My tick experience. No pictures but not for the squeamish.

"I grew up with Porcini, the king Boletus, and have not found any of those yet. I doubted that they even grew here, but just recently saw what some people have been finding, on the road to our house no less, and they are the real deal!"

Those sound like what we used to gather up north. They were huge and absolutely superb thickly sliced and sautéed in olive oil/butter with just a bare hint of garlic, as an accompaniment to abalone steaks or scrambled eggs, depending on the time of day. I wish I could find the pictures I took when we were up there, but no luck so far. I almost typed Porcini in my original post, but I thought that applied only to the dried ones. Is that also the term for the fresh ones in Italian?

Tom, that's the name, fresh or dried and yes, they are so good…we'd dust them in flour and sautée them in olive oil with a bit of garlic.

Wow, from ticks to food!

"Wow, from ticks to food!"

That's what we call Italian thread drift. With a little help from your friends. ;0))

Greg, thanks for the video. Did anyone notice the video above where the guy removes them by putting a large dab of crime on it? He says that it suffocates them and they fall off with head intac.

Has anyone on here ever tried it??

"He says that it suffocates them and they fall off with head intact."

There are varying degrees of success with suffocation.

But, if you are worried about an allergic reactions, or infectious microbes, time is of the essence. Quick removal is the way to go.

+1 on Todd’s comment on Permethrin vs. tick borne disease trade off … Permethrin is the least risk (IMHO)

But when I do get a tick, I use the slow & steady outward pull/pressure method described in this video from the University of Manitoba

… however instead of using tweezers, I’ve found this tick removal tool gets under the “head” of the tick a lot easier and simplifies applying pulling pressure to the tick without squeezing it.

Here is a study from Ohio State University on the effectiveness of tick removal tools.

FWIW, since adopting this technique I have yet to leave the “head” of the tick behind embedded into my skin. (unlike the other methods I used in my youth which had rather inconsistent results in that department)

YMMV.

edit: fixed the links

Yuk…

When I worked in Dermatology I once had a patient come in because he "had something on his skin" and I see this thing above his left hip the size of -no exaggeration- a very large grape. I couldn't even tell what it was at first until we realized it was a tick.

It had the same tone as his skin and at first glance appeared to be some really unusual neoplasmic growth of some sort.

We kept it in a specimen cup to sent to the lab but somehow this proved unnesseccary and the cup was placed in the fridge and promptly forgotten. I found it two or three months later with the tick still very much alive but now shrunken to (just) the size of a raisin.

Tony,

Those 3 links did a good job of giving me what I need to know for in-field response to ticks. I already have the tool shown.

Thanks

I treat my pants from the knee down and also my shortie gaiters, and spray some on my shoes. Once dry, I bring it in the house and don't worry about treating again for 6-8 washings. It's extremely effective – hiking with a friend who wore shorts on an overgrown trail up a hill, we stopped at the top and counted fifty ticks on her legs. I had none, and tick checks nightly verified none got through for the duration of the trip while she was constantly brushing them off. I've also treated my hammock and straps to keep all bugs from spending any time on them.

I put a tick specific collar on my dog (Advantix) that lasts three months. I've seen ticks on her, but they never latch on. (She takes Trifexis for fleas and worms.)

For the ticks that fall out of trees, I spray my big goofy hat at the beginning of the season – just the outside. Thank goodness I have never had a repeat of the terrible horrible no good tick that caused a rash that spread about four inches per hour! I'll embrace the chemicals, evermore, rather than go through that again. It wasn't Lyme (that was verified through bloodwork) but it sure spread fast. Scared me to death.

Lori,

What material are your pants made of? Cotton, nylon, wool, etc?

I'd like to know because you said the chemicals (permithren?sp?) stayed on well.

We lived on a farm rampant with ticks. It was impossible to keep them off our free roaming pack of dogs–six of them. Our son, who was two, played with them as a member of the pack. They rolled, got muddy and shared more stuff than they probably should. Funny thing, we never found ticks on him. Maybe the dogs were more tasty.

Any fabric not treated to repel moisture works. I don't bother treating my OR crocs but do spray my Dirty Girls and scree gaiters. Treating a tent is a waste. The chemical soaks in, dries, and then is nontoxic to mammals. In the liquid state care should be taken not to expose cats, fish or amphibians to it. Once dry it's stable enough that my cat curls up in my laundry on the pants without so much as a rash.

Permethrin in a lotion suspension is the treatment for chiggers, by the way.

As a kid we made elaborate mazes in the long grass without incident and pulled many dog ticks off our dog. Have to wonder whether it's the presence of larger deer herds where we hike that makes the difference. But I have used my tick puller a lot on other people in the past years.

Kat, If I read correctly, you are getting ticks, in the PNW, this time of year? I had no idea they were around right now.
Kelly

"Kat, If I read correctly, you are getting ticks, in the PNW, this time of year? I had no idea they were around right now."

You are correct in assuming that they are not active at this time of year in the PNW. The tick season up here usually begins in April, as the weather warms and, on the East Side, the snow recedes and leaves a nice warm, damp environment for the little ba$tards to hang out in while waiting for the unwary hiker or climber. We used to look like a pack of baboons, picking ticks off each other after climbing in Icicle Canyon or up at Mt. Erie. in April/May. We didn't eat them, though. ;0))

Hi Kelly,
I am in central coastal California and we have ticks right now. Not as bad as they will be in two or three months, but we have them.
This morning I wore rubber boots, my pants inside my boots, put two inch Gorilla tape around the boots where they met pants. My pants and shirt had been sprayed with permethrin. I did some chainsaw work to clear a trail from fallen trees, three hours later I came home with one walking on my neck and one just starting to get into my arm. I hate them.

I had great success using daily doses of cider vinegar with my horses (1/4 cup in their bran mashes) and the dogs (2 tsp. in food) and myself (2 tsp in a glass of water in the morning) for repelling ticks before gathering cattle in Paseo Robles every spring and fall. The ticks hang off everything waiting to attach…..even the oak trees….ugh! My cousins horses had hundreds of embedded ticks but my mare had only two crawling on her front leg, and my dogs had none and I had only one crawling on me by the end of the day.

Here's another natural treatment. Doctors in the Amazon use sulphur powder externally to prevent tick bites.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-health/repel-ticks-sulfur-remedy-zmaz01aszsel.aspx#axzz3NIQPms8A