First, I didn't think much of ticks - I thought they were a nuisance, but nothing serious. So, after I got particularly attacked one warm summer evening, I didn't really care much for it. 3 ticks in one day - okay, not ideal, but I wasn't going to freak (I've been stung by jellyfish, bitten by snakes, hundreds of spider bites, the odd encounter with a wasp or two .. Australian problems...)
But, a few days after I brushed it all off, I noticed the tell-tale signs of the red bullseye targets .. and I did nothing. I simply was ignorant that it could get so bad.
Three weeks later, I was feeling awful - just totally shit. I happened to mention that I was in an area known for ticks, and my friend said "well, have you been bitten recently?" .. I recalled the event, and they promptly sent me straight to hospital for a blood test.
Yup, I came back positive for Borellia. 6 weeks of antibiotics, and real hellish symptoms - lethargy like no other I've ever experienced, headaches, lack of attention and sometimes real cognitive problems. Aches in every bone in my body.
Take this one serious, folks. Get yourself tested within days of a tick bite. Its really not something you want to go through, believe me ...
Lyme Disease is very serious, but this is bad advice.
https://www.uptodate.com/contents/what-to-do-after-a-tick-bi...
>There are many different types of ticks in the United States, some of which are capable of transmitting infections. The risk of developing these infections depends upon the geographic location, season of the year, type of tick, and, for Lyme disease, how long the tick was attached to the skin.
>While many people are concerned after being bitten by a tick, the risk of acquiring a tick-borne infection is quite low, even if the tick has been attached, fed, and is actually carrying an infectious agent. Ticks transmit infection only after they have attached and then taken a blood meal from their new host. A tick that has not attached (and therefore has not yet become engorged from its blood meal) has not passed any infection. Since the deer tick that transmits Lyme disease typically feeds for >36 hours before transmission of the spirochete, the risk of acquiring Lyme disease from an observed tick bite, for example, is only 1.2 to 1.4 percent, even in an area where the disease is common.
>The organism that causes Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, lies dormant in the inner aspect of the tick's midgut. The organism becomes active only after exposure to the warm blood meal entering the tick's gut. Once active, the organism enters the tick's salivary glands. As the tick feeds, it must get rid of excess water through the salivary glands. Thus, the tick will literally salivate organisms into the wound, thereby passing the infection to the host.
>If a person is bitten by a deer tick (the type of tick that carries Lyme disease), a healthcare provider will likely advise one of two approaches:
>●Observe and treat if signs or symptoms of infection develop
>●Treat with a preventive antibiotic immediately
>There is no benefit of blood testing for Lyme disease at the time of the tick bite; even people who become infected will not have a positive blood test until approximately two to six weeks after the infection develops (post-tick bite).
>The history of the tick bite will largely determine which of these options is chosen. Before seeking medical attention, the affected person or household member should carefully remove the tick and make note of its appearance (picture 1). Only the Ixodes species of tick, also known as the deer tick, causes Lyme disease.
.....
>Need for treatment — The clinician will review the description of the tick, along with any physical symptoms, to decide upon a course of action. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recommends preventive treatment with antibiotics only in people who meet ALL of the following criteria:
>●Attached tick identified as an adult or nymphal Ixodes scapularis (deer) tick
>●Tick is estimated to have been attached for ≥36 hours (based upon how engorged the tick appears or the amount of time since outdoor exposure)
>●The antibiotic can be given within 72 hours of tick removal
>●The local rate of tick infection with B. burgdorferi is ≥20 percent (known to occur in parts of New England, parts of the mid-Atlantic states, and parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin)
>●The person can take doxycycline (eg, the person is not pregnant or breastfeeding or a child <8 years of age)
>If the person meets ALL of the above criteria, the recommended dose of doxycycline is a single dose of 200 mg for adults and 4 mg/kg, up to a maximum dose of 200 mg, in children ≥ 8 years.
>If the person cannot take doxycycline, the IDSA does not recommend preventive treatment with an alternate antibiotic for several reasons: there are no data to support a short course of another antibiotic, a longer course of antibiotics may have side effects, antibiotic treatment is highly effective if Lyme disease were to develop, and the risk of developing a serious complication of Lyme disease after a recognized bite is extremely low.
......
>Signs of Lyme disease — Whether or not a clinician is consulted after a tick bite, the person who was bitten (or the parents, if a child was bitten) should observe the area of the bite for expanding redness, which would suggest erythema migrans (EM), the characteristic rash of Lyme disease (picture 3). Approximately 80 percent of people with Lyme disease develop EM; 10 to 20 percent of people have multiple lesions. (See "Patient education: Lyme disease symptoms and diagnosis (Beyond the Basics)".)
>The EM rash is usually a salmon color although, rarely, it can be an intense red, sometimes resembling a skin infection. The color may be almost uniform. The lesion typically expands over a few days or weeks and can reach over 20 cm (8 inches) in diameter. As the rash expands, it can become clear (skin-colored) in the center. The center of the rash can then appear a lighter color than its edges or the rash can develop into a series of concentric rings giving it a "bull's eye" appearance. The rash usually causes no symptoms, although burning or itching has been reported.
>In people with early localized Lyme disease, EM occurs within one month of the tick bite, typically within a week of the tick bite, although only one-third of people recall the tick bite that gave them Lyme disease. Components of tick saliva can also cause a rash; however, this rash should not be confused with EM. The rash caused by tick saliva typically occurs while the tick is still feeding or just after the tick detaches, and usually does not expand to a size larger than a dime.
>If EM or other signs or symptoms suggestive of Lyme disease develop (table 1), the person should see a healthcare provider for proper diagnosis and treatment. (See "Patient education: Lyme disease treatment (Beyond the Basics)".)
Coincidentally, I am in northern Virginia, went for a run and found a small tick on me tonight (for the first time ever).
Also be careful when you remove via tweezers. If you squeeze their body you're likely to cause them to regurgitate into you which almost guarantees an infection.
I use a tick removal tool (actually used it yesterday while building a fence on the wooded side of my yard) that uses a tear drop shape to try and pinch the tick at the neck minimize regurgitation.
Soak cotton balls in permethrin concentrate (you can get it on amazon) and when dry, put them in empty toilet paper tubes. Put the tubes around your yard in the spring. Mice will feather their nests with the cotton balls and the ticks will die in droves.
Also - After finding an attached tick on myself this weekend (hiking in PA, including some bushwhacking) I found the following link full of good info and somewhat comforting. Check yourself for ticks after every outing in the woods - only 1.4% chance of catching Lyme if you actually find the tick attached: https://www.uptodate.com/contents/what-to-do-after-a-tick-bi...
You take a q-tip. Soak in alcohol. Use it to gently rotate/spin the tick around its axis. After a few 360 degree turns, it will release its jaws and pop out all by itself, leaving nothing behind.
They also pretty much never get rabies, which is just cool.
Two year later, while camping, I had to remove a handfull of ticks and a tick removal tool (shaped like a crowbar) was very usefull.
All over, I must have remove a dozen of ticks, but luckily I've never caught anything.
This page has an uncommon photo of just how small the nymph deer ticks are. https://sectionhiker.com/backpacking-lyme-disease-prevention...
I see there is some kind of "blame everything on lyme disease" movement going on as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease_controversy
Things like climate change and wildlife management practices are thought to be a factor.
(warmer winters->less ticks die, more deer->more deer ticks)
Anecdotally, 15 years ago I used to maybe find one tick a year after frequent walks/hikes in grasslands or woods. Today I can walk the same trail systems and find 10+ ticks per dog after a single days walk even when they have tick/flea treatment applied. It's a frequent topic of discussion in outdoorsy groups and communities, vet clinics, ranchers, etc.
Humanity is now one of the most successful species on the planet. Seven billion humans is an enormous biomass, and that our livestock make up most of the mammalian biomass on the planet. [1]
So that alone makes us a big juicy target for diseases and parasites which will prey upon us.
A communicable disease which targets, for example, bobcats, isn't going to spread very far or fast, given their low population and disjointed territory.
[1] http://www.kalaharilionresearch.org/2015/01/16/human-vs-live...
I also stopped enjoying my favorite hobby, running on deer trails and through dense forests. I check intently for ticks after ever forest excursion, but it is very disheartening when I find one. They are so incredibly small it seems impossible not to missed one. Plus it is extremely difficult to check your hair and back and I rarely have a running partner. All in all, Lyme disease, indian genocide, and invasion of Libya are my top 3 atrocities US gov has committed.
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Systems-34020-Lifesystem-Remover...
...
> $11.98 shipping
is it wrapped in silk and gold leaf?.
Just use your fingernail, scratch it off carefully. I can't imagine trying to use this or one of the crazier, "heat a needle" or "spread vasaline on them methods" when trying to remove the sometimes hundreds of ticks and chiggars you might have after working in the wrong field for a day.
I've read from a few researchers that if you find a tick, just start taking the 21 day antibiotic course right away regardless - even if the thing just dug in.
Not saying ticks aren't a health risk. But an inactive lifestyle is also a health risk, and very likely a much bigger one.
There are things you can do to protect yourself and reduce the risk, e.g. using insect repellents and removing ticks quickly if you see them. Also for FSME there's a vaccine if you live in a risk area (for Lyme there is none, although a vaccine used to exist...).
You don't have to perform activities that expose yourself to the risk of getting tickborne illness just to be active.
Besides each door leaving my house is a can of "Off".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amblyomma_americanum
Parasites suck.
I reported where and when the infection took place on a local website which tracks these things. I informed the city council (considering this happened in a very busy public park) and I was pretty much told that nothing would be done. More green spaces would help. Keeping certain animals (like chickens) might also help. Killing the fuckers outright is another possibility, but I have to admit to being relucant about spraying toxic crap in public parks.
It looks like a single tick may produce 500 - 15,000 ticks per "ovipostion" (egg-laying session).
LABORATORY STUDIES ON THE OVIPOSITION, EGG-SIZES AND SHAPES AND EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT OF DERMACENTOR VA RIA BILlS, RHIPICEPHALUS SANGUINEUS AND AMBLYOMMA MACULATUM http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/cbgp/acarologia/export_pdf.p...
The levels of exhaustion before I knew what I had and was treated, were insane. Often asked myself how I could be so tired.
https://www.consumerreports.org/products/insect-repellent/ra...
E.g. both of these get high marks:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F8AMY92
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015KG5NK
DEET seems to be more effective than the Picaridin for ticks, but if you have a sensitivity to DEET then Picaridin may be the next best option and supposedly doesn't smell as bad.
If you look up the MSDS for DEET, it's actually odorless. The classic smell of Off! isn't from the DEET, and you can get odorless versions of it. I found a very good one in Moscow a few years back that just smelled like hand cream.
Then again there's few ticks in Canada's north, so Canadian hikers should just explore the northern part of their provinces.
I see it like antibiotics - local usage probably pales in comparison to agricultural/industrial usage (e.g. sheep dip [1] and neonicotinoid usage [2] )
Yeah, I don't think dousing yourself with insecticide is all that dangerous unless you're doing it constantly like the agricultural examples above.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep_dip
[2] https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/study-stren...
Where it is prevalent, this is standard good advice, advice that we even taught in the BSA 18 years ago in the NE. Lyme is a really nasty thing to get, and not everyone even realizes they were bit, or is symptomatic at first. My case was when I was 15, worked at a camp, got bit, came out before I could notice, no rash. At some point later that summer came down with flu like symptoms, which went away in a standard flu timeframe.
Two months later I had extreme fatigue, I'm talking couldn't stay awake longer than 6 hours. Luckily a blood test confirmed it, but not before it had spread to my spinal fluid, requiring two hospitalizations, over 30 days of IV antibiotics and additional treatment.
So perhaps what works for you down South doesn't work where this is an issue, and hopefully it won't ever be something you or your neighbors need to worry about the way we do.
And I'm an Epidemiologist who went to school in the South.
Photo taken yesterday. I bought some old farmland and it has been a completely insane year so far for ticks. I wish I could do a prescribed burn of the field but it's not well set up for that.
I find ticks constantly on dogs after taking walks/hikes in California/Oregon/Washington, even if they have tick/flea treatment. I've had one embedded in me that was so small and flush it looked just like a new tiny mole had appeared, it wasn't until it squirmed around after being brushed over a few times that I realized it was a tick. They can be quite a challenge to remove properly even with tweezers.
The tick population has surged dramatically in the western states and east coast, largely from an overpopulation of deer, mice, and other rodents, and an increasing lack of predators to those common tick carriers. Ultimately we to allow predators to return to the natural landscape and in abundance, with birds of prey, foxes, coyote, etc to take out the mice and smaller carriers, and we many more large predators, bear, wolf, mountain lion, human hunters included, to reduce the dramatic deer overpopulation.
And yes, thinning of known tick carriers like mice and deer is demonstrably proven to work.
http://www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/publications/fact_...
1. Clear all debris (wood chips, leaves, etc) from places people frequent, and keep the grass cut short
2. Permethrin-laced cotton balls inside PVC tubes scattered liberally around the area. Small animals pick these up and make nests out of them, which kills the ticks while they're on the rodent hosts.
3. Permethrin on footwear, and safe insect repellent (DEET or picaridin, also geranium oil seems to help) on skin and lower-half clothing
4. Chickens in the yard seem to eat more than they host
5. Daily checks for everybody in the house
https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/graphs.html
https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/maps.html
https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/tables.html
As an aside, it's tricky interpreting certain stats regarding epidemiology. The incidence is the number of new cases in the population in a given time frame, and prevalence is the total number of people known to have the disease in the population. Sometime a disease can appear to be "on the rise" because there is increased surveillance and screening for the disease, or because diagnostic methods have improved, which naturally lead to an increased incidence and prevalence.
Disclaimer: I'm not arguing that Lyme Disease isn't real, isn't serious, or anything along those lines. But from a medical perspective, we deal with fear of Lyme way more often than the actual disease. Some parents will bring their child into the clinic every time they think they may have seen a tick within arm's reach of them. And when someone presents with an attached tick, it's more often than not an adult wood tick (which can transmit RMSF and tularemia but are not B. Burgdorfi vectors).
When you are bitten by a tick, or any insect, some inflammatory response is expected, i.e. your skin will probably turn red. It doesn't automatically mean it's erythema migrans (bull's eye rash). But to muddy the waters even further, as little as 50-80% of confirmed LD cases had the EM sign, and many don't recall a tick bite whatsoever.
But if you are in an endemic area, clinical suspicion for LD is high, we should be able to prove you have the disease with lab tests, right? Well, unfortunately Borrelia are notoriously difficult to culture, so that's out. The CDC recommends a two-step testing process.
Step 1 is the Enzyme Immunoassay (EIA). If your EIA is negative, LD is ruled out. If it is positive or "indeterminate" (2nd most common outcome after negative in my experience), you move on to the Western blot which looks for antigenic proteins associated with the disease. It is considered positive if 2 specific bands are visualized or if at least 5 of a list of 10 other bands are seen. The problem is that these bands can take up to 6 weeks after exposure to become detectable. If you have no idea when/if you were actually exposed, this test is a shot in the dark. To top it all off, it can also come back "mildly" to "moderately" positive for LD.
So if your EIA is negative, or if your WB is 2/2 or 5+/10 positive, we can give you a definitive answer. Otherwise, it comes down to clinical judgment and weighing the risks and benefits of treatment. If you were bitten by a tick, got a rash, had no drug allergies, the safer play is to assume LD, give antibiotics, and forgo the serologic testing that may or may not give an answer.
TLDR - Lyme Disease is complicated.
Other than that, I think it's information worth considering. Lyme has become a huge political disease, which is really unfortunate for the chronically ill patients who are left in the middle of this battle.
The CDC is actually harmful with the misinformation and test suggestions they provide. I have Lyme, Bartonella, Mycoplasma, at least from 1 tick bite. Western medicine does a horrible job at analyzing the symptoms, testing, educating and treating their patients. The labs are pretty unreliable as are the antibody requirements for + test.
It's very common to get more than 1 infection from a single tick bite (CDC says it's not). This greatly complicates recovery. The study that the CDC relies on suffers from a small sample size and heavy selection bias (see uptodate.com).
Ticks can transmit multiple bacteria in less than 30 minutes depending on circulation and host.
CDC recommended tests have a false negative rate approaching 60%. ELISA does not even have repeatable results from the same blood sample. Western Blot ignores 2 Borellia specific antibodies (31,34) that were part of a problematic vaccine in the mid 1990s.
Vaccines are improbable given how the bacteria can adjust its outer surface protein (triggering antibodies) and its multiple forms (spirochete, biofilm, round body).
The CDC treatment guidelines are bullshit and usually result in a relapse 4+ months later as low energy, headache, sore tendons, brain fog, arthritis, heart, etc symptoms. Thus most people are unsuccessfully treated with short term doxycycline, steroids (make it worse), anti-depressants, MS treatments, etc... all expensive pharmaceutical treatments that fix some symptoms while hurting the long term health of the patient without every discovering the underlying cause.I've gone through part of the CDC treatment before educating myself and realizing it was mostly bullshit. I know a number of people that have had similar difficulties.
A healthy immune system combined with prolonged pulsed herbal medicines(TCM/western) and/or multiple pulsed antibiotics (hard on GI and its immune function) seem to be the best treatment option.
There are number of bacteria in our natural environment that our immune system eventually cannot fight off. Many of them result in things like MS, Alzheimers, arthritis, heart damage, etc.
Medical science needs better testing of immune signaling (cytokines, chemokines, etc) before and after treatments. Most labs cannot test for many of these and insurance won't cover it.
Labs like igenex, fry, galaxy, dnaconnexions, etc have much better procedures for testing and will look at all specific/shared antibodies than common labs. For example, 41 is an early Lyme antibody shared with Chlamydia. The CDC requires 3+ Lyme specific antibodies to make a positive (IgG and IgM).
Reading "Healing Lyme" by Buhner gives a scientific overview backed by a ton of research that the CDC ignores. 12) ilads.org is comprised of doctors who actually treat Lyme and deal with patients ...
I actually personally remember considering getting the vaccine when it was available, since I spent quite a bit of time outdoors, and declining because my doctor and I were bamboozled into thinking the risks were real (that we now know to be faked).
The fact that there are no good vaccines really makes me mad, especially as a hiker.
Plenty of people who get Lyme don't get the rash, and don't necessarily even know they were bitten by a tick. Deer ticks are tiny and you have to check yourself thoroughly to see them. An effective vaccine would be very helpful.
Seriously though, if you actually hike in the northeast outdoors dealing with ticks are not a rare situation. In this past week alone I have had 2 deer ticks and 5 wood ticks on me . 1 wood tick actually did bite and it would be absurd to start an antibiotic course at this point.
There used to be a vaccine but it was discontinued because of insufficient demand.
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/lyme-disease-v...
"In April 2002, GSK announced that even with the incidence of Lyme disease continuing to rise, sales for LYMErix declined from about 1.5 million doses in 1999 to a projected 10,000 doses in 2002."
How do we square this with the number of cases rising so much over the last few years?
"Spawned by the press coverage of vaccine risks and the ongoing litigation, vaccine sales fell off dramatically in 2001. "
there's at least one new vaccine in development http://www.valneva.com/en/rd/vla15
>As of December 2016, a Phase I clinical trial was announced for a new candidate vaccine developed by the French company Valneva. The vaccine is similar to the SmithKlineBeecham product, but the vaccine is multivalent, targeting six Borrelia OspA serotypes. The trial will test vaccine safety, and a later Phase II trial will test efficacy.[xi] Baxter, an Austrian company, had previously tested another vaccine candidate in a combined Phase I/II trial, but the company seems to have abandoned development.[xii]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Rife
The best treatment for Lyme disease is a course of antibiotics.
