Ticks and Safety

[Sharon]

"With this warm winter I expect that the ticks will be a lot worse this year than the last few years. I don't take my dog in the bush at all now, at least not till I get to shoot another deer." quote sabmgb


Be careful though. All you need is some grass in the back yard to have ticks.

[sabmgb]

can get them anywhere now a days. They get on a bird that flies into the city and falls off. I got one on me couple years back from the backyard garden and wife last year go one while working the front flower garden and we live in city

[werner.reiche]

Got my first tick bite of the year.... Darn.

BTW - they've changed the guidelines on when you can/can't get the prophylactic 200mg doxycycline dose.
You can get this at a pharmacy now. The guideline they are using now is that the tick needs to be attached for at least 36 hours for you to get it.
Adjust your story accordingly.

Pet peeve... I'm not sure who came up with the 36 hour thing. A tick that has been attached for less than 24 hours can be burrowed in halfway to China.
Personal knowledge: you can get Lyme from a tick bite so brief that you didn't even know you got bit.

The same stupidity with the covid 6 foot rule - once someone writes something down, it's like friggin' Moses brought it down from Mount Sinai.



https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31449366/

[Sharon]

Got my first tick bite of the year.... Darn.

BTW - they've changed the guidelines on when you can/can't get the prophylactic 200mg doxycycline dose.
You can get this at a pharmacy now. The guideline they are using now is that the tick needs to be attached for at least 36 hours for you to get it.
Adjust your story accordingly.

Pet peeve... I'm not sure who came up with the 36 hour thing. A tick that has been attached for less than 24 hours can be burrowed in halfway to China.
Personal knowledge: you can get Lyme from a tick bite so brief that you didn't even know you got bit.

The same stupidity with the covid 6 foot rule - once someone writes something down, it's like friggin' Moses brought it down from Mount Sinai.



https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31449366/

Thanks. Good info.
"Adjust your story accordingly." LOL you should be a politician.

[ninepointer]

Before this week, I could count on one hand how many ticks I pulled off my dogs over the span of a decade in Simcoe County.

Last week after a single outing I found 5 on my clothes and 6 on my dog; all black legged ticks.

Still don’t miss that aspect of living in Niagara…

[C.F.]

They are out in full force in York region. We keep our dog on tick meds most months out of the year. Bug spray with a high % of DEET works well on yourself/clothing. If you can get your hands on permethrin to treat your clothing with it works great.
As already stated, Lyme is a horrible disease and usually the tick is carrying many other co-infections. If you contract Lyme and leave it untreated for even a month or two you can end up with a years long battle trying to fight it

[longpointer]

I've hunted the Long Point area of Norfolk County ( Ground Zero for Lyme Disease in Ontario ) all my life and retired here 5 years ago and have had many close encounters with ticks even after taking all precautions and as yet to come down with Lyme Disease. I consider myself lucky but I think due diligence in checking and quick removal of them has kept me safe. Most times it's the American Dog Tick people find and not the dreaded Black Legged Tick which of course is the carrier of Lyme Disease. I would love to see a vaccine for humans against this disease or at least a better blood test that can be done here in Ontario with quicker more accurate results as I believe tests now are sent to the States and have too many false negative results.

[Badenoch]

Thanks. Good info.
"Adjust your story accordingly." LOL you should be a politician.

The really good political answer would be "I don't remember."

No ticks so far for me this year but I'm on the look out. Found 6 in my clothes last year and three embedded.

[Cass]

They're horrendous this year. Dogs have been fine but I've pulled a ton off myself and the kids.