As we enter tick season USA Today has some good tips on the nasty things:
Tick season is officially here.
A recent population boom of white-footed mice has led to an increase in ticks in the Northeast, which feed on mice blood and can acquire the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. In areas where ticks are rampant, like in the Northeast, upper Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, it’s important to be on the lookout for ticks and know how to treat a tick bite.
If you’ve been told ticks jump off of trees and onto your body, and that the best way to remove a tick is burning it off, it’s time to read up.
When it comes to ticks, there are many common myths about how to treat tick bites and remove them. We talked to Durland Fish, a Yale school of health professor of epidemiology and Kevin R. Macaluso, professor at the Louisiana State University school of veterinary medicine, about debunking tick myths.
I can testify from personal experience that while ticks may not jump they can and most certainly do drop from trees.
I probably have a lot more intimate experience with ticks than most of you. I’ve told this story before but it bears repeating. When I was a kid, probably around 7, I waded up to my hips in a stream in rural Missouri just after a herd of cows had crossed the stream. I emerged from the water with hundreds of ticks attached to me from the waist down. Despite removal both by my mom and our pediatrician within a few days I had dozens of boils on my back, my butt, and in my groin. I may still have lingering health effects from my tick bites—it’s possible that I contracted some tick-borne disease those many years ago that resulted in the chronic pain condition I have now.
“That is basically how they track a host; it’s not blood per say.”
Does anybody proof anymore?
Proofreading means the articles per day quota is delayed.
My own advice hats, long sleeves, trousers tucked into boots, liberal dusting with flowers of sulfur and a lack of modesty in checking for ticks afterwards.