Summer is here, and so are the ticks!

[CNHT]

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=61501

Especially if you will be camping, or even just walking near the grass... they jump!

[KBCraig]

Apparently there's no professional courtesy among blood-sucking parasites:

Schumer Being Treated After Tick Bite

May 24, 7:47 PM (ET)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is receiving treatment to prevent lyme disease after being bitten by a tick during a recent tour of dams in upstate New York.

Schumer, a senator since 1998, apparently was bitten during a May 7 dam tour in the Hudson Valley region. He and other lawmakers have called for improvements to many small dams in the area to prevent flooding.

"I went tramping through the woods with Congressman John Hall to check dams," the senator said.

He later found a tick, and spotted a telltale "bulls-eye" mark on his leg that is an early sign of infection.

Schumer is now undergoing a 21-day treatment with antibiotics, which can cause fatigue in some patients.

He said he hasn't noticed any symptoms besides the initial bulls-eye mark, and is being treated "to prevent it from developing into the disease."

Lyme disease is transmitted by the black-legged tick, also known as the deer tick.

Symptoms include lethargy, joint pain, fever, limping and loss of appetite. Even after treatment, symptoms can recur in some patients.

Last summer, amid concerns that a new, aggressive type of tick had migrated from southern states to New York, Schumer proposed legislation that would have authorized $100 million for Lyme disease research.

[CNHT]

Apparently there's no professional courtesy among blood-sucking parasites:

Schumer Being Treated After Tick Bite

[KBCraig]

Heard tonight on talk radio:

"If Schumer has to be treated with antibiotics for 21 days, what kind of treatment does the tick have to undergo?"

[aworldnervelink]

Actually ticks do not jump... they wait on tall blades of grass and grab on when something brushes past.

The dogs are starting to bring them in now... we've caught several in the past few weeks.

[error]

That's it.. I'm only going outside in the winter!!

[PassionatePantherrr]

For decent info on ticks, you can go to the following:
http://extension.unh.edu/fhgec/docs/Ticks.htm (tells you where to send a tick for identification)

http://ceinfo.unh.edu/Pubs/HGPubs/TicksNH.pdf (tells you more facts about the life cycle of ticks found in NH)

[burnthebeautiful]

I think I'm allergic to ticks, I had an allergic reaction to one when I was little. Not sure if it's all kinds of ticks or just the one kind that got me. Also, one of our childhood dogs got killed by a tick when I was a kid. My conclusion; ticks are assholes.

[Edwin Sheldon]

When I was growing up I was taught that a lit cigarette or a freshly-extinguished match placed on the tick was the safest way to remove it, because it causes the tick to let go of whatever it's biting.  More recently, I have read that doing so is not good because the shock from the burn causes the tick to regurgitate the contents of its stomach into whatever host it happens to be on--spreading microbes rapidly in the process.  Is there a safe way to remove a tick?

[PassionatePantherrr]

They describe how in the links I posted, but using a curved tip pair of tweezers, securely grabbing just the head of the tick, and pulling it out, is the safest way. Keeping it in a vial for identification is something you do post removal (esp as removing this way doesn't kill them! Be careful with where you put it after you get them off this way.) If you can't get it yourself, or you're squeamish, you can go to an MD and have them remove it for the cost of your office visit co-pay (I did when I was pregnant and had one on the back of my right arm).

[Rochelle]

Last year of High School, we had our IB Synthesis (which is where the Seniors and Juniors went and hung out in the country overnight) and I got home the next morning, took a shower, and as I was gearing up to shave my underarms, I noticed that I had a mole there....where I had not previously had a mole. Puzzled, I scratched at it, and the damn thing came off and I saw it had legs and was wriggling. Yea, that's when I freaked out.

Big ass tick.

Pulled it out clean though