sad story of the safe & effective lyme vaccine that isn't made anymore.

The incredibly frustrating reason there’s no Lyme disease vaccine

Your dog can get vaccinated for Lyme. You cannot.

www.vox.com

Here in Maine they vary a lot from place to place. It's still much better (fewer ticks overall & more dog ticks than deer ticks) if you go north, but it's only a matter of time before the polar bears are bled dry by those beasts. I don't bushwhack in coastal areas, and farther north I take precautions, permethrin and frequent checks. I wonder why there isn't more discussion of active measures, like managing the population of warm blooded animals to minimize human health risks.

 

[Art D]

I’m currently a subject in a three year study for a new Lyme vaccine being developed by Pfizer. Don’t know if I got the vaccine or a placebo. Time will tell.

 

[UCanoe_2]

"I discovered a tick embedded in my crotch." — Kevin Callan

Not in my crotch, but I did wake up one morning to discover a tick attached to my abdomen, which wasn't there when I went to bed. I mean the tick wasn't there; the tummy stays with me day and night. I couldn't pull the tick off. Walking around with a bug in my undies did not seem like a good idea. What to do?

I applied rubbing alcohol liberally to my belly and to a brand new Xacto knife blade. Slice, snip, no more tick. IIRC I didn't even need a Band Aid.

The doctor was not impressed with the tick I carefully preserved in a vial of alcohol. He said there was no danger of infection until it had been attached for 36 hours.

Fast forward several years, and I was tested for Lyme disease as part of a workup for rheumatoid arthritis. An antibody screening test was positive, but the definitive test was negative. So, inconclusive over all. Maybe I was exposed at one time but didn't get sick.

There is a thriving tick population in this area, so I am extremely lucky not to be infected. I have always been casual about protection, but check thoroughly after an outing. It's time to restock the permethrin.

 

[Nick Pending]

I applied rubbing alcohol liberally to my belly and to a brand new Xacto knife blade. Slice, snip, no more tick. IIRC I didn't even need a Band Aid.

We do have ticks on our side of the mountains (west of the Oregon Cascades) but they're not real common. They're much more noticeable east of the mountains. What I've done the few times I or a pet has had a tick is to glob on some Vaseline, sealing it well all around. The critter can't breathe any longer so unclamps its jaw and backs out on its own, usually within an hour or less, hoping for a fresh breath of air. Never had an infection from it either, or noticed any on a pet. Keep a watch on it so you know when it backs out if you want to collect it for identification for possible disease vectoring. Maybe cover it with a bandage so it can't get away. I haven't had to do this in years now. Good luck.

 

[Pseudonym]

I live in Nantucket, MA, off the coast of Cape Cod. We're a small island with a deer density of about 50 deer per square mile and accordingly the island is loaded with ticks. So much so that the Red Cross doesn't even bother with blood drives out here because the incidence of tick borne illness is so high. The community is very encouraged by the vaccine trials referenced by @Art D above.

Relative to @goonstroke's mention of the management of host populations, for that very reason we have the longest hunting season in the state because there are no other predators on island.

There's a scientist at MIT who wants to genetically modify the island's white footed mice, so that they would be immune to carrying tick-borne diseases. Ticks aren't born infected, they usually get infected when they bite an infected mouse. The theory goes that if the mice are immune, then the diseases won't be as prevalent in the ticks. Here is a an article.

 

[Pseudonym]

You might ask yourself, how does an island 30 miles out to sea even have any deer? We'll it's actually a pretty interesting story: It starts with one buck swimming far off shore and being rescued by fisherman. Then in 1926, someone thought that he needed some company so they purchased two does from Michigan and the rest is history.

We still don't have any skunks (thank goodness) and for years we didn't have any squirrels but they've started popping up recently after stowing-away on the lumber trucks, which come over from the mainland on the ferries.

 

[scoutergriz]

We do have ticks on our side of the mountains (west of the Oregon Cascades) but they're not real common. They're much more noticeable east of the mountains. What I've done the few times I or a pet has had a tick is to glob on some Vaseline, sealing it well all around. The critter can't breathe any longer so unclamps its jaw and backs out on its own, usually within an hour or less, hoping for a fresh breath of air. Never had an infection from it either, or noticed any on a pet. Keep a watch on it so you know when it backs out if you want to collect it for identification for possible disease vectoring. Maybe cover it with a bandage so it can't get away. I haven't had to do this in years now. Good luck.

that's about the most dangerous thing you can do for a tick- preventing it from breathing is almost guaranteed to make it vomit into the wound, releasing any spirochetes it contains directly into your bloodstream.
From the CDC- "Avoid folklore remedies such as “painting” the tick with nail polish or petroleum jelly, or using heat to make the tick detach from the skin. Your goal is to remove the tick as quickly as possible–not waiting for it to detach."

Tick removal | CDC

How to remove a tick from skin.

www.cdc.gov

 

[Alan Gage]

I'm sure there are differences in tick species but I've removed hundreds and hundreds of wood/dog ticks from myself and my dogs over the years along with a few deer ticks. It's not a complicated process. You simply pull them off. That's all there is to it.

An alternate method is to scrape them off with your fingernail (this works well when they're embedded in hair).

100% success rate.

Alan