TICKS! - Appalachian Trail

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#1

I’ve just read up a bit on Lyme’s Disease and I noticed that the northern states on the AT are pretty infested. Are ticks really this bad, and if so, what advice can you give me to deal with ticks?
Thanks

Hilly

#2

I live in NY, and I advise you to take the usual precautions (repellent,tucking pants into socks),and remember a tent with mosquito netting and sewn in floor is better protection than a tarp without. I think that the most important thing is to check your body regularly (mirror helps if you’re solo) and watch out for the circular rash from deer ticks.
I’ve been victimized by dozens of what we call brown or dog ticks, but I’ve never seen a deer tick. I’ve had some pretty bad wounds from pulling attached ticks off myself, the best method I find is to chill them somehow,I learned this swimming with my dog. The tick thinks you’re a cold dead body, and parasites drop off dead hosts.

Stupe

#3

Personally I am a big hairy dude, not proud of it but… it serves you well to feel them on you. Deet works, the best IMHO is about a 12-18 % in a cream (usually in a sunblock. Deer tick don’t seem to get bad till NJ but it depends on the time of year. The best defense is to find somone who you can trade “tick checks” with.

Lyme was my biggest concern.

Deet

#4

Personally I am a big hairy dude, not proud of it but… it serves you well to feel them on you. Deet works, the best IMHO is about a 12-18 % in a cream (usually in a sunblock. Deer tick don’t seem to get bad till NJ but it depends on the time of year. The best defense is to find somone who you can trade “tick checks” with.

Lyme was my biggest concern.

Deet

#5

Deer ticks are very small, about the size of a sesame seed. They are not easy to see, especially not with my vision problems! They are the ones that can carry Lyme Disease. The larger, wood tick can carry other diseases. They are much more common, and seem to thrive well on Kitatinny Ridge, in New Jersey. The only other place that I’ve had a problem with them is in the Pine Barrens in south Jersey. DEET is the recommended insect repellant.

Harry Dolphin

#6

Everyone in my part of Pennsylvania contends with Lyme Disease, even people who only get in their car in their garage to drive to the mall. I have had Lyme twice. June and July are high season in the Lyme cycle. Read up on the symptoms–severe head ache, feeling like the flu just hit you, in July? Not everyone gets a rash, but know what the rash looks like. It is distinctive. If you really think you have been infected, get treatment with the antibiotics. Lyme is so prevelent here, if it sounds like Lyme, Doctors don’t bother to test, they just begin the antibiotc course, check the titre after.

Quilter

#7

I hike a lot and very seldom get ticks on me, but every once in a while I do. I recommend the following.

Hike in long pants or short pants and high gaiters and spray the bottom down with deet and shoes also. Helps to spray your pack down too and any other exposed material. Ticks get on shoes and pants and climb up them to get to your upper body, so keep them off shoes and pants and you won’t be finding many at all on you.

Stay out of the weeds and high grasses and really brushy areas, this is where you will pick up a lot of ticks. Walking a cleared trail, you will seldom get one on you.

If you find one, get it off quick. The longer it stays attached, the more likely it will spread some sort of disease to you.

Bathe frequently even if only with a cloth and soap. Run hands and fingers over entire body and check for anything unusual, which could be a tick. Sometimes you my find a small dried up pimple or scab when you do this—nothing to worry about----you can also find ticks this way.

Using lotion helps rubbing down arms, legs and body. Not only good for skin, but also helps you to find ticks, etc.

Don’t camp in high grass and weeds, no matter how great the view-----high grass and weeds are full of ticks, mice, rats, and yes—also snakes.

See you out there. :cheers

Maintain

#8

Actually, spraying deet on all your gear might not be a good idea. It’ll break down/soften a lot of different plastic compounds, and can mess up waterproofing.

Skittles

#9

I spent 60 days in the woods of Big South Fork NRA, Tennessee. I’ve seen a lot of tick infested areas, but let me tell you it was tick hell. I still had a great time, and have yet (knock, knock) to get Lyme Disease. I did learn a lot of up-to-date information about ticks:

First, Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and other rare diseases can be transmitted by ALL KINDS OF TICKS and not just deer ticks. The converse is a common misperception.

Second, The above illness are very serious and should be treated by a physician. I’m not a big fan of the medical industry, but here’s a case when I’d go in. That doesn’t mean you go to the doctor every time you find a tick on you. Wait for sure symptoms before going that far.

Thirdly, Lyme disease is sometimes, but not always, indicated after infection by a faint “bullseye” bruise eminating from the bite area. If you have that, don’t panic, but you might want try to get a prescription for the anibiodicts (they are VERY strong, so only use if it feels right, i.e., they kill good things as well as bad things in you)

Fourthly, Be aware of ticks in woody and grassy areas to prevent infection. Do as others have described here and check EVERYWHERE on your body when in a tick area.

Fithly, I can’t confirm this, but I’ve been told that it takes 24 hours to transmit a sickness from a tick. This implies that you don’t have constantly check, but do so once a day when in infested areas.

Sixthly, to remove one, use heat. Light a match, blow out the match -hold the smoking match head to the tick’s body -he should let go if you get him good. Then pull him out with tweezers. The point is to get his whole body out, so that a lingering head doesn’t infect you. SOMETIMES you can pull 'em straight out if they haven’t dug in yet.

Seventhly, Depending on the season and lattitude, the AT have be a moderate to high tick infestation. Every backpacker should find a professional information source and learn about the risks and behaviors to limit the risk and not have to worry about them.

Eithly, the most effective tick blocker is not DEET. It starts with a P (Percasin?I can’t recall 'cause I never use it). and is highly toxic. You don’t want to get it on your skin (only clothes).

Finally, this is my way- Instead of hiding from them in clothes and chemicals, I hike, typically, with sandals, shorts, no shirt. I know when they’re on me, because my skin is sensitive to them, and not numbed by clothes rubbing with every step. In super high tick areas (seed clouds) I would stop and check often. I promise the whole ground was moving like ants! By checking often, they never got far (near the equator;) I’m also hairy (hence the trail name) and haven’t had a problem with the little buggers.

Tha Wookie

#10

Is it possible to block the progress of a tick with an application of a gel or Vaseline circle around the legs. Would they get bogged down in the goo? Does anyone have any experience with this prevention method? Is it practical?

Skylander

#11

Use of permethrin on clothing is very, very effective. They get on your clothes; they die. Who could ask for more?

This needs to dry before use and should be reappplied every two weeks.

It can be ordered from Campmor.com.

I also have carried a 30-day supply of Doxicycline (sp) with instructions to take one dose if I ever find an attached tick. I’ve never used it, but I would not hesitate.

Kinnickinic

Sawnie Robertson

#12

“Is it possible to block the progress of a tick with an application of a gel or Vaseline circle around the legs.”

The problem with that is that they can get on you above the point where you applied the vaseline. To be effective, you would need to coat your entire body in it. Of course, you don’t want to get the stuff all over your clothes, so the thing to do would be to coat your body completely with the vaseline and then hike naked. This should keep ticks well away from you, not to mention black flies, mosquitos, mice, bears, mooses, dogs and other hikers.

:lol :lol

(Don’t be surprised, though, if your trail name gets changed to Slick Willy.) :lol

Ardsgaine

#13

Per lyme.org: Transmitters of the (Lyme Disease) bacteria in North America include: the Western black-legged ( Ixodes pacificus) tick in the West, and the black-legged tick ( Ixodes scapularis) in the rest of the country. The black-legged tick was temporarily known as the “deer” tick ( Ixodes “dammini”). Research is underway to determine if the lone star tick ( Amblyomma americanum) may also transmit the infection.
Other disease may be transmitted these and other ticks, including babesiosis, tularemia, Colorado Tick Fever,&c. The only know carriers of Lyme are the Western black-legged and the black-legged (formerly ‘deer’) ticks.

Harry Dolphin

#14

Hilly,
Here are a few thoughts on ticks. You want to use Permanone as your spray and not DEET. Permanone is available at Walmart or at outdoor shops like BassPro. You spray it on your clothes/jeans especially on the inside and let it dry - then it is good for maybe a week. I sometimes use duck tape to seal in my pants legs after tucking them in my socks - but gaiters are probably a smarter answer. One other thought, where I hang out, there are two types of ticks - the “regular” full size gizmos about the size of a pencil eraser and then so-called seed ticks that are VERY small - very hard to see. Both will drive you nuts. I use ONE set of tweezers to get off seed ticks (duck tape is also very effective in capturing these little buggers before they burrow in) and I have found that I have to use TWO sets of tweezers to pull off a full size tick that is already embedded - and even then you may leave behind the probosis. YOu will only know if you have them on you (especially the seed variety) when you lay down really still at night and they start crawling.
If you do a key-word search for probosis, is this likely to be the only message that hits?
See you at the Sidetrack.
Bum

damascus bum