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I've never heard of such a thing! Yikes!
Ticks!
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sumi
Rest in Peace 1980-2020
Ticks are one of the VERY few creatures that completely freak me out. When I was very young, about 4yo, we went on vacation and my mom got bit by a tick. She got very sick from that bite. Tick bite fever I think they said it was. I remember being so worried she was going to die. That must've stuck with me, because to this day, I cannot handle them, just seeing them creeps me out. I can't even get myself to take them off animals, I have to ask someone else to do it.
frustratedearthmother
Sustainability Master
@baymule That's hilarious! 
lcertuche
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Yes tick fever is quite dangerous. My little sister got Rocky Mountain Tick fever when she was a toddler and I remember my parents bribing her to take her medicine.
Bay I have had seed ticks and I have picked seed ticks off my kids. It's really easy to pick them off when first on though. The problem is you don't get one but hundreds so act quick. I don't think I would have had the nerve to run naked though!
Bay I have had seed ticks and I have picked seed ticks off my kids. It's really easy to pick them off when first on though. The problem is you don't get one but hundreds so act quick. I don't think I would have had the nerve to run naked though!
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I have this cedar spray stuff that is supposed to work as a non-chemical bug spray. I'll see how it works.
Farmfresh
City Biddy
Time once again for my Tick Safety and Awareness Rant.
I for one DO think a lot about those stupid ticks. Ever since hubby spent almost two months so ill that he almost died from a tick born disease I have really realized just HOW dangerous those ticks can be.
The tick born illness that My hubby had was not Rocky Mountain or Lyme disease that you hear so much about either. His disease had about 25 letters in it and was in Latin. It was very devastating. He picked up a few seed ticks when we went on a hike. We cleaned them off of him and even got all the little bits too. Then we promptly forgot about it until he got sick.
Here is what happened to us:
It started like the bad flu then he passed out in the bathroom in the middle of the night wedged behind the bathroom door! It took 6'2" Geek AND me to get him out of the bathroom and into the car to go to the emergency room that night. (Thank God Geek was still living at home back then!)
They tested hubby for a heart attack then admitted him to the hospital. He was hooked to fluids and they took so many blood samples to test it was crazy. Before this incident he had always been terrified of hospitals and especially getting blood pulled, but he just laid there limp while TWO nurses pulled out blood at the same time... one from each arm! Scared me to death. It took almost a week of testing to narrow down WHAT he had. Then they could start treating him. At one point his white blood count was so low (down to less than 1/4 of normal) that they sent him to a leukemia specialist for treatment! Even after he was on the mend he was so weak for another two months that he got winded walking across the room.
Who knew that a hike to see the buffalo and elk in our native wild animal exhibit in a local park where he picked up a few ticks, could be so dangerous? At least if you are bitten by a snake you are aware that you NEED medical attention and fast. Those ticks take a week to poison you.
Last - but MOST IMPORTANT.
The lesson that we learned from this ordeal was to ... ALWAYS save your ticks. Gently remove them to get them out whole as soon as possible, then label and freeze them. Even after the doctors realized that we were battling a tick borne illness it still took precious days of him getting worse and worse before the doctors could narrow it down. There are literally hundreds of tick borne diseases! The doctors said that IF we had saved the tick then they could have cultured it, determined what disease it was carrying and gotten treatment for my hubby in hours instead of taking nearly a week. Every day of that time we waited his white count was dropping. If he had not been in perfect health and young when he contracted our tick disease... he might not still be here.
SAVE those TICKS.
I for one DO think a lot about those stupid ticks. Ever since hubby spent almost two months so ill that he almost died from a tick born disease I have really realized just HOW dangerous those ticks can be.
The tick born illness that My hubby had was not Rocky Mountain or Lyme disease that you hear so much about either. His disease had about 25 letters in it and was in Latin. It was very devastating. He picked up a few seed ticks when we went on a hike. We cleaned them off of him and even got all the little bits too. Then we promptly forgot about it until he got sick.
Here is what happened to us:
It started like the bad flu then he passed out in the bathroom in the middle of the night wedged behind the bathroom door! It took 6'2" Geek AND me to get him out of the bathroom and into the car to go to the emergency room that night. (Thank God Geek was still living at home back then!)
They tested hubby for a heart attack then admitted him to the hospital. He was hooked to fluids and they took so many blood samples to test it was crazy. Before this incident he had always been terrified of hospitals and especially getting blood pulled, but he just laid there limp while TWO nurses pulled out blood at the same time... one from each arm! Scared me to death. It took almost a week of testing to narrow down WHAT he had. Then they could start treating him. At one point his white blood count was so low (down to less than 1/4 of normal) that they sent him to a leukemia specialist for treatment! Even after he was on the mend he was so weak for another two months that he got winded walking across the room.
Who knew that a hike to see the buffalo and elk in our native wild animal exhibit in a local park where he picked up a few ticks, could be so dangerous? At least if you are bitten by a snake you are aware that you NEED medical attention and fast. Those ticks take a week to poison you.
Last - but MOST IMPORTANT.
The lesson that we learned from this ordeal was to ... ALWAYS save your ticks. Gently remove them to get them out whole as soon as possible, then label and freeze them. Even after the doctors realized that we were battling a tick borne illness it still took precious days of him getting worse and worse before the doctors could narrow it down. There are literally hundreds of tick borne diseases! The doctors said that IF we had saved the tick then they could have cultured it, determined what disease it was carrying and gotten treatment for my hubby in hours instead of taking nearly a week. Every day of that time we waited his white count was dropping. If he had not been in perfect health and young when he contracted our tick disease... he might not still be here.
SAVE those TICKS.
frustratedearthmother
Sustainability Master
That is awesome information...thanks for sharing it. Really glad your DH got through that!
tortoise
Wild Hare
Re: tick control. Mice are the reservoir animal for tick diseases. Control the mice and you have an advantage on local tick population reduction. DH did tick research when he was in school and the researcher he worked for is still continuing with a very cool new project which lures mice to run through devices which apply insecticide to the mice. The mice are still in the food chain, but the ticks don't get a free ride on mice. I am very interested if this makes a difference.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
My sister and I had a mild Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever when we were younger. We had both had just plain ol' wood ticks in our hair....hers was big on blood by the time we found it as she had very thick hair.
Our hands and feet had all these tiny blisters that peeled off later...just seemed to peel and peel and peel on those things, so there were multiple layers of these blisters. It was weird but that was the worst symptom we got.
One of my cats hunts down in a particular field full of broom sedge and comes back with a load of tiny black ticks, I presume deer ticks. I'm trying different things right now to help him avoid this but may have to finally get that horrible stuff you put on their backs, which also doesn't seem to work.
Our hands and feet had all these tiny blisters that peeled off later...just seemed to peel and peel and peel on those things, so there were multiple layers of these blisters. It was weird but that was the worst symptom we got.
One of my cats hunts down in a particular field full of broom sedge and comes back with a load of tiny black ticks, I presume deer ticks. I'm trying different things right now to help him avoid this but may have to finally get that horrible stuff you put on their backs, which also doesn't seem to work.
sumi
Rest in Peace 1980-2020
@Farmfresh that is good info, thanks for sharing! I'm glad your husband is o.k. That must've been a heck of a scary time for you all 
