With the warmer weather finally here. I went to do a little exploring yesterday. Unfortunately it seems ticks are out already. The last five years have been bad, This year seems like it may be the worst. I diddnt go through any heavy brush or anything. ( which is there usually hiding ground) Seems every year gets worse.I found this site which seems pretty good. http://www.tickinfo.com/ So wheather your out exploring, or just relaxing outdoors, be carefull. ( years ago a friend of mine and myself used to all kinds of hiking. Never had a problem. Guess things change.) Im going to purchase some of there repellents, give them a try. If anyone has and other good remedies, or tips on avoiding these pests. Feel free to post it. We all go outdoors for one reason or another.

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This ain't longwall... this is long hole!

i must not taste too good, i never had one or seen one on my clothes ever. huh. boy im leaving this open..........

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Come over to the Dark Side....... We have Cookies!

Ya, ticks up here now. I only take my cat out for 10 minutes a day and she has to stay within 30 feet of the house and 6 feet from me. She got a tick yesterday. This is going to be a bad year. One of our former cats spent 17 years as an indoor/outdoor and never once had a flea or tick, and she was never given a repellant. Wonder what's changing?

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jdr

They say to kill ticks you need a winter with a good month of frigid/below zero temps ( a good cold January) the warmer winters seem not to be killing them off. When I was a lid we used to hike all over the mountains here. Shorts and all through all kinds of brush. Never once. Now four years in a row I picked up the litle things. NASTY !!! Makes one want to stay away from the woods.

Ya, the warmer winters are probably a major factor. I've only ever seen a tick on TV and on line until now. Guess I have to watch her for a week and see if she gets ill. Couldn't get the head out, she wouldn't let me. I can go to the vet to have the wound lanced I guess. Those things are nasty.

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jdr

my theory is that its all those damn deer running all over the place that's causing those deer ticks to spread.

stupid deer!! without you, we'd have tick free woods AND the front of my truck would be whole. if it were up to me, deer would be extinct.

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-Thou shalt not little vein-

I have 2 friends locally that are suffering from Lyme diease badly, 1 is in a nursing home, The other walks with a cane. nasty stuff

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What do you mean by "overloaded" officer?

i dunno what area you cats are from or if you do much hunting, but if you've noticed a decline in the number of grouse in the area, that's probably why. my family has a hunting camp in tioga county, been goin' there since i could walk, and this past flintlock season on the way home i picked the first tick off me ever. in that area there's always been a ton a' grouse, but last few years they've been scarce. down here at home around philly, i get a tick on me every time i go into the woods, we don't have any grouse around here.

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creeps of the world..........unite!!!!!!

One of our friends picked up a tick and freaked. Went to the docors after he pulled it out on his own. Doctor said the larger ticks you can see dont spread Lyme disease. ??? ( I dont which one, but any bug that tries to burrow itself into me seems bad !!!) And he also offered advice on how to rid yourself ( or pet) from one if its to deep to pull out. Spread vasaline over it. it seems to suffocate them ?? I heard all this second hand though. So dont quote me on any of that. I still think its the larger ticks that spread the Lyme disease. As far as my Cass ( Rott) Im lucky I dont have a problem in my yard and thats the only grass she walks on. I have the stuff ( Kiltec) you rub on there shoulder blades. But dont like introducing that stuff into there blood stream no matter how safe they say it is. At anyrate. Any future walks in the woods will be with long sleeves and the pants and arms duct taped up ( make a nice sight lol) and stick with changing ouside ( out of site of course) and showering immediately when I get in, untill I pick up the repellent. Sad when your fearfull to walk into the woods. And its not just the US. A friend of mine got back from Ireland last month. Guess what ? He now has Lyme disease !!! no cure, debilitating disease !!

Best info I can get is to not put anything on it. Just pull it out. If you put vaseline on it, you will aggitate it and it will inject more saliva into you or the animal. It is this saliva that causes paralysis. Lyme disease is carried mostly by deer ticks and is not saliva related.

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jdr

I always thought going underground was the most dangerous part of this . Never thought a walk in the woods would be . No matter what ticks are just down right nasty !!

I have came across many ticks when going out exploring i have only had a few actually dug into my skin, you don't feel a thing I usually check myself pretty good when I get home. The small deer ticks i believe are the bad ones which carry lime disease not the larger wood ticks i think they are called which are more common.

I'm in Lycoming co. I ended up with the bull's eye rash from a bite from a larger tick. Went thru the regimen of antibiotics, I seen ok. We attribute our loss of grouse to our large coyote population

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What do you mean by "overloaded" officer?

i've heared that about the grouse, lotta' them things around these days. the larger ones (dog ticks) generally DO NOT carry lyme disease, although there have been a few isolated cases out west. they're about the size of a button on a cell phone, give or take a bit. deer ticks, which are just a bit larger than the period at the end of this sentence, NEARLY ALWAYS carry the disease, and the bullseye rash doesn't always appear. if you find a tick dug in to you the best thing to do is grab it as close to the skin as possible with a pair of fine tweezers. i usually go at the spot with a sharp knife a little bit too, just to be on the safe side. kinda gross, but better safe than sorry.

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creeps of the world..........unite!!!!!!