Ticks - Yoza!

[Argie's Wife]

Just spent a whopping 30 mins. outside with the little one playing and came inside to discover both of us had some serious livestock. Between the two of us, I think we had about six of them... (at least that's what I found so far...)

YUCK! EEWW! :eek:

I hate hate hate ticks!

We don't live in a wooded area, keep the lawn well mowed and clean, but nonetheless, they're out in full force already!

Anyone else discover they're bad this year? I itch just thinking about it!

[AC2717]

If you do not mind where abouts are you in the Lakes Region, is this common everywhere up there?

[hilltopper]

I've had more than a few American Dog Ticks on me over the last couple weeks. We have acreage that includes mowed areas, overgrown areas, and woods, so I'm not at all surprised. We just moved to Meredith this Spring so I can't say if it's worse than normal. I was in bed the other night and felt something crawling on my leg. Grabbed it and whipped on the lights and sure enough, it was a tick. I strongly agree with your hatex3 assessment of those little bast#$@ds!

[Sunrise Point]

I am passing this along from a school nurse...

If you find an attached tick, a very effective way to remove it completely, is to soak a cotton ball with dish detergent and put it over the tick. The tick will detach itself from the skin and become entangled in the cotton fibers. You can then remove it, cotton ball and all and flush or dispose of it. It stands to reason, that with very small children, you could also use baby shampoo or even baby oil. The tick should detach itself within minutes.

I did pull a dog tick off of my neck about 3 weeks ago. My skin was crawling for days afterward.

I despise ticks...

[AC2717]

are the towns spraying at all or doing anything to combat the enlarging tick population?

[MJM]

I often use the hot-match method. Hold the area clear of any hair/fur. Light a match, blow it out and immediately put the still-hot tip onto the tick. The tick will react by pulling its head out.

[Windrider]

I am out in wooded areas and fields on a daily basis and find that the tick situation is pretty much the same as most years or perhaps a bit less. Still, they are a pain. If you have a dog(s) you need to check them daily even if you use one of the monthly repellants as I find that they are not 100% effective.

[Zee]

We are in Tuftonboro in the 19 mile bay area. We are inundated with the little buggers. We were doing some outside work and left a blue pail on a mat on the grass and four hours later found 7 ticks on the pail. We have been picking off ticks nearly every time we go out. I have never seen it this bad in the three summers we have been here. We are finding the dog tick not the deer tick. I think the ticks are outnumbering the black flies :eek:

[rander7823]

A friend commented over Memorial Day weekend that the freeze was too late and not nearly long enough to kill them over this winter.

[Argie's Wife]

I often use the hot-match method. Hold the area clear of any hair/fur. Light a match, blow it out and immediately put the still-hot tip onto the tick. The tick will react by pulling its head out.


Oh, this brings back memories... My mother tried this on me when I got a tick on my leg. We'd been swimming and I was about 9 years old at the time. She tried to use her cigarette on it and placed something under it to protect my leg. But then she DROPPED the tick back on my leg when it didn't pull out - it was HOT. YOW! I never thought I'd get burned by a tick! :D The tick bite didn't hurt - the methods of getting rid of it hurt much more!

BTW - to the poster who asked where we are located - we're in Alton but are almost in the downtown part of it. As far as I know there is no spraying or other control methods being used by the town. Is there something we can do on our property, especially where the kids like to play? :confused:

[Coolbreeze]

Ticks like cool areas with foliage. They rarely like manicured lawns in the sun but will be found in those areas if surrounded by vegitated areas. I suggest putting on bug repellant with deet, it works to repell ticks. On dogs use frontline or another form of permethrin insecticide for monthly control. Take off your clothes before you enter the living areas of your house. Inspect yourself regularly for the buggers. Encourage birds like Wild turkeys to hang out in your area. I've read that turkeys eat up to 5 pounds of ticks a day. If you pull a feeding tick off of you, or your dog. I suggest saving it in a pill bottle, the reason is that if you develope a rash or a bulls eye shape on your skin around the bite spot, get to the doctor right away. You may have lime disease and if you by chance you have the tick, the doctor can test it for lime. I remember a story of a person who attempted to remove ticks from a long haired dog. The person tried rubbing alcohol to get the ticks off, that didn't work so they lit a match. The dogs fur caught fire, the dog took off running in the house, the fire was fanned by the running dog and long story short, the house basically burned down becdause the dog ran under the bed. Use the hot match carefully.

[ApS]

"...We don't live in a wooded area, keep the lawn well mowed and clean, but nonetheless, they're out in full force already...!"

Anyone else discover they're bad this year? I itch just thinking about it!
As one who has seen a tick waiting in the wild, I've found that ticks don't fall from trees (http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:dkNJVBK17Y4J:www.co.suffolk.ny.us/Health%2520Services/lymedisease.pdf+ticks,+fall-from-trees&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us), but wait patiently on ferns and stalks of grass up to 3-feet high.

http://www.sutter-yubamvcd.org/tick%20on%20grass.gif

For some reason, roadsides seem to harbor them. (Perhaps because a road is a pretty wide barrier to a tick—from either side of the road).

Due to the high winds on the lake, I spent all afternoon yesterday logging in my acre of woods and ferns (no grass), and turned up no ticks.

Tuftonboro, with its many open areas, always seems to report a big tick problem. I wonder if islanders have still another benefit—fewer ticks? :confused:

Good advice Coolbreeze, on saving that tiny deer tick: ;) I'm going to scout up a jar—just in case!

[Rose]

Use the hot match carefully.

From http://www.peacehealth.org/kbase/topic/special/tp23585spec/sec1.htm

" What to avoid

Do not try to:

* Smother a tick that is stuck to your skin with petroleum jelly, nail polish, gasoline, or rubbing alcohol.
* Burn the tick while it is stuck to your skin.

Smothering or burning a tick could make it release infected fluid into your body and increase your chance of infection."

[Dave R]

We have not noticed any excessive amount of them in our Southern NH yard this year. I am very diligent about cutting the underbrush in the fenced-in portion of our woods (where our dog roams) early in the Spring. It seems to help a lot and I think that since I started doing so the tick population dwindles each year. Probably won't help you too much this year but if you can go to town with a brush cutting blade equipped weed trimmer every Spring (not near the water though!), you may be able to keep them at bay in the future. Awful little bugs, I shudder just thinking of them crawling on me.

How does one encourage wild turkeys to hang around? I hear they like dairy farms. We see them a lot in our front yard, but I've done nothing to encourage (or discourage...) them and I live nowhere near a dairy farm (few horse farms though). Interesting birds. It's amazing how well they've thrived since hunting groups re-established them a few years ago. I hear the big Toms are pretty tough to hunt.

[Windrider]

Seems like a stretch that a 15- 20 pound turkey could eat fives pounds of ticks a day. After all they do roost at night and five pounds is a whole bunch of ticks.

Toms can be tricky but when love is in the air, they can be awfully foolish, just like everyone else.

You can encourage them to visit with black oil sunflower seeds and/or cracked corn, they eat both with equal enthusiasm.

[pmj]

I am passing this along from a school nurse...

If you find an attached tick, a very effective way to remove it completely, is to soak a cotton ball with dish detergent and put it over the tick. The tick will detach itself from the skin and become entangled in the cotton fibers. You can then remove it, cotton ball and all and flush or dispose of it. It stands to reason, that with very small children, you could also use baby shampoo or even baby oil. The tick should detach itself within minutes.

I did pull a dog tick off of my neck about 3 weeks ago. My skin was crawling for days afterward.

Ticks are yucky and you have to be very careful with removal. The above story has been circulating over the last year. I work in the health profession I can tell you that this type of removal is an urban legend and false. I have included the links to www.snopes.com that discusses this and links to the CDC for proper removal and signs to watch for. Ticks aren't something you want to take a chance with on partial removal.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rmsf/Q&A.htm#tick
http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/tick.asp

[Sunrise Point]

PMJ,

Thanks for the post. I read the links and forwarded it to the person who passed the tip along to me.

The thought of having a tick attached to your skin is bad enough, thinking about having it regurgitate its stomach contents while attached is even worse!!

[Puckster]

From http://www.peacehealth.org/kbase/topic/special/tp23585spec/sec1.htm

" What to avoid

Do not try to:

* Smother a tick that is stuck to your skin with petroleum jelly, nail polish, gasoline, or rubbing alcohol.
* Burn the tick while it is stuck to your skin.

Smothering or burning a tick could make it release infected fluid into your body and increase your chance of infection."


What she said. I am a lymes patient and have done much reading on the subject. Pinch at the head and pull. End of story.