The Glade 4.0

Of all insects, I loathe these the most. My cousin had lyme disease back in high school and it was not pretty.

A couple months ago I found a tick in my hair after climbing around in some brush at work. I was on these godawful antibiotics for a week that made me even more susceptible than normal to sunburn, which is not good with my very pale complexion.

Tonight, I'm sitting in my chair and reached down to scratch an itch by my knee, and something comes off on my finger. I look, and there's a tick (fortunately, it had not embedded). I was so startled, I flipped it away, and then regretted it since it was in the living room and the kids were right there. Fortunately my wife saw where it went, and it was shortly dispatched.

I have no idea how the damn thing got in the house, but it's rather alarming. There's lots of large and bizarre insects in south Texas, but I hate ticks most of all.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

When hubby and I go fishing the first thing we do before leaving the house is spray each other down with tick repellant and the first thing we do when we get home is strip down and check if we have an hitchhikers that the spray didn't catch.

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"Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use one!"~ Matthew Quigley

"nothing like a little meow in bed at night" ~ Bruskey

"I gotta float my stick same as you" Hondo Lane

"Fill your hand you son of a *****!"

Minor nitpick (pun only incidental) but ticks are arachnids, not insects. But yeah, I agree. Hate parasites of all kinds.

So yes, I hate ticks as well, but I never understand why people flip out when they find them.

I find them ALL THE TIME. Some biting, some not. Some folks take antibiotics every time a tick bites, which is crazy to me. I'd be on them all the time.

Don't worry about the dog ticks, if it's a deer tick watch for signs of a reaction. If you pull it off, make sure you get the head - if not, grab a needle and dig it out.

I've never gotten lyme disease, and never taken antibiotics for these.

The worst part is when you get back from a morning site visit, and find 2 or 3 on you, and you have the rest of the day to work, and you've got the heebie jeebies wondering how many you missed.

I find ticks on me all the time, had Lyme once but caught it early (because I demanded a test from the ER staff which they almost blew off).

It's a part of being outdoors. Just check yourself after you're out for a while.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Wow, as a former East coaster now on the West Coast, it's wild to hear you all talk about how common Lyme disease is. I didn't realize that it's common (or even possible) to take antibiotics after getting a tick bite to prevent it. It was just starting to hit when I came out here. Only find them rarely out here, although I try to remember to check.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Ticks are one of the many things I don't miss about living in Ohio. :p~

I'm not sure I've ever actually seen a tick.

Tick populations are on the uptick (har har) across the nation. I read about it recently, and it's largely due to increasing populations of like... deer, coyote (maybe, can't recall), and certain plants. Particularly in the midwest. Apparently there are some good animals that are immune that you could try to encourage into your area.

The good news is that the best way to encourage those animals is by driving off (or killing) coyotes, so that's a twofer!

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

One more of the many reasons I love living where I live.

Killing coyotes isn't going to help reduce the deer population. I believe that's the biggest driver for lyme disease.

Actually the number one preferred carrier of deer ticks are field mice.

Yeah go figure.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Lol no, not what I meant.

The article I read said that deers and like... mice are the biggest tick carriers or something. Then it said that the natural predators of the mice, like foxes and.... something else, have been driven off in many areas by coyotes.

Therefore, shoot coyotes. They're an annoying, hazardous varmint anyway.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Here on the east coast there's a relatively new phenomenon where bites from the Lone Star Tick are causing people to develop meat allergies. My dad is one of the victims. It makes you allergic to the meat of mammals, so basically all red meat. Lyme disease has an easy cure. Not being able to eat red meat? **** that ****. I'm pretty serious with my tick checks now.

Interesting bit of trivia: The only mammal you can still eat and not get an allergic reaction to is monkeys/apes.