PSA: Check for Ticks

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ltlFish99
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Re: PSA: Check for Ticks

Post by ltlFish99 »

Last time I saw any was on a hike by Spring cave outside of Meeker around July 5th. There were 6 or 7 crawling around on a big rock when we stopped for food.
The very first thing I would do when returning home after any outdoor adventure was get in the shower tub to remove my clothing. Sounds a little odd, but once I found one the nasty things in my bed 2 days after getting home.
Anyway, by removing the clothes in tge tub I could re check myself quickly for tics and brush out my very long hair. Clothes immediately went into the washing machine, and then I would shower.
This was simply my routine. Of course, I always checked for the critters at night when I got back to camp.
Long story longer, the one time I neglected to thoroughly check myself after rock climbing with a friend, then the local food place for a great burrito, I paid for it.
I get home about 8:30pm and find one completely attached under my beltline. I remove the nasty thing, but its head breaks off, then I dig out the head with a needle.
At 3:30 am, I wake up very soaked in sweat with a 103 degree fever.
Next day, the fever hits 104 and I feel quite poorly.
Turns out I got Colorado tick fever.
It sucked.
Dr. States that statistically I am now immune as they did not have data of repeatedly infected people.
I am NOT going to be someone yo test the immunity theory.
I am even more diligent about checking now than I was before, and I was quite careful before.
Dr. Informed me that the suspected percentage of ticks that carry Colorado tick fever here is in excess of 20 percent, although he also stated it is a hard thing to collect good data samples on as one would expect.
Regardless, I make sure to check for the little buggers as soon as possible post adventure.
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Trotter
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Re: PSA: Check for Ticks

Post by Trotter »

I have NEVER gotten a tick in Colorado. And I do plenty of foothills hikes too.

And I know I'm delicious to ticks because I once got 30 ticks on me on a single day hike in North Dakota. I counted them as I pulled them off. About half latched on, the other half still crawling around. :barf:
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. -Nelson Mandela
Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called Ego. -Nietzsche
Teresa Gergen
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Re: PSA: Check for Ticks

Post by Teresa Gergen »

Wild guess - 20-30-ish days per year for decades of spotting ticks on clothing, across the west. Never found any on my skin, embedded or otherwise, so I figure the permethrin is helping, even though I still find some on my clothing and pull them off. I imagine some fall off without me spotting them first. The permethrin is supposed to mess with their nervous system. Probably takes a few minutes of crawling up your clothes to take effect.
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sstratta
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Re: PSA: Check for Ticks

Post by sstratta »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding that here in CO, a tick can't transmit lyme or tick fever if it's been on you for less than 24 hours, even if you find one already attached to the skin. Thoughts? I always assumed that if I did a tick check within 24 hours I'd be good, no matter how many ticks I found on/attached to my skin.
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two lunches
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Re: PSA: Check for Ticks

Post by two lunches »

i'm originally from Missouri and i hate those little creeps. there are TONS of them back east, but i've only seen three in Colorado:
the first was in Reynolds Park, the second was in Buffalo Creek. both of those times it was springtime and i spotted 'em just crawling on my dog. no harm no foul, but i did start giving him flea/tick medication in the summer months after that.

the third one was in Lost Creek last spring- it had actually attached to the back of my neck at some point during a camping trip (!) no Lyme disease for me, though.
“To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles.” – Mary Davis
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timewarp01
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Re: PSA: Check for Ticks

Post by timewarp01 »

Had never seen a tick in Colorado until a week ago when I found two on me after a night at the Mill Creek campground. Now I'm paranoid that they're in my tent. Any tips for making sure your tent/sleeping bag/etc are free of the little bastards?
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Salient
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Re: PSA: Check for Ticks

Post by Salient »

I actually found ticks on me just 5 days ago while walking through high grass in Tennessee. Luckily there were only 3 that I got off pretty quickly while they were still crawling and after a thorough check, I didn't find anymore. Ticks are still annoying and leave you in a sense of fear in case they are carrying lyme disease.
Be the best you that you can be.
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nyker
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Re: PSA: Check for Ticks

Post by nyker »

cedica wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 12:05 pm Finally a topic where East Coast hikers can feel like having substantial expertise. Conspiracy theories about ticks here are of QAnon or LoveHasWon magnitude:
https://sites.newpaltz.edu/ticktalk/soc ... a-dumitru/
Ha. Yes I can attest to this..
Having grown up not far from there, conspiracy theories would circulate quite frequently about Plum Island in when I was younger and what they were up to, what was growing out there or locked up.

This tick thread reminds me of a science program I was invited to take when I was in grade school. I took these summer courses at Cold Spring Harbor Labs on Long island NY. They were and still are a research intensive lab often focused on cutting edge R&D.
The Science geek in me loved it. We did marine biology work, insect collecting, studying small animals, some stuff in the fish hatchery, etc.. This was prior to the widespread knowledge of Lyme which had only recently been "discovered" in Ct just to the north.

Anyway, after about a week of class, curiously we were told to wear all white clothes the next day. We all wondered what awaited us the following day at the Lab. One of the "experiments" unbeknownst to us at the time (we were like 8-12yrs old), was a field trip drive nearby to a grassy meadow called "Tick City" (something I imagine would never in a million years be allowed today in the Litigious States of America). I remember it was a nice place, tall grasses, wildflowers and native plants about 4-5ft tall, taller than most kids but great place for kids to run amok on a summer's afternoon.

The class of about 15 of us were told to run to the other end of the meadow and back. It was about 1/4 mile each way. The "winner" would be the one who had the most ticks on them. Not thinking twice about it, we all enthusiastically ran to the other end and back, some tripping over ant mounds and gopher holes, looking for frogs and snakes to pickup, but all had fun. Upon return to the starting place where a picnic awaited us, We got in a straight line, the 3-4 Supervisors walked around with empty glass baby food jars (one for each kid) and proceeded to pick the ticks off of each child to be counted on the table later. The winner had 104 ticks on him. For his "achievement" he was given a $10 gift certificate to Carvel (an old ice cream store). The number of 104 I'll always remember because I was upset and jealous I hadn't won with 93 to get MY free ice cream. The total number "collected" was 1,300 ticks for the 15 kids and supervisors, in about 20 minutes in the grass. I never knew what they ended up doing with those jars of ticks but assume it had something to do with Lyme research. :xST
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cedica
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Re: PSA: Check for Ticks

Post by cedica »

timewarp01 wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 11:37 am Now I'm paranoid that they're in my tent. Any tips for making sure your tent/sleeping bag/etc are free of the little bastards?
I would try playing AC/DC or Motörhead on high volume but faster speed - guesstimating that somewhere between 4x to 8x should do it, you would be able to find exact speed by trial and error. Audio power spectral density will relocate to inaudible frequencies (for you, but not for them) and that should force little bioengineered bastards to vacate any premises.

I would say that the science in support of this theory is solid: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6106185/
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Dave B
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Re: PSA: Check for Ticks

Post by Dave B »

2.5 hours of field work in RMNP today = 5 ticks.
Make wilderness less accessible.
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