Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Hubby's been scorpion stung twice, my 10 yr old daughter twice (the first when she was 7) - we're quite casual about scorpions now! Which is lucky, as we currently have one in the sticky trap in my bathroom, and one in the trap in my daughter's bedroom (she has an external door).

Haven't seen a brown recluse yet; the black widow over the weekend was the second one we've found on the property (the first was in an irrigation valve box, when we took the lid off to check for snakes, having found a small dead one just by it).

Haven't seen any mountain lions around here, but we have had a skunk on the front doorstep. We had a coyote in the last house's backyard, and would often hear them howling. That house was in NE Mesa, on a road that's the furthest possible to go in Metro Phoenix without hitting desert on the way to Fountain Hills. It was on flood irrigation and each time we used it, we had to go into the overgrown empty lot next door to open a sluice gate first. The times I had to do it at 1am in the pitch black scared the willies out of me; I used to wear hubby's wellies against snakes in the long grass, and whistle along swinging a torch to scare off all the creatures I could absolutely, definitely hear rustling in the bushes, honest...

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Using willies and wellies in the same sentence can cause confusion for Americans since most don't know what a welly is and assume you are referring to a willy.:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Finding a katydid on the curtain in the lounge freaked me out enough, glad suburban Virginia is relatively benign on the creepy crawly front.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

We have plenty of deer, hoping to pull a tag this year, came across 3 walking the dog today, but I have never heard of Deer Ticks being an issue.

We came across a couple of Moose last week, big and fast buggers, Moose Ticks would probably be more interesting.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Yeah, I knew there was a reason I pay someone to spray the house every two months.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Well understandably not casual. Having a 7 year old stung by a scorpion can't be nice. I remember seeing kids stung by weaver fish at the beach in the UK.

I wonder do you live near the base of a mountain? or near a wash? Those locations are prone to scorpions apparently.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

To keep the moose down?

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Yes, you're lucky. Living in Colorado the biggest tick danger is Colorado Tick Fever from the Rocky Mountain wood tick (they like large game like moose) or the American dog tick.

This gives you a bad case of flu lasting a few days but rarely any other complications. (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, despite its name, is supposed to be rare in CO.)

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05593.html

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Moose bites can be rather nasty you know. My sister was bitten by a moose once...

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

ROFL

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

She seems to get stung by everything - a wasp before she was even one, a couple of bees so far, and now scorpions; she's consequently quite casual about it now. My 14 yr old has never been stung once!

My cross streets are McDowell and Val Vista, so it's an 'edge of the desert, former citrus groves' thing. Although her first scorpion was in the middle of Gilbert, when we first came over to look around the area prior to moving and had only been in AZ for a week. Like I said, if there's a stinging thing nearby, it'll find her!

I do my own spraying using CyKick, and it does help. There's a startling difference on our black lighting after a spray bout (every 1-2 months in summer, maybe once during winter). I've found simply wetting the ground in a mist has little effect, but squirting the stuff in a fine jet into the block wall cracks is miraculously effective.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

I got an email that my tick has been received by the lab, and that "my" tick was female and was engorged.

She certainly didn't look engorged to me--she was so bl$$dy tiny, I thought she was a spot of dirt. But apparently she had drunk blood (probably mine) for a little while at least. They're testing for three diseases, and the results will take 3-5 days.

Meanwhile I've not felt well, but maybe that was because of the doxycycline dose, which is only now leaving my system (strong stuff). The bite has hurt now and again, but it and the bruise/rash are slowly fading. Both legs are somewhat swollen and have itchy patches that come & go, which I can ignore during the day but which become irksome at night. Again, I don't know if this is the doxy (some people report itchy skin from it) or possible Lyme, or some other possible disease the tick could have had (anaplasmosis, babesia).

Wish me luck. I'd love to have this tick turn up negative for Lyme, but I think I might go have the test in a few weeks anyway. False negatives aren't unheard of..........

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Oh dear...good luck.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

I thought that was a myth.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

It ith...

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Along with covering the tick with hair spray, nail polish remover etc. :blink:

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

In the UK, the RSPT* are dead against all those strategies.

*Royal Society for the Protection of Ticks.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

On the first point - controversial because it is a terrible idea for the good of humanity. Ever heard the phrase "post-antibiotic era?" Hopefully, it remains merely theoretical, however every unnecessary antibiotic prescription brings it closer.

On the second point - utter nonsense - there was a safe and effective human Lyme vaccine produced by GSK. They withdrew it from market in the face of poor sales and nonsense lawsuits designed to force them to lose money/pull it from market by the anti-vaccination nutjob crowd.

In the US, the anti-vaccine nuts cannot legally sue over adverse effects alleged from routine childhood vaccines. Instead, vaccines are taxed (which is just sad... but necessary due to the anti-vac nuts) and settlements to their nonsense allegations (and the occasional true adverse reaction) are paid for from that tax fund. Lyme wasn't a routine childhood vaccine, thus leaving GSK open to nonsense lawsuits.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

There seems to be quite a clamour to resurrect the vaccine, because of the rates of infection, and the evolved immunity in the tick disease to antibiotics.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

I know what you mean, Markie, about overuse of antibiotics. But people with undiagnosed Lyme disease (because they didn't realise they were bitten by a tick, didn't have any of the typical symptoms, or had such mild symptoms they didn't notice), can much later get dreadful neurological or arthritic or brain consequences that can ruin a life.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

I agree. I think the argument against antibiotic overuse goes right out the window when you yourself--or one of your children--need a strong bullet and nothing else will work ... or work as well.

Taking one course of antibiotic as early as possible after a doctor determines that infection is likely rather than having to take massive doses later on, perhaps years later, when the spirochetes have begun to do their real damage to the body's organs--just seems sensible to me.

But yes, what we really need is a vaccine. In my opinion, in some parts of this country a Lyme vaccine should be one of the childhood requirements...

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Eh? We've been on an expat posting in Zug (between Zurich and Lucerne, German speaking part of Switzerland) for the past three years. There are approx 200 expats here with my spouse's company - mainly from the US (Aetna health insurance) and UK (BUPA International health insurance). We have never been informed about vaccinations re: Lyme Disease, I've just asked my spouse and no-one at the office has mentioned it :huh:

We have fields, woods, farms with cattle, sheep, goats etc. right behind our apartment as well as a small mountain, the Zugerberg - with many thousands of trees, bushes etc. but have not yet had a tick bite :fingerscrossed: :blink:

The sad thing is that in the New Jersey township where we have a house (18 miles west of NYC) the local council allows hunters to go into the local reservation to shoot the deer, blaming them for the spread of Lyme Disease, yet I imagine that one is more likely to get them via raccoons and skunks tbh. :thumbdown:

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

My mistake, sorry - I misremembered as there was some expat confusion at the time. It's not a Lyme vaccine, it's one against tick-born encephalitis. Here's a thread on Englishforum discussing it; I recall similar chats on Yahoo Mums too:
http://www.englishforum.ch/family-ma...ccination.html. Still, might be worth looking into that vaccine, since I think you're in a 'ticky' area.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Agreed, but that's why GSK needs to be petitioned to re-introduce the vaccine. Possibly, make it a childhood recommended vaccine in parts of the northeast US - that would both improve vaccine coverage AND give GSK protection from nonsense lawsuits.

Tick-borne encephalitis vaccine is neither necessary nor approved in the US, because TBE doesn't occur here.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...-martin-blaser

Rather appropriate article in the Guardian today. I agree with the principal even if this text is a bit ropy.

Does beg the question if holding off yourself helps if other people are developing more resistant versions.

Not sure if it really matters, pills are cheap. Doctors expensive, so the pills win.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Ropy? It's downright fluffy unsupported nonsense and conjecture. He may be a scientist in a lab but to suddenly say "oh my there can't possibly be ten different reasons for these ten diseases it must be antibiotics misuse" is poor thinking. He might as well have said God did it.

Yes antibiotics are being misused and causing resistant strains to develop and a balance of good bacteria is needed in the gut. That's why you are often recommended to eat yoghurt when taking them. But to say whet he is saying is almost as bad as Wakefield.

Re: Deer Tick Bite
 

Good, it wasn't just me that thought that.