ticks (Cookeville: homes, landscaping, subdivision)

[nkvette]

I am not familiar with ticks.....what precautions can one take what problems do they cause?

[alleycat]

If you go out walking in woody or weedy areas, check yourself when you get back home (or have a really close friend do it). You could also use one of the commercial insert repellents and wear snug clothes. If you do find a tick on yourself, try to make the tick "let go" rather than just pulling it out. You can sometimes do this by taking an extinguished match and holding it near the little fellow.

Most of the time ticks are just irritating, but there are a couple of diseases they carry, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme disease are probably the most serious. These are rare in Tennessee however.

[TN Tin Man]

DET is the best, Try to find the roll on stick hunting supply in WalMart. Then put that on your pant cuff and top of shoes. Blouse your pants into your boot, ( tuck in ) or use a rubber band around the cuff. Or just stay out of deep weeds......... I presume that a tick and a chigger are in the same family.....

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by alleycat

If you go out walking in woody or weedy areas, check yourself when you get back home (or have a really close friend do it). You could also use one of the commercial insert repellents and wear snug clothes. If you do find a tick on yourself, try to make the tick "let go" rather than just pulling it out. You can sometimes do this by taking an extinguished match and holding it near the little fellow.

Most of the time ticks are just irritating, but there are a couple of diseases they carry, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme disease are probably the most serious. These are rare in Tennessee however.

If you do find a tick on yourself, try to make the tick "let go" rather than just pulling it out. You can sometimes do this by taking an extinguished match and holding it near the little fellow.

Don't ever do this.

Read this article and make sure to click on the links under Additional Information at the bottom.

snopes.com: Liquid Soap Tick Removal

[Tony1790]

Everytime I go out to my property that has tall grass on it, I find 4 to 5 ticks crawling on my pant legs and shirt, kinda freaks me out, but I flick em off before they get to the skin and start feeding.

Tony

[themudpuppy]

I agree with Tek-Freek. Never put anything on a tick to make it release. Very dangerous if a tick is carrying a disease. Best way to remove them is with a tick removal tool. The one I like best is called Ticked Off, and is available in pet stores. It works just as good on humans as it does on pets. It's much easier to use than tweezers if you're alone and get a tick in a hard to reach area, because you have a better chance at getting it out all the way than using tweezers when you're twisted into all kinds of odd positions trying to reach it. I live alone, so I know all about this, lol!

Whatever you use, grab the tick close to your skin and try not to twist it, so you'll get the head. I had a head imbedded deep in my behind once and had to have the doctor cut it out. It's the first time he had ever seen a tick that deep. First time he had to take one out of that part of the body too. Talk about embarrassing.

Tick diseases found in TN are Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lyme disease, Ehrlichia, and Bartonella. Lyme disease is no longer rare in TN. I have chronic Lyme disease and have had Ehrlichia chaffeensis, both from TN ticks. My dog has recurring Ehrlichia canis, and has had Lyme disease, Bartonella vinsonii, and Ehrlichia equi, all in TN.

When I got Ehrlichia, doctors had to report all confirmed TN cases to the health department, who then informed the CDC. I don't know if they're still required to do so or not. The health department then contacted me to check on my status after treatment. It's a myth that Lyme disease is rare in TN. I mentioned to the health department that I was having a hard time receiving proper treatment for my Lyme disease in TN, and the health department told me that TN doctors are still of the belief that Lyme disease is rare in TN, and that most patients don't receive correct treatment in time because of this, and then end up with chronic Lyme disease like I have, which our docs have no idea what to do with, so the patient usually has to go out of state for treatment, which is ridiculous considering we have some of the best teaching hospitals here. Apparently they don't teach them much about tick diseases. The doctor I originally saw when I got Ehrlichia thought Ehrlichia and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever were the same disease. The health department said Lyme disease is not rare in TN and that the CDC is or was working on "educating" TN doctors about both Lyme disease and Ehrlichia.

The best way to keep ticks off you is using a repellant and wearing long sleeves, and snug clothes, as has already been suggested. I'm really bad about not following those instructions though. It's sooooo humid in TN that I can't stand wearing long sleeves. I just try to avoid going in wooded or weedy areas during tick season. Although that doesn't always keep them off of you either. The area where I live is infested with ticks, even in short grass, but I never saw even one tick in the TN town I lived in before.

[welltravelled]

Are ticks really that bad in TN? I have hiked in Texas, Arkansas, California, Colorado and Georgia..the only place I ever got a tick on me was Georgia.

[themudpuppy]

Originally Posted by lutarian

Are ticks really that bad in TN? I have hiked in Texas, Arkansas, California, Colorado and Georgia..the only place I ever got a tick on me was Georgia.

In some areas they're very bad, and in others they aren't. Where I live now they're very bad, but I never saw a tick in the town I lived in before. Even in the same town there can be "pockets" of them. For example, I know a lot of people in one fairly new subdivision here, and out of those people, only one person's yard always has a tick problem, and the others have never seen one. Those homes and yards are all nearly identical, with the same landscaping and everything, and they all keep their lawns mowed short, so nobody can figure out why the ticks are only a problem in that one yard.

[daniellefort]

Last year we went to our property and the grass was so high because we have people using it to hay for themselves and the grass was over 2 feet tall. We couldn't even step out of the truck and we were covered in ticks. It was freaking me out. they were even on just the blacktop pavement crawling around. that was with the drought last year. This year, we went up and the grass was just as high just about ready to cut for hay again but there has been alot of rain as well and we saw probably 5 or 6 ticks the entire week we were up there working. I wonder if the dryness brings them out more. Either time during the drought or this year, once we mowed it down with our own mower to make a pathway, the ticks were gone or at least not jumping on us. Nothing like going to bed at night thinking you got something crawling on your back just to jump out of bed, wake your husband up to find nothing there.

[alicenevada]

To be brutally honest, the ticks are HORRIBLE this year! We live in rural Tn between Nashville and Cookeville. Even when my boys stay in the short grass, they get many ticks on them. Even w/Deep Woods OFF on them, we're finding ticks on their underarms, necks, and privates. I've been in tears on several occasions. We had already decided to move out west due to my husband's work and the weather but the ticks this year have clinched it.

My 4 year old was rushed to the doctor last saturday because his private area had swollen to FOUR times the size! It was the scariest thing I've ever experienced as a parent! It looked like it was going to burst. The doctor set my mind at ease by telling me that this was just a NORMAL reaction some people have to a tick bite-not even an allergy. That only SLIGHTLY set my mind at ease and I gave him a prescription of prednizone for the next week to bring the swelling down.

Per the doctor, this is the best thing for a tick that is attatched: Pull it out with tweezers, and douse the area w/ alcohol. Expect some severe itching for the next week and a half and obviously swelling is also 'normal'. Severe swelling like my son's needs to be treated and if there are other symptoms, that also needs to be treated-for fear of lyme disease or rocky mountain spotted fever.