I treat my dog with Bravecto every 12 weeks and it is virtually 100% effective against fleas and ticks. Why isn’t there a similar systemic treatment for humans who spend a lot of time in tick-infested regions?
4
The tick problem really getting bad, especially with the introduction of the invasive long horn asian tick. We need to genetically modify them with a gene that makes them sterile and unable to breed. It's 2018 and we can grow human organs in a lab, let's take care of these less complex issues.
10
@CurtisJames This sounds like an endorsement. Do you have any vested interest in this technology?
1
Nice article but doesn't talk about why some people (me) are much more attractive to mosquitos than others (wife). Has anyone figured that one out?
4
@trashcup-------mosquitoes prefer people with blood type O. They find A, B and A/B much less tasty.
@trashcup
I've heard that type O blood is more attractive.
"It’s all about the blood for mosquitoes; well that and nectar. Adult mosquitoes survive on nectar for nourishment, but females rely on the protein in our blood for the production of eggs. So it’s little surprise that some blood types may be more desirable than others. Research has found, in fact, that people with Type O blood are found to be twice as attractive to mosquitoes than those with Type A blood; Type B people were in the middle. In addition, 85 percent of people produce a secretion that signals what blood type they are; mosquitoes are drawn to those 85 percent more than the non-secretors, regardless of blood type."
Multiple mentions of dogs in this article, but no mention that DEET is toxic to dogs. Picaridin, however, is relatively safe.
1
a seasoned Lyme veteran, I can't be afraid of my planet. I've had Lyme a half-dozen times or more. I can't enumerate them all because of many bites while I was being treated for previous bites.
My advice is to pay close attention to any bites. They itch like mosquitoes, but persist and get hard. And they grow. That's the surest sign that there's an infection - I also usually get nasty flu-like symptoms if I'm not treated quickly enough. There isn't always a ring. Sometimes it's just a red circle that grows.
Find the right Homeopath. I can't give a recommendation here, but I've been treated successfully a number of times without antibiotics.
And there are several pathogens besides Lyme that are transmitted by ticks, including parasites. Make sure you test for all of them: bartonella, borellia, erlichiosis, esp, but there are more. Find the right Dr.
Antibiotics MIGHT work. but the variety of pathogens, and the insidious Borellia spirochete make that a gamble - cf chronic Lyme.
I am not a Dr, and this this just a personal reflection from a veteran Lyme sufferer.
I lived in one of the disease's hottest spots in SE Pa. then moved to the Sierras last year, and have had a couple of deer ticks here since then. I keep the basic Lyme homeopathic remedies on hand. So far so good.
Also wet and dry cycles of weather matter. I used to get many bites in June. Rain matters. No problem in hot and dry weather. Not sure what the specs on the vector are, but that seems consistent.
6
I'm glad to hear someone address the inevitability of tick bites, despite one's best efforts at protection. Despite my NV NYT ID, I live on Cape Cod, surrounded by woods, and I take an incredible amount of precautions, but still have had 2 deer tick and three deer nymph bites in the past four years. It is very troubling. I love the outdoors, but I am faced with hiding out, if I want to avoid tick bites.
Those of you who live in the NE, spend time in the woods, and have never had a tick bite, just haven't been vigilant enough to notice!!
4
Actually, Deer get a bad rap for carrying ticks. Yes, they do carry them, but rodents, particularly chipmunks and field mice are just as likely, if not more so, to be carriers.
5
All these defensive measures are great.
The only problem is that by the time you have executed all the Do's and Don'ts there is no available time or energy left for living!
5
Eradicate Japanese barberry plants from your garden. They are not only invasive, but a tremendous tick magnets. Ticks shelter and breed there.
9
After a bout with hives my dermatologist prescribed two over the counter drugs- fexofenadine and citirazine, both generics of other allergy meds. I take one of each every day and the mosquitoes either don't like me now or bites don't bother me. I used to get huge welts from mosquito bites and summer outdoors was no fun.
I take one in the am and one of the other at nite. Works like a charm for me.
4
If you see a dragonfly hovering around tall grass or plants; be grateful as it is going after ticks. Yum yum.
12
One day I woke up with a fever. The kind that makes one delirious. My wife was out of town, so I had to drive myself to the emergency room. I don't remember doing it. I would find out my temperature was north of 104°, and that I had contracted Lyme Disease. That was October of 2016. Since, I've had a couple of flareups, but the last one had me incapacitated for a couple of days. Fortunately, I don't seem very sensitive to mosquito bites; they seem to disappear on me within a couple of hours, and they don't itch much.
3
The only sure way to protect yourself is move to Antarctica. Smothering yourself with chemicals is bad.
4
This sentence is most unclear
" have . . . either DEET; picaridin; IR3535; oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) or para-menthane-diol (PMD); or 2-undecanone."
We have one "either," two "or's" and four semicolons.
Is it
DEET or para-methane-dioi
DEET or 2-undecanone
or what?
How are we supposed to group these various compounds?
1
I think it's clear. It's a list of five items separated by semicolons. One of the items has two choices, OLE or PMD -- perhaps they are somehow equivalent.
2
PMD is the largest component present in the EPA-registered active ingredient Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) (about 65% of the substance as a whole). The remaining 35% of OLE is made up of the other components in the essential Eucalyptus citriodora oil. OLE is made through a very simple process which increases the naturally occurring PMD content of Eucalyptus citriodora oil. By contrast, pure PMD is made through a heavily synthetic process that does not involve any essential oil and obviously does not contain any of the other essential oil components. Based on my experience as Regulatory Director for the small UK/VT based company that makes OLE (our trade name is Citriodiol) I support the CDC's recommendation of OLE as an effective repellent of deer ticks. I have overseen or reviewed many studies on different Ixodes spp. proving this point. However, even with OLE products applied, my family makes sure to do tick checks every night, being particularly vigilant in the spring and fall when nymphs are most prevalent (at least here in Vermont).
4
I'm another mosquito magnet, and extra-reactive to their bites. I wear long pants and sleeves when I work out in the yard (yes, in Texas heat!), and use lots of picaridin spray. It works as well as DEET, if not quite as long, and is nowhere near as noxious. I don't know why anyone still uses DEET.
5
If you live in NY state, you can go to this link (keep the dashes and underscores):
https://www.newyorkupstate.com/expo/erry-2018/05/3ed3eee2242570/how_many...
You will find data by county on density of ticks and the likelihood they will carry Lyme disease. There is a huge variation between counties.
6
I went home to WNY(Erie County) for a family wedding and was bitten by a tick on the large lawn at the reception. LYME disease was fairly new then. I was able to speak with the Lyme specialist at the CDC, and was on a month's course of the proper antibiotic, which made me very ill from side effects, but decreased my Lyme symptoms. Since then, my immunity has decreased, and I am ill more often. I was followed for a year after the infection, luckily it didn't effect my heart. My point is, take Lyme Disease seriously, and if possible, bring the tick that bit you in a plastic bag for examination. Protect yourselves with appropriate clothing, and if you develop a "ring of red circles" at the bite area, get treatment ASAP, from a doctor who knows the proper protocol. Take care.
9
Ok. Here's my problem. What do you do if you live in a fairly rural area where no one has fences, the deer herds roam freely through everyone's yards, the same yards where the kids play, lots of different species of critters abound, and deer ticks and their bacterial friends are moving in? It's simply not practical for the kids to "wear long pants, long sleeves, shoes and socks, and tuck your pants into your socks," etc., etc., etc., every time they go outside in the yard. What this all says to me is that individuals and families either have to move out of such countryside environments and drastically change their lifestyles, or they will assume some increasing risk of acquiring tick-borne diseases. The countryside will continue to be full of people living in close proximity to deer herds carrying increasing numbers of deer ticks, however, and at the county and state level, the numbers of infections are thus going to rise. This, then, is the world we will increasingly be living in, and people will need to be informed and choose what risks they find acceptable - not based on "my grandfather lived here 100 years and never got Lyme disease," but on up-to-date statistics, projections, and protection recommendations. Ugh.
13
fence off a portion of your property enough to keep the animals out, keep it groomed. Deer mice also carry deer ticks. Don't kill the snakes or the birds or the other predators that kill the mice. Get guinea hens or chickens and let them roam the fenced in area they'll keep your tick population rock bottom. Possums love ticks, too. Encourage their habitat in your yard.
10
Didn't know chickens eat ticks!! Awesome idea to have a fenced "play" area and then get the tick population down in that area. It wouldn't make sense to fence off the whole property, but an enclosure would be an improvement. The chickens could have supervised roaming a bit each day, and then back to a safer enclosure (lots of predators around here). Not too many possums around here, but there are a few. I never mess with any of the birds or snakes or anything, and there are a lot of them. Thank you for writing!
1
As a turkey hunter, I have weeded-out several sites as too ticky. I no longer sit on the ground but use a low slung chair.
Let's face it, ticks are here to stay as long as the deer population is high. Nothing you can do about it. Fences and chickens won't help.
4
The article says: "Consider purchasing clothing that has been pre-treated with the insecticide permethrin, which repels both ticks and mosquitoes, though it may be less effective against ticks."
Permethrin not only repels ticks, it also kills them, as I proved myself. I found a tick on my jeans and carefully dropped it onto my permethrin-treated garden pants, which I had laid out flat on a table. The tick walked normally at first, but in 10 minutes it walked like a drunk, and in 20 minutes it was dead.
After that, I never work in the garden without permethrin treated clothes, and I never find ticks on my body. The pants are No Fly Zone from LL Bean, and the shirt and socks I treated myself with permethrin spray by Sawyer. The permanently treated No Fly Zone clothes are good for up to 70 washes, but the home treated clothes are only good for about 6 washes.
9
Or you can just stay in and watch t.v.
6
For mosquitoes, what about the monthly treatment that yard services provide? We used one that was garlic-based and supposedly nontoxic to everything but mosquitoes and it was worthless. Last summer we used one that’s bifenthrin based and it seemed somewhat effective but as the summer progressed, they weren’t timely with the application and it was equally useless. We thought we’d try it again this summer. Last application, it poured down rain minutes after the guy left and they scheduled another application and he just did it minutes before another huge downpour. I just don’t think this can be effective. If anyone has any experience with mosquito treatments, I’d love to hear about it. They say it’s safe for bees and hummingbirds and I wonder about this too. If I could sit outside every minute of the summer, I would, but I’m a mosquito magnet and I’m not going sit outside covered head to toe in the heat. We do use a fan in some spots but I don’t find it that pleasant to have a fan blowing straight on me and that’s what it takes to keep them off me. (Errr err, world’s tiniest violin, I know, people have worse problems, but I loooooove summer and I haaaaaaaate mosquitoes.)
5
I live in the South, so I have been battling mosquitoes all my life. Surprisingly, a B-vitamin supplement and old fashioned Avon Skin-So-Soft keep me bite free year round. youravon.com/mhenderson7616
8
Having removed numerous ticks from my animals. Do not remove a tick by simply pulling it out. This could leave the head in and it will be come an issue. Use a qtip with nail polish remover on it and dab around the tick. (By putting nail polish remover on it before, it causes the tick to suffocate and it starts to back out.) Wait a bit, then using tweezers, turning counterclockwise pull it out.
8
I am grateful for this article, and I understand that the article is aimed at readers in the NE, but you do a disservice with the false reassurance that fleas only carry the plague. Fleas also carry typhus. It was new to us in Austin in 2008, having previously been limited to South Texas, or at least that's what the Travis County epidemiologist told us. See https://www.cdc.gov/typhus/murine/index.html
Typhus can make people very ill and even be fatal.
Virginia Raymond
6
Ticks are serious. Most people don't notice the deer tick or the bite -- and don't get a rash. At a recent conference, SUNY Binghamton researchers said they swear by permethrin and are not confident about DEET. They also emphasized precautionary behavior. Prophylactic antibiotics should definitely be considered. For good info. see www.ilads.org and www.lymedisease.org. 10 years into ongoing treatment to manage tick-borne illness that was diagnosed way too late, I so wish I had known then what I know now!
11
Yes, I heard permethrin over deet as well.
6
be careful...DEET is a repellent applied to the skin. Permethrin is an insecticide and should not be applied to the skin.
8
I have found lemon eucalyptus to be very effective. I carried DEET but I actually have never used it. There are some quite serious risks with DEET.
5
If you are in and out a lot, try knee high rubber boots with permethrin treated pants tucked in. I noticed the environmental and lawn care folks seem to have moved to this approach. Especially useful when doing spring and fall leaf clean up.
5
For a non-toxic method to ward off mosquito and gnats, use pure vanilla extract. We would dab a little behind our ears and on our necks during the 2008 flood, and it worked quite well as a repellent. Smells better too.
3
Yeah. I tried that. I'm a natural landing strip for mosquitoes. the season has JUST begun and I've already had two bites, and I am allergic to mosquitoes.
Vanilla -- I smelled like Granny, Jed Clampett's mother-in-law, and the mosquitoes loved me even more.
I live in a rural neighborhood of a suburban community. I no longer sit out on my deck. Absolutely not worth it.
American beautyberry grows from MD to FL to TX. If you find yourself in the woods in the SE US, find the ubiquitous beautyberry, pull off three or four leaves, crush them in your hand, and rub the leaves on your exposed skin. About as effective as DEET, but not has toxic, tho you have to reapply more frequently.
5
Growing up in South Africa, where ticks carry dangerous diseases, I was always schooled NOT to pull an already-embedded tick out, because its limbs and head are left behind, potentially creating infection and disease risk. Simply dabbing it with a big dollop of a thick liquid - sunscreen, butter, skin cream - will cause it to start suffocating, which causes it to back out in its entirety in short order, leaving nothing behind.
16
Once again, shame on the NY Times for allowing this unauthorized and potentially dangerous home remedy for removing ticks.
https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/removing_a_tick.html
5
As I sit here scratching various mosquito bites, I can't help but wonder if there is something that I could eat or add to my diet during the summer months. I am one of those people who not only attract every biting insect known to mankind but who also has very sensitive skin that "overreacts" to bites (e.g. swelling, itching, redness, heat). I can be standing next to my husband and he will have zero mosquitoes on him and I'll be covered within seconds. I use all sorts of natural repellents but avoid DEET because I would have to doused in it 24/7 here in rural Alabama. (And yes, I know that scratching makes the bites worse — I have tons of anti-itch meds to apply on the inevitable bites.)
3
I’ve heard that a very large amount of garlic is effective against these tiny vampires.
It’s also delicious.
A lot of it is your body chemistry, which means you are just going to be more likely to be bit than others. I am like a magnet to mosquitoes every year and from what I've read, a lot of that has to do with chemicals released when I sweat, how much carbon dioxide I emit, and genetics (my mom also gets bit a lot, but my dad, sister, and brothers don't).
Like you, I have severe reactions when I get bit (hot and painful golf ball-sized welts, nausea, headaches). What I normally do ever year from about May until the first good freeze is: 1. Wear pants, long sleeves, close-toed shoes, and usually a "summer" scarf and jacket no matter how hot it is, especially at dusk when they are most active (light-weight fabrics make this bearable). 2. Avoid all sugar (even natural sugars) and alcohol as much as possible. 3. Tape/seal around doors and windows. 4. Limit use of fragrances including scented body wash, laundry detergent, and hand soap. 5. Wear bug spray literally all the time, although I try to use one that has a "gentler" scent if I'm going to be around a lot of other people for awhile (nobody likes to smell like Off! Deep Woods).
I haven't gotten bit yet, but I have killed about 5 mosquitoes in my apartment and it's only May, so...
3
I react like you as well. Yesterday I was out gardening and got bit. I tried tea tree oil on the bite and it stopped itching right away.
3
Are repellant creams effective?
Ticks ride indoors on your clothes! Prevent them. As you all come inside from your yard or the forest, take off all clothes, socks, gear! It may be uncomfortable but it's important. Hang everything outdoors in the sun. OR tumble everything in the dryer on HOT, at least 10 minutes, longer if damp. Ticks thrive in moisture. Ticks need to be dehydrated! Showering doesn't destroy them but it helps wash off loose ones and helps you find ticks that are already attached to your skin. (Remove tick with tweezers at the attached point, even if you can't see that point.) Don't squish ticks off BECAUSE you would inject yourself with their BACTERIA laden gut contents. Save that tick in a sealed container like a ziploc bag. Add some moist cotton or paper to the bag, to keep tick plump. Save for identification, in case you get symptoms.
My attached tick gave me all the Lyme disease symptoms in 10 days. Doxycycline for 4 weeks cured me completely, luckily. My infected tick tested positive, but I didn't get that report until 2 months later! Please rely on symptoms, not tests! Learn about Lyme and tick-borne illnesses. Protect yourself and your loved ones. Teach your doctor!
40
Great info.
While this is important info, it is difficult to follow if you live in a rural area and you are exposed to ticks and mosquitos multiple times a day just taking the compost out or walking your dog. I would like to see a little more advice on the costs/benefits of dousing yourself with DEET several times a day vs. the risk from tick and mosquito bites. Generally with Lyme it is fine to just pick the ticks off of you at the end of the day, but some of these newer disease I don't think follow the same "you are fine if it has been on under 24 hours" advice.
9
If got permethrin and sprayed the clothes and shoes I wear for gardening. You have to let it dry, but then it lasts for awhile.
I haven't seen a tick since I did this, where previously I would pick at least one off every day.
5
Exactly! In a rural area, it's impossible to avoid exposures without massive lifestyle changes like using repellants constantly, covering your whole body, etc. It's an increasing problem we're going to need more information to deal with. What are the real risks in my area of getting Lyme? What are the real risks associated with coating everything and everyone in insect repellants?
The trouble with just picking the ticks off at the end of the day, as I understand it, is that it's really easy to miss the nymphs, which are as small as a poppy seed. I've read that most Lyme cases come from bites from nymphs, for this reason. And they can crawl anywhere on your body, even your scalp and hair. It's impossible to do a complete, thorough inspection every single day. It's hard to figure out what best to do.
5
I am a birder and ticks love me! I have had success with the insect repellent REPEL saturated wipes which come in a zip-lock type bag. Rather than spraying an aerosol product which hits other people or is carried away on a breeze, I apply the product directly to clothing, shoes, and exposed skin. It's pretty effective.
9
Watch a hungry tick trying to go on skin treated with an all-natural tick and insect repellent: https://fivebarnfarm.com/rsvp/
4
Get some tick nippers. They work the best for removing ticks of all sizes. They can maneuver well to grasp the tick close to the skin. After you remove the tick, stick it on a piece of tape and fold the tape over to seal it. Record the date on the tape and store it in a jar in case you need to get it tested.
Everyone in my family hates using insect repellent. Instead we sent a box of our clothing - socks, pants, shirts, shorts, bandanas to Insect Shield. For a very reasonable price they treat the clothing to impregnate it with permethrin. The treatment lasts through 70 washings.
30
This does not just apply to humans. Dogs can get very sick from tick bites as well. My friend's show golden is at the vets for Lyme and Spotty Mountain Fever.
4
How about natural deterants like lavender oil and geranium oil? Look to the things in nature that protect themselves from ticks. Chickens love to eat ticks, by the way.
6
Opossums are said to collect and ingest 100's of ticks daily as they are meticulous groomers. http://www.caryinstitute.org/discover-ecology/podcasts/why-you-should-br...
I have also employed tick tubes in shrubby areas of the lawn. They contain cotton balls saturated with permethrin and mice like to use them as bedding. The permethrin effectively kills the ticks feeding on the mouse which stops the tick life cycle in it's tracks. You can DIY tubes using toilet paper tubes. http://www.ticktubes.com/
I contracted LD in 2001 and was not diagnosed until 2009, much too late for abx to help. It is incorrect to suggest that lyme symptoms show up right away. In my case symptoms appeared and disappeared one after another making it difficult for my Doctor to know it was LD. This went on for eight very long years.
10
It's a shame to have to wear long pants in the woods in the summer or to just not go at all. I know people who do both and I really can't blame them. I continue to wear shorts but only because I'm also willing to take the chance and to pick these things off my body as necessary.
Would make a lot of sense to lay some tick-centric insecticide down in heavily infested areas. Sure, there may be some collateral damage, maybe some spiders or other insects, but something has to be done. Just talking about it solves nothing. You know, ticks are not like flies that die in a few weeks. These blood-suckers can live 2-3 years! We need to stem the tide of their population growth at some time.
5
Collateral damage like spiders and other insects, the birds and animals that feed on them, and so on and on.
32
Well, I guess the birds getting a stomachache are more important than crippling 1/2 a million American people.
1
Nice sarcasm but killing all the birds, killing all the honey bees, poisoning ourselves by contaminating our drinking water, etc. would be very big deals.
3
More evidence of globalization and the negative effects it creates on the environment.
5
Not really.
5
How's that?
3
Alarming increase—
More man-induced imbalance of nature.
A physician MD
8
Pulling ticks out with tweezers can sometimes leave their pincers still in you and you can STILL get Lyme's disease.
To avoid getting Lyme's disease, you need to ensure you get the tick's pincers out, and not just pull the insect off you.
It's important to tell the difference between tick varieties:
DEER tick= smaller, & CAN spread Lyme's disease (about the size of a freckle).
WOOD ticks= bigger, & CANNOT SPREAD Lyme's disease (about the size of a thumb tack)
The best way to do this is to SUFFOCATE the animal, causing it to pull its pincers out, and THEN pull it off you. Easiest solution is to
~ paint tick with nail polish ~
5
Actually, doctors and entomologists (I'm one) are now recommending NOT suffocating ticks as a removal. Turns out that makes them regurgitate their gut contents, which ups the chances that they'll pass pathogens to you. Pulling them out with tweezers is the best of all bad options.
26
Good advice to humans:
Beware zoonoses—diseases transmitted from animals to humans.
A physician MD
4
Well, tax dollars to fight these diseases must go to the very rich that for some reason need it more than the rest of us. At least they have large yards in the suburbs, so their misguided greed puts them at higher risk.
5
Just because someone has a large yard and lives in the suburbs does not make them misguided or economic rapists. Plenty of us work hard, employ people and pay them fairly. Your prejudice against people who have achieved success does not serve you well.
7
The author of this article would do a service by summarizing the information in the attached document from Connecticut--particularly including detail on symptoms of Lyme, which are enormously and strangely varied and often overlooked or misdiagnosed by unfamiliar physicians. I have often wondered why Lyme disease is not included in every single blood test a person receives, from UTIs to iron or calcium deficiencies, etc.
55
Protecting yourself from ticks also extends to removing the ones that find their way into your clothes, despite your best efforts to deter and detect them.
Examining your clothes is next to useless.
Here's the advice of an infectious disease specialist who treated a friend for tick-borne anaplasmosis:
When you come back indoors, chuck all your clothes, including socks and underwear, into a clothes dryer (do NOT wash them; ticks tolerate washing just fine.)
Run the dryer at regular (not permanent press) heat for a full cycle. You may find the dried husks of dead ticks in the lint filter.
64
Why is it that my dog got a Lyme shot and humans can't get a Lyme shot?
65
There WAS a vaccine for humans, but it was pulled from the market due to public backlash against perceived side effects, and a ridiculous anti-vaxer campaign, which led to frivolous lawsuits. Subsequently, researchers working on more Lyme vaccines received death threats.
Meanwhile, other vaccine development efforts have been redirected toward more globally important diseases like dengue (dengue is an awful disease, and more widespread).
One day in the not too distant future we’ll be without any effective antibiotics. Because, nature.
And we’ll have too few vaccines. Because, anti-vaxers.
12
Yesterday I returned from an off-road motorcycle ride in the northwest (not cited as a place of concern). While riding along rock- strewn roads at 20-35 mph (not much grass) in knee high boots with pants tucked in, a helmet over my noggin, gloves on my mitts and zero exposed epidermis, I managed to pick up a darn tick. I found him on my thigh, not yet embedded, thank goodness. It seems no amount of precaution is 100% effective. Life is so....risky!
33
Why no mention of food grade diatomaceous earth re prevention, ie dusting of shoes?
13
Oh for God’s sakes. I picked up a couple of ticks in Sweden a few months ago and just pulled them out when I saw them. I’d rather run the risk than fuss around with my clothing and pump insecticides into the air.
5
Thomas, You are naive and clearly never had Lymes disease or you wouldn't be so cavalier. I've had Lymes more than once - but the first time I was in excruciating pain for 18 months. The ticks aren't always as easy to see as you think.
51
Well, if you lived in the Northeast you would feel differently. Most of us know people who have become disabled due to tick borne diseases. Every year I have students who miss entire semesters due to complications of Lyme. The ticks are most dangerous when they are tiny. I am not at all confident that I can find them when they are the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Wish the CDC was putting more money into research on this.
68
I struggle with the cost benefit of using bug repellent in terms of mosquitoes not ticks on children. I understand it’s important for a pregnant woman, but why is it harmful for a child to get bit by mosquitoes?
Diseases other than Zika can be spread by mosquitoes, unfortunately. Living in CO, my friend got West Nile virus when she was about 6 from a mosquito bite. She was in the hospital for at least a week if I remember correctly.
16
A good friend's neighbor is paraplegic, from West Nile virus. The chances are that you won't get it, or get it as severely, but she had the same chances.
I also know someone who contracted West Nile and was hospitalized with viral meningitis. She was bit at her home in a rural area. She had concussion like symptoms post-recovery and was told she should not get pregnant for at least a year.
2
Oh great. One more thing to worry about besides that huge comet I'm sure is coming right at us like a Randy Johnson fastball.
2
Almost everyone I know has had a brush with Lyme, many of us suffered for years. No comets so far.
31
Yes, you should be worried and not from this article. You should've been worried already.
6
All good advice especially the tip about putting long hair into a ponytail or a braid or even tucking it under a cap. I'm a guy and have short hair but the few times I've had to deal with a tick after a hike it's always been (so far) on a girl's shoulder/upper back region. I'm not sure why but I'm sure long hair rubs against a lot of surfaces than you'd perhaps be mindful of especially with branches and a prevalent wind in the picture.
14
Keeping deer away from your yard won't help. The tick is carried by the field mouse mostly.
20
This is correct about the mice and they are rarely mentioned in articles. I have a small home in the woods of CT and loved my bird feeders, not understanding that the seeds the birds were spilling to the ground attract mice. After hospitalization with Lyme, I changed a lot of behaviors.
42
Fox, Coyote and Great Horned Owls help keep the vector species that harbor tick-borne diseases in check. I get furious when gun shops run contests to see how many coyotes can be killed by a hunter. Fox get the mice and Chipmunks while Coyote keep the rabbit, meadow mice, and vole populations down.
7
Oh, it's deer mostly. I was inside my house and a deer walked by close to the window. On it's ears, thousands of ticks. Their ears are full of blood, no fur, and they can't groom them off.
After three days in the hospital last year with Anaplasmosis, I have my yard fenced in like a prison in upstate N.Y. My neighbors all have them running through and grazing on their grass, "their so beautiful!" Yea, so was a doxycycline drip I had in my arm in the hospital. Learning the hard way, always my method. The deer should be eradicated, there is no reason for them in a residential area. They have no predators other then cars hitting them, and they ravage plants, even deer resistant ones.
1
If another person cannot check your back, you can use your cell phone to take a video or some pictures.
14
"rid your yard and deck of empty flower pots, bird baths or bowls where water can accumulate. (If you keep a dog’s water bowl outside, empty and refresh it frequently)."
WRONG! Nothing wrong with birdbaths, since you are supposed to empty them daily and freshen the water. That is the same advice given for dog water bowls by the article.
13
But people often don’t “empty them daily”, especially the bird baths. Or you’re gone for a few days.
The word is standing stagnant water.
9
You can also a great device called a water wiggler which keeps the water moving in concentric circles. It's very Zen looking. (Amazon) My understanding is that the water must be still for mosquitoes to breed. And yes you should flush the birdbath out often. I do mine every few days.
8
I'd be reluctant to go anywhere I might pick up a tick.
5
It must be a drag staying indoors all the time.
17
I’ve had Lyme 2 or 3 times so far. Treatment worked. I’m not giving up the pleasure of hiking the fields, marshes, forests, and swamps for concrete sidewalks and neon lights. Thanks but no thanks.
9
I don't blame you. A lot of people feel this way. While you'll have to give up visiting wild places like state parks or national forests, you should be safe in neighborhood parks, like Central Park.
1
I leave a ripe banana outside every night for the neighborhood possum. I've only seen her once, but the banana is gone every morning. So are several thousand tick eggs.
28
That’s a great idea. Peeled or unpeeled?
6
I live in Southern Vermont and saw a possum just the other day, lured to our compost bin but unable to access it becaus of a fence. My dogs ran out toward her and I saw her toddle off. Perhaps I should do this, too!
6
Permethrin is HIGHLY toxic to bees. Please include in articles like this that you should ONLY spray it from 9pm to 5am (preferably at 9pm) so the spray has time to break down. Also, don't spray clothing outside near flowering bushes or flowers.
90
Going outside
Just when you thought it was warm enough to venture outdoors again
mosquito, tick and flea
mosquitoes-borne diseases
west Nile virus and Zika
tick-borne diseases
lyme and Rocky Mountain spotted fever
flea-borne disease is plague
Plague
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/well/mosquitoes-ticks-lyme-disease-pr...
4
Impressive but one-sided list of the dangers of going outside. Additional dangers we should fear from going Outside:
- Getting mugged
- Hit by a car, bicycle, motorcycle, truck
- Hit by falling debris from a construction site
- Shot by a some selfish crazy terrorist
- Blown up by a Unabomber- or Timothy Mcveigh-type nut
- Drinking Flint, Michigan water.....
Whoops! Drinking Flint water would be Inside! It’s hopeless. It seems the only solutions are to commit suicide before someone/something else kills us, or, to enjoy Inside and Outside, knowing death will come, one way or another. I’ll courageously go Outside!
14
If you do find and remove any ticks from yourself, your family, your pets/animals, remember to save the tick (place in baggie or pill jar, etc.). There is an instant tick test, called Lymenator, you can use to test any removed ticks and within 10 minutes know if the tick carries the Lyme-causing bacteria and if you or your pets/animals may be 'at risk'. It's one more piece of the puzzle considering it can take up to 4-6 weeks before you can be tested via a blood test.
And remember, do not use any home remedies to remove ticks - no fingernail polish, no petroleum jelly, no Dawn dish liquid, no matches. These things can actually irritate the tick and cause it to spit the bacteria into your system before detaching. Only use pointed tweezers or a tick remover for this job.
Also keep in mind, even though it's more commonly the deer tick that carries the Lyme-causing bacteria, other types of ticks can carry the bacteria as well, so please also check other ticks such as dog ticks, Lone star ticks, etc.
91
Good advice!
3
We keep the tick tweezers on hand at our upstate house. Pull straight up on the ticks head.
9
Actually so far ONLY the Deer Tick, otherwise known as the black legged tick, has been shown to carry Lyme Disease. The other ticks can, however, carry a host of other bacterial diseases.
8
Three years ago I spent 3 days in the hospital recovering from anaplasmosis from a deer tick. I lived in Massachusetts at the time and would walk in the local park everyday. I cannot express how important it is to protect yourself. It's jungle out there.
39
Here in tick country I use a hand-held vanity mirror with a six inch diameter. Necessary for checking one's back and where the sun don't shine.
18
Permethrin works great.
9
I grew up in Central Africa, often walking barefoot in the Bush with my dog. She would then usually have great fat ticks on her ears which my dad would remove in the evening. But I never had a problem with ticks on me, didn’t even think about it.
2
Maybe the dog was more attractive to the ticks than you were?
Sadly, lyme and related tick borne diseases are a source of contention for the medical community. If you think you have been exposed to ticks and have tick bites, take doxycycline for 3 weeks. If your doctor gives you grief, see another doc. Better to be safe than sorry.
13
I spent a great deal of time in the woods as a child here in the midwest. Everyone except me would get chiggers which caused terrible itching. I wonder if you and I had some sort of built in repellent in our DNA make up? Either way, good for us! Good luck this season!
5
Dogs are more attractive to ticks than humans. (The same goes for fleas--one of the early reasons for breeding lapdogs was so the fleas would bite them instead of their human owners.) There's also some genetic factor that makes certain people more or less attractive to mosquitoes for biting--wouldn't be surprised if this applies to ticks as well.
3
If one changes the water every day or two, why are birdbaths a problem? Gutters are a more likely source of mosquitoes.
21
Mosquitoes require 7 to 10 days to mature from larvae to adult; dumping the water at least every 5 days and replacing it with new water will prevent them from finishing their life cycle. Fresh water is also better for the birds visiting your yard.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/birdbaths-mosquitoes-46164.html
27
Why isn't there a vaccine for Lyme? It's not like this is something that recently surfaced. Some research money towards that would be an excellent idea. Better use for tax dollars than handouts to mega corporations.
91
There was a vaccine in the late 1990s, however, people with a certain gene had adverse reactions, including developing Lyme symptoms, debilitating arthritis, etc., so they pulled it from the market.
Even the pet vaccine is not 100%. Many reports of animals contracting Lyme even with the vaccine.
12
There actually was a vaccine for Lyme but it has to be given multiple times a year, every year, so only a few people got it, it wasn't economically viable, and the drug company pulled it. Oh well.
4
The vaccine for humans wasn't very effective and there were reports of adverse reactions as the antigen used for the vaccine was similar enough to a protein on human blood cells that some people developed auto-immune arthritis. Coupled with the reluctance of insurance companies to pay for the vaccine, the manufacturer pulled the vaccine from the market. There are multiple canine vaccines on the market that were similarly designed and can cause the same auto-immune problem in some dogs (it happened to one of my dogs). As for any vaccine it is a risk management question.
13