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My family and I are moving to RI this summer from Southern Ca. We are looking at East Greenwich and Barrington. I have recently stumbled upon the whole tick/lyme disease thing and am a bit freaked out. East Greenwich is gorgeous but with all the trees and stone walls it seems like there will be tons of ticks. I want my daughter to be able to play in the yard. I know there are preventative things you can do like sprays and keeping your yard clear of leaves but I'm not too happy about spraying everyone with pesticides. Is Barrington any better? I wasn't considering Providence but now I'm thinking the city may have less problems with ticks. Any help would be greatly appreciated
I'm a little biased here because Lyme made me really sick. I went undiagnosed for a long time and got some pretty nasty neurological symptoms. I'm 95% better now, but the whole experience has made me much more careful. At this point, I do a tick check almost every time I go outside in the spring and summer months, unless I'm only out briefly or don't touch any grass. I guess you could say I'm pretty paranoid, but I know what this disease can do and I don't want to risk it coming back. I'm not a scientist or an expert, so most of what I'm about to tell you is based off of personal experience and light reading on the internet.
The best way to cope is to learn how to do thorough tick checks, take preventative measures like tucking your pants into your socks (dorky looking, but better to look dorky than to have Lyme) and to get treatment quickly if you do get sick. There are natural tick sprays you can use if you're worried about stuff like DEET. I use a witch hazel/lemongrass based bug repellant that seems to work; I haven't found any ticks on myself since I started using it. It seems to keep the mosquitos away too. There is also a tick repellant called permethrin that you can put on your clothing, although I personally haven't tried this and am not too sure how safe it is. It's up to you to judge if the benefits outweigh the potential risks of stuff like that. I wouldn't say it's necessary to spray your property with pesticides. Your kid can pick up Lyme anywhere, and you can't spray every place she goes. It's better to teach her to be smart and aware at all times. If you have pets that go outside, be very diligent about applying tick repellant because not only can they get Lyme & coinfections, they can also bring diseased ticks into the house with them, and it's harder to find ticks because of their fur. This is purely anecdotal, but Frontline didn't work consistently for my family's dog. We used K9 Advantix instead after he got Lyme while on Frontline.
Not sure how many ticks there are in Barrington, but hey, I got Lyme and I'm from Warwick, which is supposedly not as risky as South County. So did my family's dog, who never ventured outside of Warwick. Even if the ticks aren't as prevalent in Barrington as they are in East Greenwich, I don't think you're truly safe anywhere. Even in Providence, I try to be careful.
URI's Tick Encounter website is a great resource. Some of the Lyme activism websites, such as lymedisease.org, also have prevention information. Bottom line: be careful, but don't let fear of Lyme keep you from enjoying life. As long as you and your family do tick checks and are careful, you shouldn't have to avoid playing outside or living a normal life.
Last edited by GetYeFlask; 04-01-2014 at 02:13 AM..
Reason: Adding more detail and fixing grammatical erros.
Thanks for all of your great advice. I'm glad you are feeling better and I hope you beat it for good.
My daughter's doctor here in CA suspected Lyme because of her neurological issues and she has been tested. It came back negative with 2 undetermined. She is still suspicious but I'm not sure whether to proceed with treatment as I can't imagine where she would have been bitten by a tick out here. I hate that these tests are not foolproof.
Most people I ask about the ticks say it's not really a big deal you just take precautions and check your kid. The more I read though the bigger deal it seems it can be. Maybe it's kind of like how people are afraid of earthquakes when they come to CA. There is always something to be wary of no matter where you go.
I will definitely check out the links you mentioned.
I also saw a documentary not too long ago that stated that Lyme has been found in southern states such as Georgia and the Carolinas. They said it has always been there but not documented since no one knew it was possible for the ticks to live there...
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