# 1st tick of the season



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I took the dogs out for a 3 hour hike today and while I was checking on of the dogs for ticks I felt a tickle on the back of my neck.

Here's what I found. The dogs have been treated with tick repellent but I'll redo it tomorrow. And I'll pick up some clothing treatment for my pants.


----------



## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Be careful I had one put me in the Hospital last Spring. I had to be operated on and still have problems.

big rockpile


----------



## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

My parents always had us eat fruit that had sulfur in it. We also put out a salt block that had some sulfur.

Didn't get any ticks


----------



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

This area has the most ticks in the entire state and the majority are carrying at least one disease. I know 2 people that have been put in the hospital with erhlichiosis and they said it was the sickest they have ever been.

My border collie Buck was killed by anaplasmosis.


----------



## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

I got my first of the year yesterday. Think of the worst place a man would want to find a tick buried into him. Hope I got the whole thing out. It gives me shivers.


----------



## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

found my first Saturday evening crawling up my arm I had been out all day at the range the range always has ticks for some reason 

then i had to go get my wife to give me a full tick check, all the places I couldn't see


----------



## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

You lucky devil.


----------



## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

You folks need to look into using permethrin to treat your clothes. I'm going to be traveling into a high malaria and yellow fever infested area in six weeks and the nurse at the travel clinic suggested that I obtain permethrin to treat my clothing. My reasearch shows I'd be a fool not to. Best yet, I bought it in concentrate form at the farm supply store for about $20.


----------



## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

I keep it and some High percentage Deet in the truck at all times. Its been really cold up here and to be honest I forgot. Don't ever get permethin on your skin. Accidently made that mistake once and got sicker then a dog.


----------



## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

diamondtim said:


> You folks need to look into using permethrin to treat your clothes. I'm going to be traveling into a high malaria and yellow fever infested area in six weeks and the nurse at the travel clinic suggested that I obtain permethrin to treat my clothing. My reasearch shows I'd be a fool not to. Best yet, I bought it in concentrate form at the farm supply store for about $20.



thank you very much for the suggestion , I looked it up I see that all new british and US uniforms are being protected with it 

so i have some application questions for you , how do you apply it , how long does it last , dose it last through washing?

I found it is the active ingredient in NIX the stuff they treat head lice with , it is a neuro toxin but absorbs very poorly in humans


----------



## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

GREENCOUNTYPETE said:


> thank you very much for the suggestion , I looked it up I see that all new british and US uniforms are being protected with it
> 
> so i have some application questions for you , how do you apply it , how long does it last , dose it last through washing?
> 
> I found it is the active ingredient in NIX the stuff they treat head lice with , it is a neuro toxin but absorbs very poorly in humans


Pete,

It is applied in liquid form on your clothing or gear (0.5% solution) and allowed to air dry, either with a spray bottle, aerosol or soaking and wring it out. Wear gloves and don't breath it in. Once it dries, it has no smell and is not absorbed into your skin. An application lasts for 6 weeks/6 washings (maybe longer). 

Sawyer sells a pre-mixed solution, but Farm and Fleet sells a concentrate by Country Vet that you can dilute down as needed.

I hope that helps.

p.s. This stuff is toxic to cats and fish. Don't dump the excess down the drain, save the solution for future use.


----------



## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

and no problem with nylon or synthetic cloth?

I am wondering if we should treat the screens on the tent with it 

we had 3 scouts get lymes at summer camp last year 2 kids and an adult


----------



## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

GREENCOUNTYPETE said:


> and no problem with nylon or synthetic cloth?
> 
> I am wondering if we should treat the screens on the tent with it
> 
> we had 3 scouts get lymes at summer camp last year 2 kids and an adult


Pete,

The military has been using it for 30 years. Lots of synthetics in use there. Farmers spray barns and fields to knock down ticks and skeeters. Maybe where the tents are to be placed?


----------



## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

thanks , I will be getting some to spray our gear and maybe the range , I will have a bunch of kids at the range the next several weeks and they seem to like the covered firing line area or i presume they do that is where we spend most of our time and it seems nearly every other time i go to the range in the spring or summer i find a tick there or on me so far i have found them all before they bite , but i have had to pull some out of my sons scalp 2 years ago since he keeps his hair summer length 1/4 inch and they are not a problem

also i need to get a tick twister , it is like a little plastic nail puller tick size that you hook the tick by the head like a nail and work it out of your skin it is supposed to avoid squeezing them and pushing their saliva into your blood as much as possible


----------



## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

Pete,

Best of luck to you and the kids!


----------



## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I picked some of the 13.3% country vet concentrate , it looks like this will make a lot the concentration for dogs 1 cup of concentrate makes something like 16 gallons 

going to mix some up we have a camp out this weekend and I would like to get the tents treated

I saw colman has a ready to apply spray 6.99 for a can to treat a few garments or gear


----------



## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

We live in tick heaven here. Already we have been picking them off for several weeks. I already had Lyme 6 years ago. (deer ticks carry lyme, not the common dog tick in the Wi.) We use deet on us, spot on for the dogs and thats all we can basically do. Nightly tick checks are routine for all of us here. 
Luckily spring is the worse. Come the heat of summer and the ticks seem to disappear. The the blood sucking horse flys come out and the black flys..and mosquitoes!!! In the river bottoms mosquitoes are something you just have to live with and prepare to buy deet by the cases! LOL


----------



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Supposedly dog ticks have been shown to be capable of transmitting Lyme in MN.


----------



## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

fishhead said:


> Supposedly dog ticks have been shown to be capable of transmitting Lyme in MN.


I hope that doesnt happen here. There are so many that its impossible not to get some every season sucking on you. So farm area of Wi has Lyme only in our deer ticks which are a lower population. Having Lyme once was enough for me. If it moves to the dog ticks the chances of Lyme will probably sky rocket. 
Hope for the best I guess.


----------



## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I understand they had a human vaccine for lymes like the dog vaccine , but it was discontinued as kind of a it needed more double blind tests to really be sure and since only a relatively small portion of the population would get any use from it they didn't think it was worth the additional costs of further studies


----------



## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

I guess the problem with the vaccine is that it not 100% effective and those who receive it will always test positive for the antibodies making an actual case difficult to diagnose.


----------



## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

GREENCOUNTYPETE said:


> I picked some of the 13.3% country vet concentrate , it looks like this will make a lot the concentration for dogs 1 cup of concentrate makes something like 16 gallons
> 
> going to mix some up we have a camp out this weekend and I would like to get the tents treated
> 
> I saw colman has a ready to apply spray 6.99 for a can to treat a few garments or gear


Pete,

I'm anxious to hear how it works for you.:happy:


----------



## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

No matter what you do, it is a good idea to check yourself carefully, every day. It only takes ONE. Repellents help, but for heavy tick areas, they will still get on you. Last summer I was doing work in an area with a lot of ticks and even with a lot of high strength DEET sprayed on me, I still got a dozen ticks. 

Also, if you get a lot of them on you, change clothes, check yourself, and also carefully check your clothes you had on - you might have 10 or more ticks on the inside of pant legs, shirts, socks, or shoes. 

Hoping we don't have as many as last year!


----------



## badlander (Jun 7, 2009)

I was hoping that the hard winter that we had here in MO that the cold would have killed off the ticks.
Nope.
We have been picking them off for a month now. Can't go into the woods or out in the pastures without finding at least two or three on us. We even find them on our sofa. The dogs are all treated and we think they are deserting the canines in search of untreated hosts...namely us.

I've had Lyme and still fight the neurological aftermath of it and even DH had a suspicious bullseye around one bite that put him on Antibiotics this year so I live in fear of the blasted things and hate them with a screaming purple passion.

We usually treat our clothing with a product called Buggspray which contains permethrin and it seems to work very well. I've tested it with live ticks, putting a few drops in a bottle cap and dumping the tick in. They curl up their nasty little feet and die within seconds.

I get pretty creative inventing ways to knock them off. My favorite is holding them with a forceps and hitting them with a propane torch. Yeah, pretty ghoulish but hey, they made me sicker than a dog for three years so all is fair.

I've been told by folks who have flocks that they never see a tick in their yards and guinea hens in particular are sheer death to ticks.

On a side note, if you do get bit, watch for a bullseye rash around the bite point or elsewhere on your body. I had two bullseye rashes show up where I wasn't bit on my stomach. Also watch for flu symptoms, fever, joint pain or nerve pain along with extreme fatigue.

My best advice is that if you find a badly embedded tick on you, get on a preventative course of Doxycycline or Tetracycline. Don't use tetracycline on kids. It can damage their teeth.

Have I mentioned that I really, really HATE TICKS!


----------



## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

If our winter didn't kill them nothing will frost was down 6-7 feet 
I didn't get to spraying or treating gear this weekend spent the hole day cutting and hauling wood didn't finish till after dark 

I didn't find any ticks either so the change in location helped , from where I was the 2 weeks prior 

be warned the rash does not have to follow the bulls eye pattern a friend was bit at the waist line and the rash spread laterally along the lines of his belt , he was miss diagnosed when he went in for it , then properly diagnosed after nearly a month of misery


----------



## badlander (Jun 7, 2009)

GREENCOUNTYPETE said:


> be warned the rash does not have to follow the bulls eye pattern a friend was bit at the waist line and the rash spread laterally along the lines of his belt , he was miss diagnosed when he went in for it , then properly diagnosed after nearly a month of misery


Agreed. I had two different types of rashes at the same time. I had the bullseye rash along with a solid rash that was about the size of a baseball. Both on my stomach. The rash doesn't itch either. More of a tingling sensation.

You can also have Lyme without ever having the bullseye rash. We have gotten into the habit of documenting all tick bites and rashes with our cell phone so we can show them to our doctor. 

I've heard him say, 'Yes, that is a bullseye rash' way too many times for my liking.

Have I mentioned that I really really really hate ticks?


----------



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I know people who got Lyme and never had a bulls eye rash.

Our snow protected the ticks from our many -25 F nights last winter.


----------

