Tick Bites and Disease

Ticks and tick borne diseases…its not just Lyme Disease anymore.  Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Powassin Virus, Erlichiosis and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever are all existing in ticks in the Mid Atlantic states.  But that’s not all.  There is a good pdf available from the CDC about all the diseases they recognize and what they currently know about detection and treatment. https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/resources/tickbornediseases.pdf

Other Diseases Caused by Tick Bites

Included in the long list of diseases that ticks may carry is a type of pneumonia, a type of chlamydia, herpes, parvovirus and other stuff you don’t want in your body.

Tick Borne Diseases are Often Difficult to Diagnose

The biggest danger with tick borne disease is that the symptoms are often widely varied and are similar to other ailments.  Another huge problem is that the CDC requirements for a positive test defy common sense.  When you look at my situation, for instance, I was tested once or twice per year for the past several years.  My primary care Dr. told me my tests were negative.  But, when I took a look at my actual lab results and researched them as best I could on the internet and with my specialist, I realize that I have positive detection of several of the above mentioned bugs but according to CDC guidelines, my tests are negative for a current infection. I am not positive enough for their guidelines.  The antibodies present, according to the Doc, are present due to a past infection, not a current one.  Me:  “Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that even though I was never properly treated for the germs, and they are or have been present according to lab analysis, you are telling me I am not sick, even though I have had a variety of symptoms and feel half dead and cant work for more than a couple of hours??”  Doc:  “yeah, you probably have Fibromyalgia”   Me, not out loud, as Doc breezes out the door “WTF is Fibromyalgia, that ain’t right.”  I asked her to follow up with my next lab test that I would have sent to her…still waiting for that…actually not cuz I know it won’t happen.

Another $175 down the health care toilet.

Researching this I have come to the conclusion that if there is a positive to any of the antibodies or proteins that indicate a disease, then I have it, my body has been fighting it for years and that is why I feel like shit.  Lots of other people have had the same experience where they are labeled as depressed, or a malingerer.  Many people have had to quit working and apply for disability.  Insurance companies don’t want to pay for proper treatments so they work with the CDC to make the criteria for a positive test such that the illnesses go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.  Doctors only know what they are taught.  They are also operating at the mercy of the government and insurance companies.  They want to get paid for their time and they deserve to make a lot of money, but they are not able to educate themselves on the nuances of disease and do not have time to spend on each patient with difficult-to-detect ailments.  Its difficult to properly treat someone who comes in with a fever and diarrhea, for instance, when there is a flu going around with the same symptoms.  There were a couple of tragic deaths, one a cute little toddler here in PA due to misdiagnosis or failure to test or failure to interpret tests.  I don’t understand how this can happen.  An attached tick should certainly not go unnoticed and if a Little One gets a tick attached, it needs to be Properly Removed immediately and the child should be treated as if infected, then closely monitored.

The CDC and the Insurance Industry are currently being sued over this issue.  The Federal Government as well as the PA govt. are changing laws pertaining to testing and treatment of tick borne ailments.  At the same time, some scientists are calling Lyme Disease specialists quacks, some doctors are being disciplined and sued for their treatments.  One could read all day with with a Google search of the issue.  In my case, I have two doctors telling me the other is full of shit.  I have to lean towards the guy who bothers to call me to discuss my blood test late at night and who wants to aggressively treat my symptoms.  Although I am not a doctor, as a scientist myself I know that in science and research, there is no such thing as a 100% definite conclusion.  Research is an on-going progression of testing hypotheses.  Conventional thinking changes over time.

I don’t know for sure what ails me, but the facts are that I have been bitten by upwards of 50 ticks, probably closer to 100.  Most of these I grabbed with my fingers and pulled them off.  Turns out this is the worst thing you can do as it will squeeze the bacteria in the tick’s gut into your skin.  For me not to have a tick borne illness would be unlikely.

The Best Way to Avoid Lyme and Other Diseases is to Avoid Getting Bitten by Ticks in the First Place – and if Bitten, Remove the Tick Properly and ASAP

Tick populations have increase drastically over the past quarter century.  The jury is out on why this has happened but it is a fact we as outdoors people have to deal with.  Some very effective ways to get rid of ticks are: prescribed fire, Invasive Brush Treatments, broadcast application of Permethrin, Permethrin baits for mice.

Rx Fire:  the most useful tool there is in the business of Forestry and Wildlife habitat management.  This wonderful tool takes away the tick’s habitat. They need to remain moist and with no leaf litter to hide in, they desiccate and die.

Invasive Brush Treatments are the most important tool in proper timber and native shrub regeneration.  Since ticks climb upon shrubs to gain access to large animals and people, reduction of waist-high shrubs such as barberry helps take away their ability to climb onto their victims.

Application of Permethrin to clothing is very effective.  I have had reports of infused cloth clothing being very effective and have purchased a pair of treated coveralls to test this year.  But what is not widely know is that this chemical can be broadcast with a backpack mist blower and can wipe out a local population of ticks.

My brother in eastern PA complained to me about how is dog would come in from his acre lot covered in ticks every day.  He asked me what to do about it.  So, I mixed up a strong dose of Permethrin and water, loaded up my backpack mist blower and sprayed two gallons on the shrubbery around his house.  He reported back that the ticks were gone.  This was several years ago and they still haven’t repopulated the yard.

Another tactic that I haven’t tried myself but seems to make sense is to place cotton treated with permethrin in PVC tubes into the woods you want to treat.  Mice, an important host and part of the tick lifecycle, take the cotton back to their nests, thus treating any ticks that come in contact with our busy rodents.

If You Would Like to do Something About the Tick Population Around Your Home, I Would be Able to Help You With Permethrin Broadcast Application and Invasive Brush Reduction

Please call me to discuss treating your property.  At the risk of sounding like I am using scare tactics, I don’t want to see one more little child die or suffer life ruining illness just because he/she wanted to play outside.  I will treat your property at a very reasonable rate or help you DIY.

What to do if a Tick Attaches Itself to You and Preventing Ticks from Biting

A tick lives by climbing upon vegetation and when it detects Carbon Dioxide it expresses a behavior called “questing” where it extends its front legs out to get ahold of the animal passing buy.( An interesting research article I read shows that ticks infected with Lyme bacterium can tolerate lower humidity and therefor seek hosts higher on plants which may be one cause of increased instances of bites.) Once on the host, it crawls upward toward a good spot to tap into the blood stream.  On me it seems they like my big fat belly.  But they have attached themselves to all parts of my body under my clothing.  It takes them awhile to figure out where to start feeding so when your or your young ‘uns come in or before you get in the car to drive home, you should have a change of clothes ready and check yourself thoroughly before putting on the fresh clothes.  In my experience, ticks usually don’t attach for awhile after they latch on, so prompt clothing changes can save you.

If a tick attaches to you, you need to remove it ASAP and PROPERLY.  By that I mean now.  Don’t wait and make a doctor appointment or go to an ER.  The current science indicates that a tick does not start feeding immediately.  It saws into your skin with to rows of sharp tooth covered mouth parts then slips some saliva in the cut to get the blood flowing.  I got in a somewhat heated argument with a guy about the myths of scorching the tick with a cigarette or match or covering it with vasaline or peppermint oil.  Take a look at the National Geographic video below then decide for yourself if a tick can decide to cut loose once attached.  And don’t do what I did and just grab the tick and yank it out.  Doing this will squeeze its stomach contents out prematurely and infect you.  Instead, use a proper tool.  I like the Tick Key because it is well made (in America) works well and can be attached to your keychain or a pet’s collar.  It doesn’t do any good if its in a drawer at home or in the glove box miles away.  The link below has a 3 pack of them which is a great way to go, one on the dog collar (my GSP Ruby has Lyme disease and suffers greatly from arthritis pain) one on your keychain and one on another key set or first aide kit along with alcohol wipes.  This tool will likely get most if not all the mouth parts out without squeezing the guts into you.  The hammer style tick removers are effective but cheaply made and break easily and get lost.  I recently found one broken underneath my truck’s floormat.  Lotta good it does there, right?  Could have used it in deer season and more recently on a timber cruise when these low-temperature superticks chewed on me.  Buy a Tick Key and Keep it Handy.  

Bottom line is: you don’t want these diseases and the best way to avoid them is not get bitten and if you do, remove the tick immediately and carefully.

The System for Preventing Tick Borne Illnesses

Wear tick repellent clothing, dose up with spray, check yourself before you wreck yourself, change clothing after your hike if your ride home is more than half an hour.  Shower and double check yourself and your significant other (great excuse for some intimacy for young couples).  Wash clothes and use a dryer for same or hang in hot sun until completely dry.  Treat your shrubbery, get some Guinea fowl or chickens (they can see and eat them) and reduce ground cover.  Put out mouse nesting material with Permethrin on it.

 

Video of what how a tick drills into the skin and attaches itself: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/30/heres-what-happens-when-a-tick-bites-you/

 

Link to obtain Tick Keys:

Click here for a 3 pack of tick keys:

http://amzn.to/2FGt8WT

Here is a link to purchase a great stainless tick removal kit for pets and people:

http://amzn.to/2pxo54Z

I haven’t tried one but I here these are good tick removers:

https://amzn.to/2DVfvBn