Don’t worry, I won’t post pictures. I woke up this morning and felt something on my scrotum that did not belong there.
It was a fully embedded tick, drinking my blood. What a fascinating adaptation – and it really ruined my slow morning wake-up. I had to wait (and not mess with it) until my host woke up and could locate some tweezers and rubbing alcohol, then the matter was quickly resolved.
When I got to my friend Gary’s place in Virginia last Tuesday, we went for a little hike with his dogs, and it turned out that it was Tick Hatching Day on the Susquehanna. The little bastards were raining down on us, and we checked ourselves out pretty carefully when we got back. I was not careful enough, clearly.
Ticks are now carrying not just Lyme Disease, but Zika and a couple of other viruses. I’m happy to hear that, so far, ticks are not carrying alt-right ideology or TERF ideology – so, there is still room for things to get worse. Ticks won’t sink that low, though. You have to appreciate a parasite with standards.
I find ticks extremely unsettling, and used to “eeeew!” when I found them on my dogs. Ticks were what inspired the annual before-spring dog-shaving; long-haired dogs are great places for ticks to lodge, so I usually clippered them down and they each got a thorough check-over, nose-rub, and hugging every morning.
H. R. Geiger’s design for the xenomorph’s mouth and head was inspired by a tick’s.
There’s little more I loathe than ticks, especially as they all make a fucking beeline for me, every effing year. Last summer, we went on a walk to the Muddy Creek, and Rick pulled NINE fucking ticks off me, he had one. Gah. One year, Rick did discover a tick happily embedded in the base of his penis. Not a good way to wake up. So far, I’ve avoided any getting to the personal bits, but I am crazy paranoid about them, and constantly check myself during season.
Aaaaagh! No dick ticks, please!
You guys might get a kick out of this.
Giger.
I have had a tick in the personal region. Sort of a three-step process of what is that?, arrggggh, tick flies across the room.
I would rather have another tick than the current poison ivy. My elbow is wrapped in gauze due to dripping and half my face feels inflamed, and there’s some bubbles right between two of my fingers. Didn’t even know I was in poison ivy, not leafed out.
Hm, perhaps there is a market for wearable mosquito-netting that fits under your regular clothes. With tight cuffs for arms, legs and neck (and the dense netting, naturally) I can promise there would be absolutely no issues with heat or moisture (sweat) transfer. Promise, yes, just not in a legally binding way. No refunds, by the way.. Would be exceptionally fashionable, too, especially when combined with short sleeves or trousers. The separate head-piece should look great and hardly impede vision, breathing, speaking, drinking and eating at all. Other options might include gloves and over(under?)shoes, colourful netting for children and, for the very young, a handy netted bag for convenient, tick-proof offspring-storage and -transportation.
komarov @#5
Yes, there really is a market for clothes that will protect you from mosquitoes, tics and other bugs. Here https://andrewskurka.com/2013/clothing-system-for-backpacking-peak-mosquito-season/ in an overview of what hikers wear in order to keep bugs at bay. Personally, I love permethrin. I also have a pair of pants made from tightly woven nylon fabric that doesn’t let mosquitoes bite through. Sure, fabric breathability isn’t great (to put it mildly), but, as long as temperatures doesn’t get too hot, it’s fine. Although, whenever I’m walking around in forests, I’m more interested in photography, which means a lot of time spent sitting and waiting for the right light, so I’m not running around or physically exerting myself much.
On walking through a field a few years back, I noted that the ticks got caught in the velcro straps on my shoes, and thought something might be done with that. Generally they do climb up rather than attaching low. I do not now remember if it was the hook or loop side that nabbed them.
Oh, and does anyone know the best thing to do with poison ivy that’s oozing? I have work tomorrow, can’t go around dripping, but it looks more inflamed when I wrap it up.
Sad thing is, this isn’t even in the worst three poison ivy bouts I’ve had. It’s just the least convenient.
I can literally watch drops of fluid emerge from my skin, which is gross but fascinating.
# 8 ledasmom
Take the day off? I have not had poison ivy in years but I don’t remember much of anything helping. Well calamine lotion might help if you can show up looking like a failed whitewashing experiment.
My sympathies. Poison ivy can be horrible.
ledasmom @6: I sympathize. I get PI very badly if exposed, and have had to take oral steroids for it on several occasions. Your rash sounds serious enough that you should consider seeing a doctor and getting a prescription. That’s especially true if your facial rash is near the eyes.
Short of that, I suggest you try Domembro for the seeping rash. It’s an astringent solution that should be available over the counter. It’s pretty effective but needs to be applied fairly often, so you may want to take jkrideau’s advice and take a day or two off work.
Also, the best over-the-counter cleaner I’ve found (for when you know you’ve been exposed but before any rash appears, or shortly after it appears) is Zanfel. Expensive but very effective.
Oops, that should have been ledasmom @8.
ledasmom – calamine lotion doesn’t actually do anything but it helps a bit just by keeping it dry.
When I was in army basic training I pitched my tent in some poison ivy. That was bad.
I’m gonna have to try the velcro idea on some trail runs, though I’m pretty lucky – I haven’t had any ticks in several years, while many runner friends get them. I must not taste good to ticks (though biting flies at the beach LOVE me).
I often wear spandex in races, so I wonder if those bike/triathlon shorts with the elastic gathers just above the knee are snug enough to keep the little bastards from climbing.
The sign that you are a Very Good Friend to a person?
They ask you to removing a tick from their buttvale and you do it.
Thankfully ticks do not seem to like me.
Poison ivy: That sounds horrible, I hope you get better soon! Take a day off, if you can.
avalus@#15:
The sign that you are a Very Good Friend to a person?
They ask you to removing a tick from their buttvale and you do it.
I was staying with some friends in LA, one of whom was a mother who mostly grew up in Japan; she had never seen a tick before. So, “yeah, this is what a tick looks like in case you see one. Now could you please get me those tweezers and pass that bottle of gin over here?”
The little bastard did not go gentle, either.
12 Marcus Ranum
When I was in army basic training I pitched my tent in some poison ivy.
I grew up on a farm ( 10% fields, 90 % rocks, hills, beaver ponds—the Canadian Shield at its best) with great crops of poison ivy. I would have one or two incidents a year.
One day the Canadian Army (Signals) managed to get lost and set up small exercise on the farm, including driving across a couple of hay fields just before haying.
My father and I found the command post. While my father “discussed” the invasion with the commander, I looked around and noticed that the Army had set up the post in a magnificent patch of poison ivy. I mentioned this to a junior officer who said something like “oh that’s interesting”, clearly not understanding or interested in the issue.
Oh well, they were warned.
jester700@#14:
I’m gonna have to try the velcro idea on some trail runs, though I’m pretty lucky – I haven’t had any ticks in several years, while many runner friends get them.
The friend in question’s house is right down on the Shenandoah River, and it’s always swarming with mosquitoes and ticks and whatnot. At the summer solstice he usually has a big bonfire party, which I’d taken to avoiding because I hate getting eaten alive. But one year I said ‘screw it’ and took some almond oil and one of those ‘Advantix’ long-term insecticide/flea repellent like you’d use on a dog, mixed it up, and slathered it on. It was briefly satisfying to watch the mosquitoes land on my arm and … die.
Organophosphate insecticides are implicated in all sorts of nasty things including ADHD and autism, so I don’t recommend that approach if you’re planning to breed (I’m not) or if you’re young enough that you’re afraid you’re providing some nice mutagens to your prospective cancers.
jrkrideau@#17:
I looked around and noticed that the Army had set up the post in a magnificent patch of poison ivy.
Oh, comfy.
One of those “friend of a friend” stories: some European hikers a friend knew, who didn’t know they were allergic to poison ivy, used a bunch of dry-looking poison ivy stems as kindling for a campfire. And that was the end of their Appalachian trail hike.
By the way, Mangoes are from the same family as poison ivy and if you are highly allergic, eating mangoes can cause a reaction. I am not highly allergic but I found out that eating a lot of mango can cause a reaction in some people. I was staying at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore once, and the breakfast buffet had a mountain of fresh mango, which I tunnelled into head-first like a mango tick. About 2 hours later my face was swelling and my ears were ringing and I felt like I was experiencing a really nasty viral onset. It was pretty scary.
Marcus @13: When I was young I took a bathroom break in poison ivy on a canoeing trip.
Words cannot describe.
Not a disease, but some ticks can also trigger alpha-gal allergy when they bite if they have recently fed off a non-primate mammal. They end up injecting a bit of residual alpha-gal from the previous meal directly into the blood stream which triggers a ridiculously unpleasant, and potentially dangerous, response. Bright side of my brother’s new allergy is that I was already avoiding mammal meat, so no more having to cook it at all.
Consider a course of prophylactic antibiotics for Lyme disease.
Also, always check the genitals and buttocks when looking for ticks. And please do not be squeamish about DEET. It is the most effective repellent and safe in nearly all populations if used correctly.
Check behind your ears.
ok so i know product promotion is rightfully suspect as hell, but as a person of the allergic persuasion who lives in a place of urushiol-bearing plant abundance, i will risk it anyway and recommend Zanfel to treat poison oak/ivy/hemlock. it’s expensive. unreasonably expensive. but it unbinds the oils *after* they have bound to your skin and caused the rash and as far as i know it’s the only thing capable of actually treating the cause after the initial exposure as opposed to just relieving symptoms. and also anecdotally it works for me. so, that. itching sucks.
MattP@#21:
Not a disease, but some ticks can also trigger alpha-gal allergy when they bite if they have recently fed off a non-primate mammal. They end up injecting a bit of residual alpha-gal from the previous meal directly into the blood stream which triggers a ridiculously unpleasant, and potentially dangerous, response.
I knew someone who had a dog that suddenly developed a violent allergy to meat – which is awkward in a dog. I wonder if that’s what happened to it? Assuming dogs’ immune systems and responses are somewhat similar to other mammals.
Sorry to hear that happened to you; it’s super-interesting though. Totally makes sense, too.
A kid I grew up with was playing and fell down on a poison ivy twig, which went into him deep enough to draw blood and leave pieces that required extensive tweezering to remove. He had a horrible allergic reaction from that, and could never get near the stuff again.