5/24/2012 12:23:54 AM

5/24/2012 12:28:08 AM

its about that time of year

5/24/2012 12:29:08 AM

Ticks can ruin careers and cost billions of dollars

Quote :

"JPMorgan exec's Lyme infection spotlights need for quick treatment"

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11811061-jpmorgan-execs-lyme-infection-spotlights-need-for-quick-treatment?lite

5/24/2012 12:29:56 AM

I was on an arch dig many years ago and this one guy got bit and got rocky moutain spotted fever

the bite looked nasty within a day

5/24/2012 12:31:18 AM

Someone I know suggested using the red Budweiser can tabs as tick removers. The crown cutout allows you to get right up under their head. Then you can just pop them off.

5/24/2012 12:35:42 AM

quality first post

5/24/2012 12:36:25 AM

I'd rather get rocky mountain spotted fever than have to drink Budweiser

5/24/2012 2:45:17 AM

you say that now...

5/24/2012 2:46:15 AM

WTF, AndyMac?

Budweiser is delicious...tastes just like bread!

5/24/2012 3:01:05 AM

only PBR for that guy!



and I've already pulled 2 attached and probably 8-10 walkers off me. a lot more babies this year than I've ever seen before too- I'm talking chigger small

5/24/2012 6:09:14 AM

Quote :

"I'd rather get rocky mountain spotted fever than have to drink Budweiser"

concur



I've pulled 7 off of me so far.

[Edited on May 24, 2012 at 7:57 AM. Reason : .]

5/24/2012 7:56:53 AM

had a dog tick in my hair last night

fucker was dug in

5/24/2012 8:08:13 AM

I had one latched onto my hate handle a few weeks ago. I got scurred for a bit because the bite looked nasty (never seen that reaction on my body before). There was a small welt and it was black/blue/red. Then it went away after a week.

5/24/2012 9:15:04 AM

I got one one latched on right beside my ear a few weeks ago. within 4 or 5 days, the lymph node on the back of my neck under my ear had swollen and was rock-hard, and my cheek had started swelling. I went to the doctor and they gave me an antibiotic. the sweeling went down, but the bite is still there two weeks after i finished my antibiotic.

5/24/2012 9:22:27 AM

btw, when in doubt, you're supposed to take antibiotics. supposedly there isn't a test for lyme disease, and the only way they know you have it is when they see antibodies show up in your blood trying to fight it. and by that time, it's often too late to "cure" it.

which is weird, because as a kid, ticks were a regular thing, we were pulling them off all the time.

[Edited on May 24, 2012 at 9:24 AM. Reason : ]

5/24/2012 9:23:51 AM

I am more of a fan of freakazoid

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

5/24/2012 9:24:39 AM

ive got a bite that is still ugly a week and a half later

5/24/2012 10:13:34 AM

they're gonna be terrible this year after that very mild winter we had

5/24/2012 10:36:43 AM

probably the only thing on this world im scared of.

i have a pretty good method of pulling them off by fitting thumb/pointer/middle finger around their head in a tiny triangle.

pull slowly and their head sort of pulls your skin up like a little volcano.

stop at that point and let their head slide out.

dont pull until they pop out, if you leave their head in their youre 100% going to go to the doctor or get sick.

dont squeeze the little fuckers either, they will barf in you and make you sick.







does anyone else have grandparents that think ticks are immortal? mine are convinced you can only kill them by burning them. they dont think squishing of flushing them will kill them. wtf?

5/24/2012 10:46:39 AM

haha, my mom was like that. she was convinced that if you flushed them, they would rise again out of the toilet and crawl up your ass.

5/24/2012 10:55:31 AM

Quote :

"supposedly there isn't a test for lyme disease, and the only way they know you have it is when they see antibodies show up in your blood trying to fight it. and by that time, it's often too late to "cure" it."

this is how they test for a shit ton of diseases. and yes that is a test.

5/24/2012 10:58:32 AM

Quote :

"btw, when in doubt, you're supposed to take antibiotics."

Pretty sure that's not how to go about it.

And I don't know how many times yall have been bitten before, but I've never had to use a tool other than my fingertips to pull a tick off. Never once had a head stay behind, either.

5/24/2012 11:02:32 AM

^lol yeah. that's why we have things like MRSA.

5/24/2012 11:04:20 AM

Quote :

"this is how they test for a shit ton of diseases. and yes that is a test."

my point was, you can't go to the doctor and say "i got this nasty tick bite, can you test me for lyme disease?" Once they see the antibodies in your blood, often it's too late, and you've got lymne disease for life. My friend's mom got lyme disease, and it devestated her life for a while. She was actually in the hospital for over 2 months.

Quote :

"Pretty sure that's not how to go about it."

then how do you go about it? doctor told me that once they see it the antibodies in your blood, it's too late. so how do you think you should go about it? i know it's weird, because as a kid, i played in the woods daily, and pulling ticks off was a nightly ritual. but after seeeing my friend's mom look like she was dying from cancer, it scared me.

[Edited on May 24, 2012 at 11:08 AM. Reason : ]

5/24/2012 11:06:53 AM

^yea, when in doubt go to the doctor. NC does not have a high incidence of Lyme disease, which has many cures as long as it is found in the first few months... after that there are treatments. If it wasn't caught for years, then you would be screwed.


NC has the highest incidence rate of Rocky Mounted Spotted fever in the whole country, so if anything that is what you should be worried about.

Also like said above you should really remove the tick with tweezers and pull from their head for reasons that y0willy0 listed. While most of the time this will not be an issue, if you have a tick carrying the rickettsia pathogen then you are increasing your chances of infection 10 fold, and yes... most likely you can get away with pulling it off with your finger.

5/24/2012 11:09:45 AM

Quote :

"^yea, when in doubt go to the doctor. NC does not have a high incidence of Lyme disease, which has many cures as long as it is found in the first few months... after that there are treatments. If it wasn't caught for years, then you would be screwed"

like i said, friend's mom was bitten by a tick and pretty much forgot about it. a couple months later, she started feeling real bad, like a terrible case of the flu. she was hospitalized. they ran all kinds of tests and couldn't figure out what the problem was. they finally figured out it was lyme disease, but said it was too late to cure it. and it wasn't years, it was months. she's able to function now, but still feels awful sometimes, and is constantly tired and sore.

so all i know is what she's told me, and what the doctor told me that i went to a few weeks ago, but i came to the conclusion that it only takes a couple months of not treating it for it to get you, and then it's a life sentence. and by the time they see it, it's too late. i realize my conclusion may not be completely correct, but these two incidents and talking with a "victim" and a doctor led me to that conlusion.

5/24/2012 11:14:53 AM

no, I imagine it you are right, and at the very least it varies and it is a real danger.... you are supposed to make a note of whenever a tick has latched onto you.... and if you can ID it bc only certain species carry certain pathogens, or take a picture or something if you are concerned I guess. That way if you do fall ill the first thing you should tell the doc is about any tick bites youve had that season so they can quickly treat it if you do have any tick vectored disease.


My friend has lyme, he got it when he was 10 and could not be diagnosed for 8 years. Since it happened during an important growth period in his life it had major stunting effects on his body and he is in a lot of pain some days.


Anyway, Lyme disease is a big deal, but you have a much higher chance of getting RMSF



[Edited on May 24, 2012 at 11:23 AM. Reason : .]

5/24/2012 11:19:30 AM

thanks for the info. i imagine i'll be getting more this summer. i've had one field visit this year, and they were crawling all over us, dozens of babies the size of gnats.

5/24/2012 11:22:07 AM

i dont recommend using tweezers to pull out ticks.

my method i described above is safest i believe because its too easy to squeeze the tick itself with tweezers and make it cough up shit inside you.

put your thumb, pointer, and middle fingers together in a triangle in front of you and note the tiny hole they make in the center.

the pads of these three fingers need to barely touch/cushion the ticks body.

head goes in the center and pull up gently until it frees itself from the skin. im very paranoid about such things and i seriously doubt you will need antibiotics if you use this method.

ive never had a rash or swollen nodes after pulling off a tick. just a little red dot that goes away in a couple days. not like a nasty spider bite at all...

5/24/2012 11:22:38 AM

great. now I'm scurred that I may have lyme disease and have it pop up in a few months.

my dog has lyme, but is just a carrier.

lyme or lymes? teh internet tells me lyme.

[Edited on May 24, 2012 at 11:26 AM. Reason : .]

5/24/2012 11:25:08 AM

^if you grab the head and NOT the thorax, then there would be no problem, and don't squeeze too hard- just enough to slowly pull it out. Most people cannot correctly pull out a tick by hand and if you pull the body out without then you have another issue.

5/24/2012 11:26:57 AM

i'm in the woods a lot and i never get ticks. haven't had one in years actually

guess i don't taste good

[Edited on May 24, 2012 at 11:29 AM. Reason : .]

5/24/2012 11:27:49 AM

^^lets frolick in a field and pick ticks off each other sometime

[Edited on May 24, 2012 at 11:28 AM. Reason : -]

5/24/2012 11:28:15 AM

if anyone is curious, mint is a very strong tick repellent. You can mash up leaves and rub them on skin, and put some in a few different pockets to ward them off.

Also if you have ticks in your backyard you can design you garden/backyard to incorporate a border of mint to keep them back in the woods and not in your yard.

5/24/2012 11:30:49 AM

interesting...

5/24/2012 11:34:16 AM

get some guinea hens and let them wander your yard. they love eating the little fuckers.

5/24/2012 11:35:12 AM

so get some minty fresh breath and form an army of guinea hens and you are set for the woods



[Edited on May 24, 2012 at 11:38 AM. Reason : .]

5/24/2012 11:36:58 AM

the parody for this thread will bring teh gay

5/24/2012 11:38:36 AM

Quote :

"so all i know is what she's told me, and what the doctor told me that i went to a few weeks ago, but i came to the conclusion that it only takes a couple months of not treating it for it to get you, and then it's a life sentence. and by the time they see it, it's too late. i realize my conclusion may not be completely correct, but these two incidents and talking with a "victim" and a doctor led me to that conlusion."

i've posted this in other tick threads before, but i have had lyme & RMSF. i had the characteristic bull's eye rash with lyme & went to the doctor a couple of days after being bit. when they tested me for lyme, they also found i had had RMSF at one point. i don't consider myself to be a victim sentenced to a life time of anything, at least not yet. i wasn't hospitalized for lyme, and definitely not the RMSF since i never knew i had it anyway. sure, there are lots of bad cases but not all of them end up that way.

5/24/2012 11:42:19 AM

about to treat the lawn for the second time this year

thoroughly convinced that it does nothing, but it's worth a shot for just a slice of peace of mind

(our house is located in the middle of tick city)

5/24/2012 1:12:24 PM

Lyme should not be messed around with. I had it for 3 years undiagnosed and still have problems from it. Brother got on antibiotics ASAP after he got bit after my experience and hasn't had any lasting effects. Doctor didn't want to give him a long enough course of doxycycline, but he fought for it.

We both got it from ticks in Chapel Hill, so it is in this area.

5/24/2012 1:24:26 PM

^Chapel Hill

5/24/2012 1:29:04 PM

^ That was my first mistake. The med school and student health there were beyond useless in figuring it out too.

5/24/2012 1:33:23 PM

Gotta get the catch phrase in too:

5/24/2012 1:34:51 PM

^^sorry we didn't pave over all our beautiful trees with bricks.

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

5/24/2012 1:35:09 PM

my boyfriend had a tick latch on to his leg. Now he has a tick head in his leg.

5/28/2012 12:14:32 AM

Can't get the stupid head out, guess I'll slather on antibiotics and let my body push it out.

5/28/2012 12:20:50 AM

"I am the man of lemanche. My dream is impossible"

5/28/2012 12:38:01 AM

landlord's son got one on his nutsack after camping...took a lighter to it so to make sure they got the head and all....they had to hold him down....

5/28/2012 1:54:36 AM