Annual alert!

[newboots]

I walked in my back yard for 15 minutes today. It was covered with snow 2 days ago.

I came in and found a tick inside my shirt! WARNING: tick larvae can hatch when it gets as warm as 45 F.

If you’re new here, you won’t know that I caught anaplasmosis from a tick I never saw, and it progressed to sepsis. I was hospitalized and I lived. So please, prepare for ticks! Use permethrin-treated clothing if you’re out a lot. Tuck your pant legs into your socks. Please!

 

[TNtoTaos]

In warmer areas (e.g., TN, etc), ticks can live all winter (pet alert: keep putting tick protection on your pet all winter long)!

 

[liquidfeet]

If you’re new here, you won’t know that I caught anaplasmosis from a tick I never saw, and it progressed to sepsis. I was hospitalized and I lived. So please, prepare for ticks! Use permethrin-treated clothing if you’re out a lot. Tuck your pant legs into your socks. Please!

I did not know. Wow, you are a lucky survivor! So glad to hear that.

I find ticks on my clothes and body every year. I also sometimes find them attached to my body, but I work hard not to let that happen. I have a bottle of 100mg Doxycycline pills and take two immediately if I find one has bitten me.

I usually find the ticks before they attach. Already this season I've found four ticks crawling on skin. A friend staying with me the last two weeks, fully aware of ticks and checking daily for them, somehow missed one for three days and only noticed it once it was engorged. The urgent care people gave her two 100mg Doxy pills and said that was enough since she was not showing symptoms. She was already on another antibiotic for something else, so that antibiotic may have been protecting her from any diseases the tick might have been carrying. And then, not all deer ticks carry a disease. I hope those two pills are enough for her.

I spray with Deet liberally every time I go out to the garden or the trails, remove my clothes when I am done, and dry them in the dryer on high for 20 minutes. The heat dries out the bodies of any ticks and that kills them. I check my body for ticks incessantly and thoroughly, daily. I have permethrin that I can apply to clothing that I wear outside, but have not done it yet. I will.

I have heard that I live in the ground zero area for Lyme disease, which means it is more prevalent here than anywhere else in the US. That goes for the other diseases that are deer-tick-borne as well. I don't know if it's true that we experience more deer-tick-borne diseases here on the north shore of Boston, but I do know that those diseases are very common here. A friend's wife died of babesiosis which she got from a tick.

I've had clear symptoms of Lyme disease twice in the last 17 years. Taking Doxy over a 10-day period did the trick, but it does mess up the biome in one's digestive track.

I hate finding ticks on me or on my clothes. But they will not deter me from going outside. I trail run, hike, and garden. Those are my salvation. So I go out, daily, into tick territory. And yes, they are showing up early this year.

 

[newboots]

Thanks, @liquidfeet -

I worry that most of us (as I did) take tick precautions when we read something like these posts, or learn of a friend's disease, then gradually let them go as memory fades.

Babesiosis, anaplasmosis, Lyme, and (depending on where you live) other serious diseases are passed to us through tick bites. Probably everyone knows that the black-legged tick is tiny, and can easily be missed.

My initial symptoms were headache and probably fever. I don't know about the fever because I couldn't operate the digital thermometer I had owned for years. I was cognitively impaired and didn't know it. I was dehydrated, and recognized it, but other than drinking a small glass of water in the bathroom, doing more seemed impossible. I couldn't figure out which doctor to go to, so I didn't go to the doctor for 4 days. By the time I got to the hospital, I had sepsis.

Sepsis is often fatal. The headache turned into intolerable stabbing pains. At one point, they packed my armpits and crotch with ice packs to bring down the fever. Despite being told how serious it was, my brain couldn't fully process it, and I felt complacent (except for the pain). There was a glitch at the pharmacy and the order for morphine (on top of the oxycodone I was already on) was delayed for two hours.

A month or more later, I had to back out of a court evaluation I had nearly completed. I was unable to write the report. This case would have required testifying, and I realized I simply couldn't do it. The cognitive impairment gradually improved over about six months.

The mortality rate for sepsis is around 40%.

Please, please learn about how to protect yourself from ticks. And do it, and keep doing it until ski season!

 

[SallyCat]

Thanks for the reminder, @newboots !

I found two ticks on my clothing after a bike ride the other day, so yesterday I went to the store and bought a bunch of permethrin and treated my mountain biking clothes. (I should have done it a couple of weeks ago, of course). I treat every piece of fabric that comes in the woods with me: clothes, shoes, hydration pack, gloves ... everything.

I don't **** around with ticks; they scare me more than anything else in the woods, and the problem is only getting worse with climate warming.

Fwiw, I buy Bonide brand bed bug spray at the hardware store, the version that is 0.5% permethrin. It's the same as what's in the Sawyer spray that you can buy at REI, but the Bonide is about half the price of the Sawyer, and you can buy it in gallon jugs as well as spray bottles. Soaking clothing for a few hours makes the treatment last longer than spraying.

(You do need to be very careful not to expose cats to permethrin when it is wet, and be careful not to breathe it in when spraying. It is harmless to kitties and humans once it dries and bonds with fabric, although some people have allergic reactions to it).

Tractor Supply also sells Gordon's Goat and Sheep spray, which is a higher concentration of permethrin that you can dilute. That has a bunch of other ingredients that you may or may not want on your clothing, but I've used it in the past with no issues when I couldn't find anything else readily.

 

[seastraight]

Thanks for raising awareness on ticks! I hadn't thought how often these creatures might be encountered in every day places, like the golf course (looking for lost balls !!), or even my backyard! These posts sent me searching for more information. The CDC website is really helpful and easy to use, just search for CDC ticks. CDC also references a comprehensive 'Tick Management Handbook' put together by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. Both sources give concise information on avoidance, detection and treatment.

 

[elemmac]

Ugh. I just found two yesterday (and two a week or so ago)...They're sneaky little buggers. I must've picked them up when walking the dog in the morning, but didn't find them until I was on a conference call a few hours later...luckily it wasn't a video call!!

I'm going to have to treat my bike clothing soon. I normally resort to deet bug spray each ride (extra sprays on my feet/lower legs). Treating clothing is definitely another great precaution to take.

 

[Iwannaski]

literally, the other day my daughter went for an outdoor girl scout meeting. We didn’t realize the kids were hiking, so I didn’t check her. My friend texted me after the girls had gotten home and told me to check MY DD b/c she had just found a tick on hers (accidentally). I ran downstairs, sat behind my daughter to start with her head (she was playing Animal Crossing with DH) and NO JOKE there was a tree tick crawling in her hair.

My friend saved us a bunch of hassle (no burrowed tick) ...and it was a great seasonal reminder. I checked her top to bottom after she had a shower.

 

[WaterGirl]

Thank you @newboots for the reminder. All I can say is there are no ticks in the ocean. But there are ticks in the costal mountains where live and Lymes and ticks have now been found near the beaches. https://www.yahoo.com/news/areas-near-beaches-crawling-ticks-192600832.html). Seems they are transmitted by squirrels and rabbits, which I have in mulltitudes in small my yard :( A few years ago my neighbor moved in land only to contract lymes and has been plagued with neurological issues that won't go away. Lymes previously was not that prevalent where I live so it took way too long for her to be diagnosed.

I grew up in an area that is now full of Lymes, it is a big concern. I actually chose not to visit during high tick season. I have fond memories of playing all day in the woods with my friends and hiking around when I was a kid, but now its full on protection before going outside. My brother's girlfriend is an entomologist who is in the field all the time and "not so worried." She says "just shower after being outside and use a washcloth to scrub down" to remove any possible crawling ticks...... I think I would be taking more precautionary measures if I was in that envornment on a regular basis.

I guess its an issue that will be impacting many of us as the Lymes continues to spread across the US.......

 

[newboots]

If only Lyme were the only disease brought to us by ticks! It’s bad enough; terrible, in fact. But the others are not to be trifled with.

 

[lisamamot]

Ticks have been crazy in MA and ME both, although luckily very few deer ticks so far. Even when I take a road walk I am flicking 5-6 off my pooch along the way - seems like every time he steps into the leaves/taller grass on the side of the road he comes out with a couple.

 

[Abbi]

People wonder why I only walk on the sidewalk! And the bike I ordered is going to be a road bike. Any tickborne disease is some thing I don’t need added on to every other damn thing I have wrong with me!

 

[liquidfeet]

Well. That mosquito bite near my clavicle turned out to not be a mosquito bite. It got redder and more itchy over three days then developed a radiating disk of red around it. Then a ring beyond that. DOH! Lyme got me.

I never saw a tick, and I would not have missed it had it attached. It must have bitten, then immediately fallen off, leaving its bacteria behind. Three weeks of Doxycycline has now started. My fever went up to 101.8 before it broke the other night just after starting the Doxy, and with that I developed a sore neck. I've had those two symptoms before when I had Lyme.

No more fever since it broke, and no more sore neck. The visible bite with its ring is still there but fading slowly.

I have no idea where I picked up the tick, nor when. I check for them continuously every day.

I live in Lyme central here in MA. I found this somewhere: Experts estimate that 87,000 people per year in Massachusetts are infected with the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease.

 

[MissySki]

Well. That mosquito bite near my clavicle turned out to not be a mosquito bite. It got redder and more itchy over three days then developed a radiating disk of red around it. Then a ring beyond that. DOH! Lyme got me.

I never saw a tick, and I would not have missed it had it attached. It must have bitten, then immediately fallen off, leaving its bacteria behind. Three weeks of Doxycycline has now started. My fever went up to 101.8 before it broke the other night just after starting the Doxy, and with that I developed a sore neck. I've had those two symptoms before when I had Lyme.

No more fever since it broke, and no more sore neck. The visible bite with its ring is still there but fading slowly.

I have no idea where I picked up the tick, nor when. I check for them continuously every day.

I live in Lyme central here in MA. I found this somewhere: Experts estimate that 87,000 people per year in Massachusetts are infected with the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease.

Oh no, sorry to hear this! Darn ticks are so sneaky! I remember the one time I found one attached to me.. I never felt anything, until trying to remove it. It was stuck into my upper leg, and I only noticed it because I went to the bathroom and was looking down while sitting. I was so dumbfounded as to how that could be, and then started screaming bloody murder for assistance in getting it off of me lol. I was lucky that time that nothing came of it and I never developed a ring or any type of symptoms. I got it from gardening at a previous place I used to love. At my current property we do have it sprayed for mosquitos and treated for ticks as well in the summer. I hate to use chemicals, but I also really like not having to worry (as much) about this stuff when enjoying our outside space..

 

[Jenny]

Ugh, glad you caught it early. too bad other diseases and things can't take a break until we get Covid under control. This much hypervigilance can't be good for us.

 

[VickiK]

Good luck, hope you're done with this bout of Lyme now, @liquidfeet .

 

[newboots]

They are so tiny! Especially this time of year. I never saw the tick that made me sick. It's maddening. I hope for a fast recovery for you!

This much hypervigilance can't be good for us.

Right? I hate being unable to run out the door barefoot to grab some herbs from the garden, or sit on the ground. I won't do either any more.