I went hunting last week and noticed that there were quite a few ticks still around. It has been unseasonably warm here, so that wasn't too unusual. As I would soon learn, the weather has not just extended tick season, it has made the tick population explode. After I got home from hunting today, I pulled north of 45 ticks off of me. To make matters worse most of them were deer ticks. This is the smaller variety that carries Anaplasmosis and Lymes disease. In 18 years of hunting I have never had them this bad before.

I found the best thing is to use a good tick spray on your pants. I cut the number of ticks down that I find on me 98 percent or more.

Like you I live in tick haven had Lymes twice.

tick spray isn't a 100 percent but helps a whole lot.

Living in Arkansas we deal with ticks all the time... We have found that treating your clothes with pymetherin (not sure on the spelling) works very well to repel or kill the ticks before they get on you..

You have to spray your clothes and let them dry...before wearing them...never put that stuff on your skin, it is horribly toxic. Once you treat your clothes you can wash them several times and they will still keep the ticks off of you. We also use it to treat our boots as well..

In addition to treating our clothes we use a good repellent with DEET in it...

I have not heard of any vaccination you can get to prevent Lymes...but I do know that if you get a tick bite and a bullseye develops around it, you better get to the Dr. The have a steroid shot and an antibiotic regime that will take care of every disease that ticks can transmit.

In spite of all the spray treatment we still manage to get a tick on us once in a while.. In the last 4 years, my wife and I each have had to go thru the shot/antibiotic routine once..from bullseyed tick bites...

Nasty little buggers..I hate 'em, but have to deal with them if I want to go in the woods!

Z

Doctors will not give you a vaccine as it can have adverse affects.Go get a blood test at your medical care facility.

The best preemptive action is to not let them get to your skin in the first place!

http://forums.accuratereloadin...3411043/m/8291048291

quote:

Originally posted by wrongtarget:
I know a husband and wife that both have had it for quite a while and suffer from it terribly since it was undiagnosed for too long. Lyme disease isn't caused by a virus, it's caused by bacteria, best way to avoid it is dress properly and treat your clothing with permethrin to avoid being bit by ticks carrying the bacteria. I use the military soak version of Sawyers, ticks crawl on the treated clothing for about a minute then fall off and die, have watched it happen several times over the years I've been using it.


http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/lyme-disease/DS00116

http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2743839

http://www.sawyer.com/permFAQ.html


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Permet...&hash=item3a812f7ac1

Thanks for the info guys! I haven't heard of permethrin, it sounds like it works real well. I'll have to pick some up when I go into town today. In the past I have tried repelant, up to 40% DEET with limited results.

Tick gators and/or DEET sprayed on them and boot tops completes the battle gear.

http://www.forestry-suppliers....log_Page.asp?mi=6954

quote:

permethrin

Its great stuff.

Sir John, check this out. It overlaps with and largely covers what you're talking about - http://forums.accuratereloadin...3611043/m/6171033091

In the Mid-South our ticks/chiggers have about had it with the recent cold snap. Your turn will come shortly I suspect.

Deet is less toxic to humans than permethrin, but it's still something that you want to be careful with when it comes to repeated use.

Permethrin works, but what works better and is drastically less toxic is pyrethrin. Permethring is a synthetic pyrethrin. Pyrethrin is virtually an instant kill on ticks and most other insects. It will knock wasps out of the air. Sprayed on your pants pyrethrin will usually keep all ticks off for a day. There is no residual effect and because of that you also don't have trouble wth repeated use. I looked up the LD-50 of pyrethrin some years back and it's so low I suspect you could drink the whole dam bottle without problem for a mammal. The instant kill means that for dogs, you can spray before the hunt and keep most of them off the dog and then again before loading up and not bring any live ticks home. The same low toxicity applies to dogs.

Permethrin is sufficiently toxic that it can and has killed cats. I don't know of any dogs killed by it, but I have seen sick dogs after it was applied.

I know of nothing more effective than pyrethrin at killing ticks. I know of nothing reasonably effective that is anywhere near as low toxicity as pyrethrin. It's sole drawback is that it's not easy to get anymore. I order it a case at a time from my DVM.