Trying to get a relative perspective about my TICK issues

[applestar]

I found a tick on me yesterday, and another one this morning (so that was two from yesterday). I average one tick per most gardening day -- so far I find them before they dig in (knock on wood) on my skin, scalp, or clothing.

I have fairly sensitive skin (can't wear wool -- not even lambs wool... or synthetic fibers) and that might be helping to feel/sense them on my skin and scalp. And one doesn't seem like much to hear other folks with REAL tick problems describe the numbers they have to deal with.....

Do you have ticks in your garden? Do you see them outside or on you?

- Not at all (I would freak out)
- Yes (How bad?)
-- less than 1 per day or every other day on average
-- 1 to 3 per day
-- 4 to 8 per day or every other day on average
-- 9 to over a dozen per day or every other day on average

If you do have ticks, what are your basic preventive and routine for avoiding getting bitten?
What do you do if you find a tick had burrowed in your skin?
How do you treat it if you do get a tick bite?

[rainbowgardener]

Jamie has had ticks on her (also fortunately not dug in) I guess four times this season. Not always clear where they came from since we walk the dogs in various parks every day . At least once it seemed like it was probably from our yard. I spend a lot more time in the garden and have had none .

[Lindsaylew82]

I have this completely irrational fear of ticks...

I found one on Big Kid last year, fully attached. I don't know where is came from. Likely from new mulch we got from the landfill. We don't really see them, but we don't really go into or around our front yard trees and bushes. I've never seen one in or around my garden, and I hope that never changes.

Having said that, I'm not sure that I would treat chemically. In fact, I'm sure I wouldn't, unless I were finding them on a daily basis, and then I think I would try to attract their controls, and manage the environments they like. I need to research that, maybe we are already attracting the controls!

[Lindsaylew82]

We turned the tick in clockwise circles with an alcohol soaked q-tip until it released. Then I stuck it in a ziplock bag and kept it until I knew Big Kid wasn't showing any signs of illness.

Psychosomatic itching commenced!

[applestar]

Ha! So I voted wrong and forgot to checkmark YES as well as the number

Yeah, I'll post what I do about the ticks a little later on. I'm glad that one bite didn't turn out badly. We probably collectively only average only one or two fully entrenched ticks per person per season.

You shouldn't put anything on the tick, BTW (it can cause them to regurgitate) -- I bought a couple of micro-precision tip tweezers -- firmly grasp the HEAD (you have to slit or pick open the skin if necessary like you are trying to get at a splinter), then pull out with a slow steady pull. I have been thinking of buying a little tool -- I think it's called "tick key" -- if we were having more dug in ticks to deal with.

[rainbowgardener]

Re: "I wouldn't treat chemically " See my post in the recent "triazicide" thread here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=69237&p=391899&hilit=triazicide#p391899 . In the long run it is counter-productive , kills off not only honey bees, but the beneficial predator insects that help control the pests . Then the most resistant individuals survive to build resistant populations .

[Allyn]

I couldn't respond to the poll; no answer was appropriate. The answer is "No" but I wouldn't freak out. I haven't seen a single tick (knock on wood) since we've had chickens that free-range the yard.

[Lindsaylew82]

Re: "I wouldn't treat chemically " See my post in the recent "triazicide" thread. In the long run it is counter-productive , kills off not only honey bees, but the beneficial predator insects that help control the pests . Then the most resistant individuals survive to build resistant populations .

Read it yesterday. Loved it.

[khoomeizhi]

this is the poster ordinarily known as !potatoes!, using this login until we figure out what's wrong that won't let some of us log in (see bugs thread in hoo-ha).

we have an absurd number of ticks this year. i see them outside, i see them on me, if i walk too far to one edge of the path, the leg in the tall grass will have 3-7 ticks crawling up. i've probably killed more than a hundred in the past few weeks. probably well more.

the routine is to check legs and most exposed areas whenever i walk anywhere, and then again (more full-body) as well as possible when i come back to the house. ive only found one attached, and that one not too well. no treatment for bites, but i keep an eye on them the first few days.

after getting over the initial 'holy %^$ they're everywhere' moments, it's not been a big deal. even my wife, who was initially saying that we need to mow everything, is kind of blase' about it. haven't seen any deer ticks, and i've been looking. just the big wood/dog ticks.

they move slowly. just be alert. having animals outside would make it much more of a hassle, but we're not there yet.

[Peter1142]

What kind of ticks are we talking about? Deer ticks? Dog ticks?

AFAIK ticks do not like the hot sun and it sounds like maybe you should clean up the mulch etc that they thrive in.

Lyme disease is nasty and endemic here and if there were frequent deer tick bites in my garden, I would freak out and something would need to be done about it.

[khoomeizhi]

honestly, we've had not much besides hot sun, and i frequently see them hanging out on the tips of tall grass leaves right in the blazing midday sun.

[webmaster]

We have to pull ticks off our dog after walks. But this year I haven't seen any yet. But we've been walking him mostly on the dirt road instead of letting him run wild through the underbrush on a lakeside trail nearby.

[applestar]

So, since I posted on Jul 3, I haven't seen any ticks until one on me today -- it was in my hair and fell onto my forearm.

The other day, I had our two indoor kitties on supervised outing in the Spiral Garden•Sunflowerhouse area enclosure for a couple of hours, during which they poked around everywhere including the perimeter shrubbery. One of them picked up one tick which I combed out during the mandatory flea•tick combing before letting them back inside. It had not dug in yet.

...I'm thinking maybe the spring outbreak of overwintered and newly hatched ticks are gone -- maybe swept up by the moles, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, and birds. Maybe some of the birds are eating them or feeding them to their babies, and other tick predators in the Garden Patrol are on the job as well. So unless there's a second wave, this is about normal and I don't need to be worried.

[webmaster]

Something's been eating the ticks. I've let the dog run loose on the trail during the weekday and he still hasn't come back with ticks. The robins were out in full force. The mole was heavily active in the spring but has since moved on.

[imafan26]

I don't have a dog and when I did he got heartguard plus. We don't have a lot of stray dogs around here and cats generally get fleas but not many ticks, they are not a problem. I also put frontline on the dog once a month to control fleas because he was outside in the yard during the day and we did take him to the dog park and on walks. He also got a bath every two weeks. At night he slept in his crate in the house. The cats are indoors. I only have to treat them with advantage when they get fleas which only happens in summer or when strays are around. I haven't had to treat them for years.

Except for the occasional cat, and the mice in the yard, we don't have many other animals near the yard that may be carrying ticks. We don't have deer here and I have no mongoose. I do have a lot of wild birds including the cattle egret and the geckos which would probably consider ticks a tasty snack.

[ButterflyLady29]

We've found a total of 3 this year. I don't freak out over them although my grown son does. So there was no appropriate answer for me either.

[applestar]

Heh. I think this is why I generally don't do polls. Sorry about the lack of appropriate response selection. IF I ever do one again, expect to see a long list of all possible responses.

[pinksand]

Coming from someone who has contracted Lyme both this June and the last... I do freak out when I find deer ticks! I'm pretty much doomed considering my hobbies are gardening and mountain biking in the woods with my dog. I shower as soon as possible when I get home and do a tick check, but I think they likely hide in my dogs long curly hair and crawl onto me in the night. The second time they couldn't test since I may forever test positive at this point but the reaction was identical so my doctor felt it was important to go ahead and treat for Lyme. I consider myself lucky that it's been caught early both times. The first time it looked like a bulls eye for maybe a day and not really as pronounced as you see in photos online and then it blistered and became a welt. Several people told me it was poison ivy and I've never had a reaction before so I believed them and let it grow for a week before finally seeing one of those "drop in" doctors. She gave me an antibiotic and when I asked what she thought it was she said she had no way of knowing but maybe a spider bite. The spot faded but after finishing the antibiotic it flared back up. I finally saw my doctor and he had me tested for Lyme and treated when it came back positive. I'm so thankful that my skin was responsive so that it didn't go untreated after the first misdiagnosis!

I've never seen a tick in my garden, but we definitely have found them on us while biking.

[imafan26]

There have been some Hawaii residents who contracted Lyme disease while on vacation in the mainland. In fact, the one I know was a hiker. Thankfully though, the type of tick that carries Lyme disease is not present here. Bigger problems here are Leptospirosis because people have built homes right up to the streams and waterways which are now polluted by rats and animals peeing in the water and you can get sick just swimming or wading in the water especially if you have a cut.

[ButterflyLady29]

It was a good poll though. And a good topic.
I've never paid much attention to ticks. I've been fortunate enough to never have one attach to me. And I've spent a lot of time in the woods.

Chiggers otoh are another story completely. They've been eating me alive this year. I've been spraying OFF on myself every day, sometimes 2x a day. I'll probably end up dying from an OFF overdose just trying to keep from scratching in embarrassing locations.