8 ms·

I've lived in an area that has dog ticks (not the Lyme carrying ones). I've pulled dozens of ticks off myself. I've never once had one attach, always caught the

I've lived in an area that has dog ticks (not the Lyme carrying ones). I've pulled dozens of ticks off myself. I've never once had one attach, always caught them in time. I got into archery during covid and would haul a target out onto some grasslands and shoot. My buddy and I would pull half a dozen ticks off ourselves at the end. I'd find ticks half dead on my car dash the next day. We bought "tick pants". Pants coated in some chemical that does something like this. Tuck them into our boots. No more ticks. Clothes coated in this drug seems like a good alternative to actually consuming the drug in my opinion. Also I've been trying to spot a tick in the wild before it grabs me and have never done it. I want to see a "questing" tick, ie one that is holding on to the edge of a blade of grass with its arms out trying to grab something.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Workaccount2 3y ago
It's called permethrin. Kills ticks but also kills cats, so be careful. I have heard that once it is dry, it isn't a threat to your little furry friend, but I still won't risk it.
- afandian 3y ago
  And lots of other wildlife. https://theriverstrust.org/about-us/news/flea-mergency-pet-treatments-taking-a-bite-out-of-the-health-of-englands-rivers https://theriverstrust.org/about-us/news/flea-mergency-pet-t...
  - gryzzly 3y ago
    In Germany there is a spray based on eucalyptus oil and it works very well. it is marketed as “sensitive”. we have a dog that licks stuff and wanted to avoid the use of the acaricides
- kamarg 3y ago
  It's also highly toxic to aquatic animals as well and does come off a bit when put in the wash.
- diggan 3y ago
  > It's called permethrin. Seems there are a couple of chemicals that act as anti-tick. We're using Seresto collars for our two dogs (no ticks in a decade of usage), which seems to be using Imidacloprid (anti-fleas) and Flumethrin (anti-ticks). So at least there seems to be two ingredients, there are probably more.
  - Scoundreller 3y ago
    I always wonder if we could have some human collar that absorbs & oozes out insecticide and keeps mosquitoes and blackflies away. But nice to see we’re finally getting for humans what pets have had for a while for ticks.
    - DowagerDave 3y ago
      You don't usually get bitten by mosquitoes on your neck though, how would this help with the bites you DO get all over your legs and arms? Or are you suggesting something so potent it absorbs into your bloodstream and then prevents bug bites? no thanks.
      - Scoundreller 3y ago
        > Or are you suggesting something so potent it absorbs into your bloodstream and then prevents bug bites That’s what the medicated pet collars do. Part of the advantage of collar-absorption is that you can use a molecule that readily breaks down/inactivates in digestion. And avoid sharp peaks in blood levels.
        Turing_Machine 3y ago
        I knew a woman who was highly amused that the cancer drug she was on caused mosquitoes to die instantaneously upon biting her. Tough woman. She is missed.
      - diggan 3y ago
        > how would this help with the bites you DO get all over your legs and arms? Not sure how true it is, but the marketing for the collars we use claims that eventually the chemicals spreads to protect the full body, even if the collar is just around the neck.
- delfinom 3y ago
  The problem is ticks are also slowly becoming immune to it.
- LinuxBender 3y ago
  Kills ticks but also kills cats AFAIK there has only been one documented case of it killing a kitten and it drank the liquid form, unknown quantity. Baby animals do not yet have fully formed livers to metabolize the sodium channel blocker. Insects on the other hand do not have a liver. They use body fat to detoxify but it isn't fast enough or volumetric enough to handle the sodium channel blocker in large amounts relative to their size.
  - melvyn2 3y ago
    Here's a case study of 42: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.09.018 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.09.018 And there's certainly many more cases than just those at a "referral hospital in Sydney, Australia."
  - joecool1029 3y ago
    People put dog tick/flea stuff on cats all the time by accident containing it (I've personally seen it twice now), it usually doesn't kill them but it's absolutely horrible to witness, cats will get seizures and treatment is only supportive, either they live or they don't. Both the cases I saw were brought to the vet and the cats were messed up pretty bad for a few days.
    - LinuxBender 3y ago
      I could imagine if a cat was being covered in it often enough and they lick it up their glutathione may be depleted then their liver won't keep up. I will have to dig into the stats iskander provided to see pre-existing condition the cats were at. i.e. elderly, kittens, sickly Skimming over it I am not seeing stats on age or liver health.
  - iskander 3y ago
    #1 on ASPCA's list of common toxicoses in cats: https://www.aspcapro.org/sites/default/files/zl-vetm0606_339-342.pdf https://www.aspcapro.org/sites/default/files/zl-vetm0606_339... Study of 286 cat/permethrin cases in London: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jfms.2007.05.003 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jfms.2007.05... Study of 750 cases in Australia: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.12.002 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.12... ...we don't track this stuff nearly as well for pets as we do for humans but seems to have pretty robust evidence of toxicity.
- nucleardog 3y ago
  I use permethrin around my yard as well as have some clothing I’ve treated myself. I also use flea and tick treatment on my two dogs which is primarily permethrin. I have two cats and we haven’t had any issues that I could see. I make 100% sure they can never be exposed to it when it’s wet, but they’ve been around me in treated clothing, escaped the house and walked through treated (dry) grass, been around dogs that have been treated with it, etc. Given the number of people that have cats and dogs living together who are treating their dogs with it monthly, it seems relatively safe if used properly and cautiously.
- Tiktaalik 3y ago
  Yeah it's a serious enough chemical that I think it's only legally usable in Canada by the military.
  - CatWChainsaw 3y ago
    I find this surprising, are you sure it's not based on the concentration of the permethrin? Here in the US, I was able to buy a clothing spray of 0.5% permethrin from Home Depot. I'm also reasonably certain that at least some lice shampoos I've seen at my nearby CVS use permethrin, although I checked the one I bought and it doesn't have it.
    - bethekind 3y ago
      Can confirm above comment. Only thing close we can buy is permethrin impregnated clothes for mosquitoes. No permethrin anything otherwise. I have some, but only because I had my sister ship it from the states. Blows my mind that you can buy up to 36% permethrin by the jug down there
      - ChoGGi 3y ago
        You can get a weak version on Amazon (0.35) https://www.amazon.ca/OnGuard-Pro-Perm-Residual-Non-Flammable-Water-Based/dp/B0799QD2D5/ https://www.amazon.ca/OnGuard-Pro-Perm-Residual-Non-Flammabl...
      - CatWChainsaw 3y ago
        That's so bizarre. Both that you aren't allowed to buy it at any % concentration (not in clothes), and that my Random Ass could buy it at up to 36%.
stevenae 3y ago
I saw a questing tick once, it was actually kind of adorable. They wave their arms in a gathering motion, probably helps keep them balanced.
- cmrdporcupine 3y ago
  kill.
83 3y ago
Almost all coated clothes use permethrin or a similar pyrethroid. It's fairly effective but I often have issues with ticks coming off my dog much later and getting on me. I look forward to this (or a lyme vaccine) making it to market - the ticks are already pretty bad this year in the midwest. Watch for long grass along deer trails. During a particularly bad tick year (Wisconsin) I could walk along the deer trail by our swamp and just count the ticks hanging out on the ends of the green swamp grass. I did not spend much time outside that spring.
- tdb7893 3y ago
  Are there already ticks? I haven't seen them yet in Illinois (though my last hike was a week and a half ago) and it's been below freezing the last few days
  - 83 3y ago
    Between my wife, dog, and I we've gotten about a dozen in the last three weeks (we are frequent visitors of forests/fields around here). One of them was in February which I've never seen before. Apparently it takes several days of 10 degree weather to kill them off so I doubt it will slow down much from the last couple days of cold. Unfortunately one of them was a deer tick that dug into my armpit, so now I'm playing the "wait and see if it's Lyme" game :(
mike_red5hift 3y ago
When you know what to look for, a questing tick is not too hard to spot. If you are in an area that you suspect might have a lot of ticks. Look at the tips of any grass stems for a little brown/black spot. They climb as high as they can and then kinda "stand up" and put their "arms" up and out and wait for something to touch them. Then it's off to the races to climb as high as they can... on you. They stop once they hit an obstacle they can't easily get around and dig in. I spray my shoes with permethrin. That seems to almost totally eliminate climbers as I'm not walking through tall grass. You know they've gotten a deadly dose when they start walking in circles. I don't feel bad for them. My doctor told me that 85% of ticks in my area are positive for Lyme.
- DowagerDave 3y ago
  trying to spot ticks in heavy brush as you are walking seems like a inefficient approach. They take a while to attach so if you do a thorough review after your activity you should be good. It's also a lot easier to strip down to your birthday suit in the privacy of your own home.
  - transitionnel 3y ago
    Yeah, still gotta enjoy nature without a crick in the neck.
  - jajko 3y ago
    Stripping down has massive 'corner' cases. If you are alone, good luck find one on your back, between ass cheeks and few other places. Also if you do full day activity (or god forbid multiday out in the wild), not so good. Once they reach your hair (unless you shave clean), even good luck may not be enough, very hard to spot and almost impossible alone
    - giantg2 3y ago
      "Stripping down has massive 'corner' cases. If you are alone, good luck find one on your back, between ass cheeks and few other places." Mirrors or camera phones are handy.
alyandon 3y ago
When I was a kid, my mother would lightly apply sevin dust on the lower part of my jeans before I spent a lot of time outside. Seemed to work really well at reducing the incidence of flea/tick bites and the stuff washes off quite readily.
- hammock 3y ago
  I didn't know what Sevin dust is. It's the pesticide that the plant in the Bhopal disaster was making (MIC, precursor to carbaryl). Today's Sevin doesn't have the same chemicals in it that it used to though https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster
vanilla_nut 3y ago
Works well until you end up with temperatures too hot to wear pants. Or you exercise someplace with ticks and get too sweaty for pants. Hell, I live as far north as you can go in New England, and I've found ticks on my feet after grilling dinner in my backyard. At some point I just do not care to don my anti-tick hazmat suit every time I do anything outside.
SamBam 3y ago
I once rented a cabin on Cape Cod, right next to the beach. The path to the beach had big clumps of grass growing at the sides, with overhanging blades of grass. The first day we realized that every single clump of grass had numerous questing ticks on them. You could see them clearly, all just waiting to latch on to you as you walked by. Honestly, it was kind of terrifying.
transitionnel 3y ago
Thanks for this. I just pulled one [dug in] that I assume got on me meters away from a fully eaten deer carcass :/ Tweezed it out best I could, H2O2'd and lightly cauterized it then Neosporin'd, but still gonna have to play the bullseye waiting game AFAIK... Got dang ticks!
- nick7376182 3y ago
  You can take a prophylactic dose of doxycycline for 1-2 days I believe. If you have a lot of ticks in your area a general physician should be familiar with that protocol.
- _6hmp 3y ago
  It takes time for a tick to transmit lyme disease, but you can also take a single dose of doxycycline as post-exposure prophylaxis if you think it was attached for a while and ask a doctor
  - switchbak 3y ago
    Odd how the sibling comment got downvoted into oblivion for this, but you're right - prophylaxis is an option here, and last I checked it was the recommended course of action if you develop the bullseye ring. Note that the tests have high false negative rates, so still might be sensible if you have a negative test. Of course, these antibiotics are not without risk too.
    - lyme-educator 3y ago
      Some points correcting what's been posted here and above. A single dose of Doxycycline is not an effective prophylactic. It failed me and other people I know (after my doctor and I read over the CDC guideline that was misinformation). The original study supporting it was poor regarding how it was established as effective (required the bullseye rash). The bullseye rash does not appear for everyone. Depending on the attach point/strength, ticks pass along bacteria and/or viruses in minutes. Testing the tick and monitoring yourself for symptoms is always a good practice. I prefer clothing & topical solutions vs ingested chemicals. It would be nice to see support for natural consumption of ticks by fowl (chickens, turkeys, quail, etc), marsupial, etc.
shafyy 3y ago
We usually use anti-tick spray on our skin and clothes when hiking in tick-infested areas, and then check for ticks in the evening. Also important to long pants and shirts if possible.
kjhughes 3y ago
Also I've been trying to spot a tick in the wild before it grabs me and have never done it. I want to see a "questing" tick, ie one that is holding on to the edge of a blade of grass with its arms out trying to grab something. Interestingly, a "questing" tick has been found to be able to cross air gaps by leveraging static electricity: “We have now discovered that ticks can be lifted across air gaps several times larger than themselves by the static electricity that other animals naturally build up. This makes it easier for them to find and attach onto animals that they want to latch onto and feed from. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/news/2023/httpswwwbristolacuknews2023junestatic-electricity-attracts-ticks-to-hostshtmlgl115bq1h3gamta5nzm5otkxlje2nje1mdc3mdkga6r8spl3hlt.html https://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/news/2023/httpswwwbristola...
projektfu 3y ago
I don't know if the ticks would consume the drug on clothing. It is meant to be consumed in a blood meal. That said, it is largely well tolerated in dogs and cats.
chankstein38 3y ago
I agree I'd be more happy to use permethrin than ingest something that gets into my blood. I find a ton of ticks around where I live and have experienced a questing tick by pulling them off of my dog before they attach and then carrying them on something. Sure you're not spotting them naturally but they will quest when given the freedom to do so. If you don't kill them immediately but put them on a leaf or something they will crawl to an end of it and start! If you're just interested in seeing how it looks
IG_Semmelweiss 3y ago
I can relate to this. My poor dog god bless her soul would collect ticks like a bandit in our backyard (not the Lyme ones). I enjoyed removing the little devils off my beloved dog and clear her suffering (and, killing ticks, which is surprisingly hard). I also gave her regular antitick soap baths, but it was not super effective. Not one bit or attached to any member of our family. And, we had plenty of kids in the low teens around the house. In fact, it was so "OK" to see ticks, that none of the adults made a fuss about them - so we grew up never being paranoid about them - in contrast to most of my east coast friends with kids I have a hard time understanding how a tick bites a fully grown adult in summer weather. Of course if you are wrapped in massive layers of clothing and you can't see it coming at you, its something different. Protip: If you take your city dog abroad -particularly a tropical area outside of the country- make sure your dog is very well tick-protected. East/West coast dogs can't handle foreign tick diseases. They don't have built-in inmunities. It only takes 1 tick from a farm/field you visited to give a deadly disease to your best friend.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Workaccount2 3y ago

It's called permethrin. Kills ticks but also kills cats, so be careful. I have heard that once it is dry, it isn't a threat to your little furry friend, but I still won't risk it.

afandian 3y ago
And lots of other wildlife. https://theriverstrust.org/about-us/news/flea-mergency-pet-treatments-taking-a-bite-out-of-the-health-of-englands-rivers https://theriverstrust.org/about-us/news/flea-mergency-pet-t...
- gryzzly 3y ago
  In Germany there is a spray based on eucalyptus oil and it works very well. it is marketed as “sensitive”. we have a dog that licks stuff and wanted to avoid the use of the acaricides
kamarg 3y ago
It's also highly toxic to aquatic animals as well and does come off a bit when put in the wash.
diggan 3y ago
> It's called permethrin. Seems there are a couple of chemicals that act as anti-tick. We're using Seresto collars for our two dogs (no ticks in a decade of usage), which seems to be using Imidacloprid (anti-fleas) and Flumethrin (anti-ticks). So at least there seems to be two ingredients, there are probably more.
- Scoundreller 3y ago
  I always wonder if we could have some human collar that absorbs & oozes out insecticide and keeps mosquitoes and blackflies away. But nice to see we’re finally getting for humans what pets have had for a while for ticks.
  - DowagerDave 3y ago
    You don't usually get bitten by mosquitoes on your neck though, how would this help with the bites you DO get all over your legs and arms? Or are you suggesting something so potent it absorbs into your bloodstream and then prevents bug bites? no thanks.
    - Scoundreller 3y ago
      > Or are you suggesting something so potent it absorbs into your bloodstream and then prevents bug bites That’s what the medicated pet collars do. Part of the advantage of collar-absorption is that you can use a molecule that readily breaks down/inactivates in digestion. And avoid sharp peaks in blood levels.
      - Turing_Machine 3y ago
        I knew a woman who was highly amused that the cancer drug she was on caused mosquitoes to die instantaneously upon biting her. Tough woman. She is missed.
    - diggan 3y ago
      > how would this help with the bites you DO get all over your legs and arms? Not sure how true it is, but the marketing for the collars we use claims that eventually the chemicals spreads to protect the full body, even if the collar is just around the neck.
delfinom 3y ago
The problem is ticks are also slowly becoming immune to it.
LinuxBender 3y ago
Kills ticks but also kills cats AFAIK there has only been one documented case of it killing a kitten and it drank the liquid form, unknown quantity. Baby animals do not yet have fully formed livers to metabolize the sodium channel blocker. Insects on the other hand do not have a liver. They use body fat to detoxify but it isn't fast enough or volumetric enough to handle the sodium channel blocker in large amounts relative to their size.
- melvyn2 3y ago
  Here's a case study of 42: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.09.018 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.09.018 And there's certainly many more cases than just those at a "referral hospital in Sydney, Australia."
- joecool1029 3y ago
  People put dog tick/flea stuff on cats all the time by accident containing it (I've personally seen it twice now), it usually doesn't kill them but it's absolutely horrible to witness, cats will get seizures and treatment is only supportive, either they live or they don't. Both the cases I saw were brought to the vet and the cats were messed up pretty bad for a few days.
  - LinuxBender 3y ago
    I could imagine if a cat was being covered in it often enough and they lick it up their glutathione may be depleted then their liver won't keep up. I will have to dig into the stats iskander provided to see pre-existing condition the cats were at. i.e. elderly, kittens, sickly Skimming over it I am not seeing stats on age or liver health.
- iskander 3y ago
  #1 on ASPCA's list of common toxicoses in cats: https://www.aspcapro.org/sites/default/files/zl-vetm0606_339-342.pdf https://www.aspcapro.org/sites/default/files/zl-vetm0606_339... Study of 286 cat/permethrin cases in London: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jfms.2007.05.003 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jfms.2007.05... Study of 750 cases in Australia: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.12.002 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.12... ...we don't track this stuff nearly as well for pets as we do for humans but seems to have pretty robust evidence of toxicity.
nucleardog 3y ago
I use permethrin around my yard as well as have some clothing I’ve treated myself. I also use flea and tick treatment on my two dogs which is primarily permethrin. I have two cats and we haven’t had any issues that I could see. I make 100% sure they can never be exposed to it when it’s wet, but they’ve been around me in treated clothing, escaped the house and walked through treated (dry) grass, been around dogs that have been treated with it, etc. Given the number of people that have cats and dogs living together who are treating their dogs with it monthly, it seems relatively safe if used properly and cautiously.
Tiktaalik 3y ago
Yeah it's a serious enough chemical that I think it's only legally usable in Canada by the military.
- CatWChainsaw 3y ago
  I find this surprising, are you sure it's not based on the concentration of the permethrin? Here in the US, I was able to buy a clothing spray of 0.5% permethrin from Home Depot. I'm also reasonably certain that at least some lice shampoos I've seen at my nearby CVS use permethrin, although I checked the one I bought and it doesn't have it.
  - bethekind 3y ago
    Can confirm above comment. Only thing close we can buy is permethrin impregnated clothes for mosquitoes. No permethrin anything otherwise. I have some, but only because I had my sister ship it from the states. Blows my mind that you can buy up to 36% permethrin by the jug down there
    - ChoGGi 3y ago
      You can get a weak version on Amazon (0.35) https://www.amazon.ca/OnGuard-Pro-Perm-Residual-Non-Flammable-Water-Based/dp/B0799QD2D5/ https://www.amazon.ca/OnGuard-Pro-Perm-Residual-Non-Flammabl...
    - CatWChainsaw 3y ago
      That's so bizarre. Both that you aren't allowed to buy it at any % concentration (not in clothes), and that my Random Ass could buy it at up to 36%.

stevenae 3y ago

I saw a questing tick once, it was actually kind of adorable. They wave their arms in a gathering motion, probably helps keep them balanced.

cmrdporcupine 3y ago
kill.

83 3y ago

Almost all coated clothes use permethrin or a similar pyrethroid. It's fairly effective but I often have issues with ticks coming off my dog much later and getting on me. I look forward to this (or a lyme vaccine) making it to market - the ticks are already pretty bad this year in the midwest. Watch for long grass along deer trails. During a particularly bad tick year (Wisconsin) I could walk along the deer trail by our swamp and just count the ticks hanging out on the ends of the green swamp grass. I did not spend much time outside that spring.

tdb7893 3y ago
Are there already ticks? I haven't seen them yet in Illinois (though my last hike was a week and a half ago) and it's been below freezing the last few days
- 83 3y ago
  Between my wife, dog, and I we've gotten about a dozen in the last three weeks (we are frequent visitors of forests/fields around here). One of them was in February which I've never seen before. Apparently it takes several days of 10 degree weather to kill them off so I doubt it will slow down much from the last couple days of cold. Unfortunately one of them was a deer tick that dug into my armpit, so now I'm playing the "wait and see if it's Lyme" game :(

mike_red5hift 3y ago

When you know what to look for, a questing tick is not too hard to spot. If you are in an area that you suspect might have a lot of ticks. Look at the tips of any grass stems for a little brown/black spot. They climb as high as they can and then kinda "stand up" and put their "arms" up and out and wait for something to touch them. Then it's off to the races to climb as high as they can... on you. They stop once they hit an obstacle they can't easily get around and dig in. I spray my shoes with permethrin. That seems to almost totally eliminate climbers as I'm not walking through tall grass. You know they've gotten a deadly dose when they start walking in circles. I don't feel bad for them. My doctor told me that 85% of ticks in my area are positive for Lyme.

DowagerDave 3y ago
trying to spot ticks in heavy brush as you are walking seems like a inefficient approach. They take a while to attach so if you do a thorough review after your activity you should be good. It's also a lot easier to strip down to your birthday suit in the privacy of your own home.
- transitionnel 3y ago
  Yeah, still gotta enjoy nature without a crick in the neck.
- jajko 3y ago
  Stripping down has massive 'corner' cases. If you are alone, good luck find one on your back, between ass cheeks and few other places. Also if you do full day activity (or god forbid multiday out in the wild), not so good. Once they reach your hair (unless you shave clean), even good luck may not be enough, very hard to spot and almost impossible alone
  - giantg2 3y ago
    "Stripping down has massive 'corner' cases. If you are alone, good luck find one on your back, between ass cheeks and few other places." Mirrors or camera phones are handy.

alyandon 3y ago

When I was a kid, my mother would lightly apply sevin dust on the lower part of my jeans before I spent a lot of time outside. Seemed to work really well at reducing the incidence of flea/tick bites and the stuff washes off quite readily.

hammock 3y ago
I didn't know what Sevin dust is. It's the pesticide that the plant in the Bhopal disaster was making (MIC, precursor to carbaryl). Today's Sevin doesn't have the same chemicals in it that it used to though https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

vanilla_nut 3y ago

Works well until you end up with temperatures too hot to wear pants. Or you exercise someplace with ticks and get too sweaty for pants. Hell, I live as far north as you can go in New England, and I've found ticks on my feet after grilling dinner in my backyard. At some point I just do not care to don my anti-tick hazmat suit every time I do anything outside.

SamBam 3y ago

I once rented a cabin on Cape Cod, right next to the beach. The path to the beach had big clumps of grass growing at the sides, with overhanging blades of grass. The first day we realized that every single clump of grass had numerous questing ticks on them. You could see them clearly, all just waiting to latch on to you as you walked by. Honestly, it was kind of terrifying.

transitionnel 3y ago

Thanks for this. I just pulled one [dug in] that I assume got on me meters away from a fully eaten deer carcass :/ Tweezed it out best I could, H2O2'd and lightly cauterized it then Neosporin'd, but still gonna have to play the bullseye waiting game AFAIK... Got dang ticks!

nick7376182 3y ago
You can take a prophylactic dose of doxycycline for 1-2 days I believe. If you have a lot of ticks in your area a general physician should be familiar with that protocol.
_6hmp 3y ago
It takes time for a tick to transmit lyme disease, but you can also take a single dose of doxycycline as post-exposure prophylaxis if you think it was attached for a while and ask a doctor
- switchbak 3y ago
  Odd how the sibling comment got downvoted into oblivion for this, but you're right - prophylaxis is an option here, and last I checked it was the recommended course of action if you develop the bullseye ring. Note that the tests have high false negative rates, so still might be sensible if you have a negative test. Of course, these antibiotics are not without risk too.
  - lyme-educator 3y ago
    Some points correcting what's been posted here and above. A single dose of Doxycycline is not an effective prophylactic. It failed me and other people I know (after my doctor and I read over the CDC guideline that was misinformation). The original study supporting it was poor regarding how it was established as effective (required the bullseye rash). The bullseye rash does not appear for everyone. Depending on the attach point/strength, ticks pass along bacteria and/or viruses in minutes. Testing the tick and monitoring yourself for symptoms is always a good practice. I prefer clothing & topical solutions vs ingested chemicals. It would be nice to see support for natural consumption of ticks by fowl (chickens, turkeys, quail, etc), marsupial, etc.

shafyy 3y ago

We usually use anti-tick spray on our skin and clothes when hiking in tick-infested areas, and then check for ticks in the evening. Also important to long pants and shirts if possible.

kjhughes 3y ago

Also I've been trying to spot a tick in the wild before it grabs me and have never done it. I want to see a "questing" tick, ie one that is holding on to the edge of a blade of grass with its arms out trying to grab something. Interestingly, a "questing" tick has been found to be able to cross air gaps by leveraging static electricity: “We have now discovered that ticks can be lifted across air gaps several times larger than themselves by the static electricity that other animals naturally build up. This makes it easier for them to find and attach onto animals that they want to latch onto and feed from. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/news/2023/httpswwwbristolacuknews2023junestatic-electricity-attracts-ticks-to-hostshtmlgl115bq1h3gamta5nzm5otkxlje2nje1mdc3mdkga6r8spl3hlt.html https://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/news/2023/httpswwwbristola...

projektfu 3y ago

I don't know if the ticks would consume the drug on clothing. It is meant to be consumed in a blood meal. That said, it is largely well tolerated in dogs and cats.

chankstein38 3y ago

I agree I'd be more happy to use permethrin than ingest something that gets into my blood. I find a ton of ticks around where I live and have experienced a questing tick by pulling them off of my dog before they attach and then carrying them on something. Sure you're not spotting them naturally but they will quest when given the freedom to do so. If you don't kill them immediately but put them on a leaf or something they will crawl to an end of it and start! If you're just interested in seeing how it looks

IG_Semmelweiss 3y ago

I can relate to this. My poor dog god bless her soul would collect ticks like a bandit in our backyard (not the Lyme ones). I enjoyed removing the little devils off my beloved dog and clear her suffering (and, killing ticks, which is surprisingly hard). I also gave her regular antitick soap baths, but it was not super effective. Not one bit or attached to any member of our family. And, we had plenty of kids in the low teens around the house. In fact, it was so "OK" to see ticks, that none of the adults made a fuss about them - so we grew up never being paranoid about them - in contrast to most of my east coast friends with kids I have a hard time understanding how a tick bites a fully grown adult in summer weather. Of course if you are wrapped in massive layers of clothing and you can't see it coming at you, its something different. Protip: If you take your city dog abroad -particularly a tropical area outside of the country- make sure your dog is very well tick-protected. East/West coast dogs can't handle foreign tick diseases. They don't have built-in inmunities. It only takes 1 tick from a farm/field you visited to give a deadly disease to your best friend.