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Working in the forest - lyme disease

W

wdmn

Joined
Nov 29, 2013
Messages
167
Hi all,

Lyme disease has been making inroads in my neck o' the woods and I've recently had my first encounter with a deer tick (I'm currently on antibiotics after developing erythema migrans).

Thought I'd ask all of you woodsmen out there how you deal with working in tick territory; measures you take, habits of precaution, warnings, etc... I know there's not much you can do, but heck might as well ask right?

Thanks,

wdmn
 
wdmn,
I will offer a suggestion that a survey crew once gave me- get a couple of the medicated ear tags for cattle and lace them into your boot down low. These guys swore it cut way down on ticks and chiggers. Just do not let them rest against your skin.

Bill
 
I've had countless run ins with ticks over the years, I've found them on myself and our dogs. If one has bitten into you already you want to be cautious while removing, to not squeeze the body, you want to grab it by the head with a fine pair of tweezers and DO NOT use a hot match tip or pin as I often hear recommend. The biggest thing for me personally is awareness and vigilance, if I'm in tick territory I'll investigate most any small itch or tickle that I feel on my skin (I've caught tons as they're crawling through my leg or arm hair). I also check myself over pretty good when i get back from being in the woods (hair, arm and knee pits, crotch). A good tip I got once from a vet is to save any tick that is found embedded in yourself/your dogs in a plastic sandwich bag or folded between some scotch tape and write the date on it. It helps in identifying Lyme and how long you've had it if you start showing symptoms.
 
all the guys i run with use Sawyer premium insect repellent the active ingredient is permethrin 0.5%........
 
From my army days in chigger country; I'd douse the openings in my clothes with bug spray; tops of boots, waistline, button seams.
 
Ticks have become a big problem. I know many people who have been treated for lymes. Treatment has been everything from a short round of antibiotics to months of iv drip. Some real horror stories , like a med student who had such memory function loss he had to drop out of school, temporary near blindness, crippling joint pain. One specialist Dr told a friend that every blood drawing insect should be considered a carrier for lymes.
We tuck pant legs, spray around the ankles/ waist and shoulder rings with Permethrin spray like Duranon. When back home, all the clothes go into a plastic bag , then wash with hot water. Everyone showers and every itch for the next couple days is considered a tick and examined closely. Those tiny pencil point ticks are the ones I hate- especially when they look like the hundreds of freckles on my body. I also get a lymes test with routine blood work every year. I have never tested positive. If you or your dog has had it the blood test will show positive and you will have to rely on symptoms. I have had some red spots after removing ticks , but never the "bulls eye" ring. Cant rely on that though as many who had lymes never had the tell tale ring either. Ticks, chiggers, poison ivy... the great outdoors.
 
Becoming paranoid about things like this (to me) is healthy for the environment as it hopefully dissuades 'outdoors wannabees' and other potential vandals from seeking to take advantage of the great outdoors. On the other hand I did get bitten by a tick back in 1989 and co-incidentally developed all kinds of chronic fatigue-like symptoms that slowed me right down for 2 years, and from which I never did fully recover. Whatever bulls-eye symptomatic rash etc that was supposed to go with this (if it was Lyme) I never noticed, and doctors at the time kept recommending I go to see a shrink.
Put bug dope on your socks and pant legs and more important check yourself over thoroughly before going to bed at night.
The more obsessed you become about any one particular 'outdoorsy' thing the more likely you are going to overlook the gathering storm clouds overhead, the bear crossing the path or the loose rock overhanging the cliff,... or the subtle tipping of your fishing bobber by a walleye or the careful footsteps of a trophy buck through the crispy autumn leaves.
 
Thanks for all the helpful replies, really appreciate it!

Ah yes, chiggers, ticks, poison ivy, not to mention blackflies, mosquitoes, deerflies and horseflies... Reminds me of this classic short I used to love as a kid: https://www.nfb.ca/film/blackfly

Sorry 300Six; I'm still going to keep going into the outdoors with my fake lumberjack uniform so I can carve my name into birch trees, pick rare wildflowers and light fires so that I can leave them unattended. Oh yea, I'll probably leave a 24 of beer cans and a broken camping chair, and maybe I'll even shoot a hiker.

wdmn
 
Brass balls and a little insect repellent...

But mostly a bunch of DGAF about bugs.

Maybe a prayer too.
 
I quit using insect repellent in 1978 when I noticed it took the paint off my pencil. I just try to put up with insects. I pulled off 4 ticks latched on me yesterday and flicked off a few dozen during the day. They are wood ticks so supposedly do not carry Lymes like the Deer tick. So far this strategy is working ok for me, but I don't recommend it to others.
 
wdmn said:
Thanks for all the helpful replies, really appreciate it!
Reminds me of this classic short I used to love as a kid: https://www.nfb.ca/film/blackfly
Sorry 300Six; I'm still going to keep going into the outdoors with my fake lumberjack uniform so I can carve my name into birch trees, pick rare wildflowers and light fires so that I can leave them unattended. Oh yea, I'll probably leave a 24 of beer cans and a broken camping chair, and maybe I'll even shoot a hiker.
wdmn
Click to expand...
Go for it bud! I strongly suspect you're bluffing me.
Yes the NFB (National Film Board of Canada) short film "Blackfly" from 50+ years ago remains a classic. WWII Prisoner of war camps in remote northern Ontario had no gates, guards or fences and yet very few Japs or Jerries ever gathered up the gumption to make a break from one. A day or a night in the bush with the relentless and persistent blood-sucking bugs was torture worse than death!
 
halfaxe said:
I quit using insect repellent in 1978 when I noticed it took the paint off my pencil. I just try to put up with insects. I pulled off 4 ticks latched on me yesterday and flicked off a few dozen during the day. They are wood ticks so supposedly do not carry Lymes like the Deer tick. So far this strategy is working ok for me, but I don't recommend it to others.
Click to expand...
Already back in the mid 60s bug dope melted paint and softened fiberglass (like the handgrip on my prized bow and arrow). I quite agree that DEET (the active ingredient in most bug dopes) is suspect for claims of being 'benign' to mammals (humans) via it's systemic nature. I too try to avoid the stuff whenever possible but boy it does work!
An attractive woman that worked for me decades ago came up with a natural solution for dissuading biting insects by eating dozens of cloves of raw garlic every day. Her method probably worked but she didn't get many close conversations, dates or dinner invites and ultimately gave it up.
 
Cajun, that seems crazy to me down there in Louisiana- I have only driven through the state but if parts of it are like Alabama- they grow some big and nasty ass bugs down your way!

I usually don't use deet here, but in Maryland its not that bad.

I have gotten 10% Permethin on Amazon and diluted down to 1% solution (twice as strong as the Sawyers and about 1/30th the cost) and have been treating my clothes with it. I can't tell if it works or not, but I haven't found any horrible bugs on my clothes at least.
 
The Mosquitoes and insects we have can be really aggravating but nothing like parts of Canada and Alaska. I think the most difficult bug to repel down this way is the red bug. I've never been very susceptible to ticks, they must not like the way I smell or taste....
 
intel440 said:
all the guys i run with use Sawyer premium insect repellent the active ingredient is permethrin 0.5%........
Click to expand...

Permethrin is the ONLY substance I've encountered that is effective for avoiding tick bites. DEET, particularly in the sprays and formulas available to most of us, is simply not effective. If you doubt this, spray a DEET-containing insect repellent directly on a live tick sometime, and let me know what you see. The ticks seem completely unaffected in my experience, and this is backed by some interesting university studies I've read.

I looked into this years ago, after returning from a turkey hunt where I must have sat in a tick nest, as I had to remove 30+ of the things from my waist line. I was determined to find something that worked.

Permathrin, which can be bought in sprays from the likes of Wal Mart or the box sporting goods stores, is not sprayed directly on your skin. Instead, you spray the clothes you will be wearing. After it dries, there is no odor. The treatment lasts for several weeks, and through several washings.

Since starting to use permathrin, I've never had a tick bite while wearing treated clothing. Permathrin isn't a repellent - it actually kills the tick before he has a chance to bite. It's great stuff, and I swear by it.
 
DEET is not a pesticide but rather a 'repellent'. I am not familiar with Permethrin but Pyrethrin, the chemical released from PIC coils, sure is effective at knocking off invertebrates (ticks aren't insects). I was constructing a new rafter roof at a farmhouse 10 years ago and the two lads I was working with had comfortable bedrooms with closed ceilings and doors whereas I wound up sleeping on the living room couch in the open roof house. The GD mozzies tormented me to the extreme until one night in desperation I lit 1/2 dozen PIC coils all through the house before going to bed. Not only did I sleep well but there were a million dead flies, wasps, black flies, spiders, and mosquitoes all over the place the next morning. Just how obnoxious PIC coils are (health-wise to humans) I don't know but they're hell on wheels to 6 and 8-legged critters! Vapona pest strips of 40 years ago were also terribly efficient at killing inverts through the gov't surplus nerve gas that was released from them.
 
I will have to get some Permethrin. Flea & Tick shampoo for pets will kill them. This is a most important topic to me as I have been diagnosed with the rare allergy with the delayed reaction with especially red meat.
 
What a lot of wussers (only joking) :D! Come to my neck of the woods in Australia where the paralysis tick is endemic. Now that's a tick.
 
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