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.