We went for a hike in the country yesterday. I came home with three ticks. The problem is that I didn't find them until 1:45, 2:15 and 3:30. AM. Then I stayed awake for a very long time with the itchy creepy crawlies.
Fortunately, Lotta (7yo) had given me a pebble that she found interesting which was on the base of my lamp. I used it to crush those little bastards and line them up in a row like frontier rattlesnakes on my nightstand. Now
they rest in peace in a baggie I can give my doctor when the lyme disease sets in.Oh, and I'm tired as hell.
21 comments:
I now have creepy crawlies too. Just from looking!
I hate those little bastards.
Check out the internets for tick info. The ones that carry Lyme disease are wicked small.
Of course there's also Rocky Mountain spotted fever to worry about. You've never lived till some one has tried to pull a mole (non-rodent type) off your back in a case of entomological mis-identification.
Take care.
Ewwww! and Ick! Hpe those tests come back negative.
I'm not going to get any tests, I'm just saving the creepy little buggers in case....
In the meantime I just let the glorious hypochondria fly!!!
Way to go, Jess! Save that evidence just in case.
I am so paranoid about ticks, even though I think I've only ever found ONE on my person after all my birding jaunts. If I found three in one sitting--I'd probably faint, and then just watch Attenborough's The Life of Birds instead of actually going birding...
Know the feeling. Know the feeling.
Two tick stories.
Me: Camping on GA coast (while in Grad school), find a few attached ticks. Remove. Come back to UGA. Develop a large rash on one but-tocks (as Forrest Gump would say). Go to the infirmary. Nurse examines it. Possible Lyme bulls-eye thingy going on. Then she yells out "Hey,________, come look at this!" And sure enough nurse ________ comes barreling through the exam room door leaving it ajar while my bare, luminous white ass can be seen by all the students in the waiting room. Good times.
This next one might make you cringe, or like me, laugh and point.
Friend: He and his fiance go vacation on FL panhandle. Out for the day in the dunes. Return to hotel room. He needs to relieve himself and upon tidying up discovers something attached near a sensitive sphincter. Asks fiance to check it out (a litmus test on the health of any relationship, I'd say). Yup, tick.
Now, these two 'Bama folk try thinking this one through. (Bad idea.) What makes a tick quit you? Oh, finger nail polish remover (a.k.a. acetone)! Apply. "OMFG that burns!!!! Wipe it off!! Wipe it off!!" (Note: acetone is not an anus friend. Acetone can't come over to anus' house again!).
Hmmm, what else make tick quit you? Oh, yeah...fire! Okay, she lights match, blows it out and moves in...
You know, the thing about acetone is that it has a flash-point of 93.2 degrees Farenheit. Highly flammable. And, no doubt, vapors still wafting off area.
Back to story.
WHHHUUUMPPPP! "IEEEEEE!!!"
Scorched flesh and the wiff of burned hair. (Note: fire not anus friend. Fire can't come over to anus' house anymore either).
And still, despite the smell of scorched anus in the morning, no victory. Just a burned tick, a painful ass, and finally settling for old school tweezers.
(Oh, and what's up with having any kind of pelage aroung your assho...Oops, sorry, gotta go.)
Pretty soon, you might end up being incorporated in a stump speech as a poster child for the need for decent health care coverage.
Why all this hate on the tick? He and Arthur are my favorite super heroes.
I hate bugs.
dguzman turns out the dog had five ticks on him. Yikes.
spirula I am still laughing my ass off.
comrade I have always dreamt of being a poster child! (as long as it's not a wanted or missing persons poster, that is)
dean these were super bugs. the tick himself is safe from me.
dr. monkey don't you eat them off the carcass of your loved ones?
I can sympathize. I had one in a rather embarrassing area once when I was a young, impressionable teen. I was in the shower when I saw it and started screaming for my mother. Luckily we didn't know about Lyme disease back then and I didn't worry after it was off.
Spirula's story was hysterical! Ouch!
Don't worry, I read that it really takes about 24 hours of them being attached before they really can transmit Lyme. I was doing frantic research when I found them on my dog when we were at Cape Cod.
jess,
Please. Those ticks are to be taken very seriously.
Lyme disease can become incurable and ruin your life if left untreated.
Please be cautious.
Wood ticks don't carry Lyme disease. You get it from deer ticks, which are pretty small. Therefore, if the ticks are big enough that you find them before they're engorged with your blood, they're probably wood ticks. I still hate all of them.
Lyme disease got its name from Lyme, Connecticut. I lived in Connecticut, in the country, no less, for the first 9 years of my life and never saw a tick. Then I moved to Wisconsin, went out to some park or other, came home and found myself covered with ticks. My parents, taking the advice of some would-be expert or other, tried the match thing. All it did was burn me. They eventually resorted to the tweezer technique. They pulled 21 ticks off of me. At least nobody told them to try acetone. I don't think I went near a park for quite some time after that. Just looking at those pictures you posted gives me the jibblies.
By the way, John is right. Lyme disease can be very difficult to cure. The earlier you catch it the better. A friend of mine got it last summer, caught it pretty early and still it took the better part of a year to treat it. He felt like hell for months.
Damn! I'm amazed at how similar those three little bastards look. Perhaps your exhaustion is from time spent cloning. And shame on you for smearing bastard juice all over sweet little Lotta's hand-picked gift! If you have yet to contract lyme disease, have a lovely day...
My own nightmare. Couple of years ago we bought several bags of mulch. Seems the ticks were in the mulch and loved my dog. One day he had no ticks and the next we find them all over him...days later on us. In the house, in the bed (our dog slept on our bed at night. We would see them on the floor and on the walls. Happily we were just about to redo all our floors (due to hurricane damage) When the old carpet was removed and with monthly treatment for the dog, all ticks were gone.
I still get the heebie jeebies thinking about those days.
I once found a tick in a most unfortunate place.
Deep sigh.
Just Wondering,
Great. Thank you very much. Just when I felt like it was finally a good idea to go out in the woods...
I'm going into an anxiety attack.
I think I feel one on my scalp.
I'm so sorry that this happened to you and your family. Grosssss!
Ugh. Ticks. The last time we got infested was a few years ago in Iowa, when we didn't realize they'd be out in early April. Usually we just douse our clothing in permethrin and don't have a problem.
Filthy diseased bloodsucking parasites.
My stepsister found one attached to her nipple over the weekend.
hey everyone thank you for the kind words of advice about the ticks. It seems they are dog ticks and we just happened out at their most active time.
One of our dogs wound up with six ticks (we found them AFTER he got his spring haircut!) one of which left his head in the dog's skin. We took him to the vet and ran tests on the dog who is fine. I will hope that by association I am fine too.
Let me tell you guys though, that thanks to your comments each time I have a little itch in the nethers I am freaking out.
Post a Comment