Ticks --- How big of a disease problem are they in orange county?

Great questions! Last week I got two ticks on me on two seperate ocassions and I wasn't even bush whacking.

Does anyone use DEET? I wanted to try DEET but then I get kind of weary putting on sprays that warn me from putting it on plastic. I ride with full shin and elbow fore arm pads so if I spray myself the DEET is going to get on the pads no matter.

I wish there was a more natural way for tick prevention that did not include (stay out of the bush).
It is looking like the Permethrin is a good alternative as long as you are not a cat.

 

The Vasoline is a good one. I just do a visual in the shower when i get home from a ride. They take about an hr to 2 hours to find a good place to set up house. Aka dark hidden places... if you catch my drift.

 

funny stuff. It is tick season. They hang out on the wild oats waiting for you to come by. Just have someone check you when your done. They crawl around in your clothes when your done as well. So dont lay the stuff out on your bed, even when getting ready, they may be there from yesterday. It will be pretty much over when the oats have dropped. Hey everybody gotz to eat.
Happy Trails

 

I'm Richard with the wife and daughter that have lyme. Thru doctors misdiagnosis it took us five years to find the problem. Doctors don't know, docs favorite answer is Fibromalasya. The docs testing doesn't work, a special lab is neccessary. She got bite in June Lake, CA., near Mammoth. My wife was bitten in Corona, CA. Lucky we knew with the bulls eye rash. Life with Lyme is a nightmare. Lyme can mimic other problems, like thinking you have headaches which was one of my daughters problems, which lead to much worse. You can go to California Lyme Disease Association website and you will be amaized on what you will read. Deet on you skin, Pyrethrins on your clothes will help wonders, but they do get thru it, so look out for them. Clothes in the dryer at high heat for 1hr. after you ride would usually kill ones you don,t see. Ticks don,t die in the wash. Proper removal of tick, (the whole tick, leaving the head there causes them to vomit the bacteria into your body) the head must be removed first. Lyme is gotten in less than a 24hr. period. A good topic for this should be brought up often in clinics while we are riding and learning how to maintain our bikes. If anyone wants to get more info for their groups, i can get you to some websites, and the Lyme Disease Association has plenty of stuff that they will be happy to send you. Any other questions email me [email protected]

 

I carry a tick-twister for removal. Gets the whole tick out with no damage.
Buy at any pet store, Amazon, etc.

 

Thanks for sharing. Lots of good information at http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/. The varied symptoms really suprised me!

 

I had a tick embedded in my armpit from Chino Hills State Park about 3 yrs ago. Didn't find out for 24 hours. Yikes! Tried to pull it out with tweezers and of course, left the head in there. Read all about the dos and don'ts, as many have posted here already, but thought real treatment was best. Freaked out a bit and went to the doctor's the next day.

Here's the funny part. So I get referred to a surgeon by my GP. While in the exam room, the nurse came in and took a look. Almost nonchalantly told me it's no big deal. She used to live in the South and as a kid, she had to get a "tick check" prior to coming back in the house after playing in the woods. I asked about Lyme and she said not too prevalent in So CA. She asked how I got it embedded, I told her, then she said, "Why didn't you use a match? They back right out!" I quoted all the internet info about not doing so and the dangers. She replied, "Trust me, honey, it works. But you didn't hear it from me!"

Doctor came in. He is an oncology surgeon so I was embarrassed that the tiny head of a tick in my armpit would be a nuisance for him to look at. He looked at my chart, took a look at my raised armpit, asked how I got the head stuck, listened to what happened, then replied...(wait for it)..., "Why didn't you use a match? They back right out! You didn't hear it from me though."

True story.

 

I'm with Falconer. I grew up in humid and swampy North Carolina and I regularly got ticks as a child from playing in the woods in our back yard. My mom or dad would always light a match and that sucker would instantly back pedal out of me. I've used this same technique out here in California when camping. It's always been very effective for me. :?:

 

^^
quinn- it's when people combine methods that the problems arise, e.g., gasoline and a match, especially in the south (those are my people).

we rode oaks yesterday- no ticks, but a cool striped racer snake on zips (damn, they're fast).

 

Much has been said already in this thread about how to remove an attached tick. So I thought I'd voice my experience in avoiding tick attachment altogether.

First off, where are these suckers hiding? As noted earlier, ticks are found in tall grass varieties, such as oatgrass.

To catch a ride on your sock, ticks do something called questing. (Apologies to riders who hold the term "quest" in high esteem.)

Questing is when a tick crawls to the high point of the grass and reaches out with his front arms. His mission is to grab on to the leg of a passing deer.

Here is one now:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...80US380&biw=1440&bih=809&tbm=isch&um=1&itbs=1

And here is an nice little MPG of a tick calmly questing on a blade of grass. (Some of you, like me, may find it unsettling.)
http://www.lawestvector.org/Animation/tickvid2.mpg

So, how do you avoid the questing tick? By avoiding tall grass and oatgrass, which you see here:
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQb2rU33-UIFRiXNEPtO0CN8nonxbW-sM8iG4zTB2lnQsisBwPRbg

The tricky part? This grass is everywhere in Southern California. Leave a lot empty long enough, and it will soon be covered in grass. However, most tall grass has no ticks. This morning I took a ride on Ladera Ridge, where the truck trail is now so overgrown by oatgrass that it's down to single-track narrow in many places. I was brushing against the grass for a good hour of riding, but found not a single tick afterwards.

So not all grass has ticks, but some spots are rife with them. This seems especially true of twisting narrow singletracks with lots of vegetation. Stairstep in Aliso Woods is a prime example. I was successfully quested a couple times in the last couple weeks. (Deerpath, a sideshoot of the Trabuco Creek trail, is also a tight grassy singletrack that is apparently tick heaven.)

My trick is to wear pants in tick season, or to wear clean socks, either white or black. Ticks are tan to brown in color, about the size of a grain of Rice Crispy cereal. After you brush up against grasses, especially on a tight singletrack with lots of bottlenecks, do a quick visual check of your shoes and ankles. Lift up a foot as you coast along, take a quick peek front and back, then check the other leg. Then keep riding.

After your ride, do another leg check, as well as a shirt and sleeve check. Drag the back of your shirt around to the front and check that too.

Chances are you will see any successful questers well before they've had a chance to slowly work their way up your body and start slowly looking for a place to snuggle in.

Ticks are pretty slow, and they can't come right out and bite you, so it's no problem to grab them with your fingers and toss them back in the bushes. Ticks prefer deer to humans, and will sometimes bail off a bike rider, even after a successful quest.

They're easy to spot, especially just after you've finished riding. I've removed dozens, maybe hundreds, of ticks, from socks and pantlegs. The very few times that a tick has eluded me, and attached itself, I used my fingernails to rip him out of my skin, being sure to take a little surrounding skin with the tick. So it bleeds, but a little skin will quickly grow back. (Then I like to curse the tick's very soul as I grind it to pieces and toss it's remains in the toilet. It's primitive emotion but seems to aid in my recovery.)

So do visual checks early and often, and realize that the trail where you picked up one tick very likely has more.

 

Just bought mine. Thanks for the tip.

I have no doubt matches work. The problem, according to the experts isn't that the tick won't come out, but that when you burn it, the tick my react by injecting more of its saliva into your body. The saliva is where the bacteria that cause LD and RMSF come from. By pulling them out and not squeezing them, you minimize the chance the tick will react and secrete saliva into your body.

But, I suppose to each their own.

 

Actually the reason many Doctors do not recommend the match method is they do not want to be held liable if
some careless individual burns himself or another. This is what they mean by "dangerous folk lore methods"
The truth is no matter what method you employ the tick will salivate as a lubricant to aide in the release of its jaws.
It is an automatic response . Regurgitation can be caused by the squeezing of the ticks body when using tweezers or forceps.

Ticks can also be found on low tree branches and on just about any kind of bush . They are not limited to tall grasses and
oats . They can travel on a host (like a deer) and be deposited on anything they brush up against. They also can be
blown by the wind short distances.

There are several tick removal tools out there that do seem to have a good reputation because they to not squeeze the
ticks body.
One thing it seems the "experts" agree on is you pull the tick straight back and slightly up with out EVER twisting .
Which makes me wonder about a tool called "the tick twister that employs twisting.
I am not sure given the consensus of experts that a twisting method is the way to go about it. Since this post first appeared I have found several other tools that pull and scrape
instead of twisting.

 

Source: http://www.ticktwister.com/info.html

How to Use Tick Twister® to Remove a Tick:​

• Select the correct sized tool according to the size of the tick - the large hook for medium and large ticks or the small hook for small and very small ticks.
• Hold the handle between your thumb and index finger and slide the fork end of the tool toward the tick until it is caught between the prongs.
• Lift the tool very lightly and rotate in either direction several (2-3) turns. You will feel when the tick has released its mouth-parts and it is safe to pull up on the tick and Tick Twister®.

How does Tick Twister® work?



There are two very important ways Tick Twister® works:

• The tick's body is not compressed while detaching it from the skin.
  Squeezing or crushing the body of the tick may force infective body fluids through the mouthparts and into the wound site.
• The tick is rotated instead of pulled.
  When ticks bite, they insert their long, central mouth-part (called the hypostome) into the skin. The hypostome is covered with sharp, backward-facing barbs (similar to a harpoon) which help keep the tick firmly attached while feeding. The twisting motion of the Tick Twister® removes the tick while keeping the tick's mouth-parts intact. Pulling on a tick with ordinary tweezers can leave the mouth-parts embedded in the skin.

IMPORTANT: Contrary to popular belief - DO NOT apply substances such as petroleum jelly, finger nail polish, finger nail polish remover, repellents, pesticides, or a lighted match to the tick while it is attached. These materials are either ineffective, or worse, might agitate the tick and cause it to force more infective fluid into the wound site.
​

 

Thanks DenMo I edited and corrected myself. You are way to fast on and off the computer!

Here are some other tick removal tools.

http://www.tickedoff.com/

http://www.scs-mall.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PTRG Hey it's gold plated!

http://www.scs-mall.com/tick-removers/prodinfo.asp?number=PTRC2M&gclid=CJ7Nzfabi6gCFRRigwodmmJPCQ

http://www.misotrading.co.uk/



Tick Habitat
Many people think ticks are only present in the woods. However, ticks can be found in many areas.

• Where woods/fields meet lawn
• Wooded areas
• Tall brush/grass
• Under leaves*
• Very small numbers on cut/raked lawns or sports fields
• Under ground cover (plants) in yard *
• Around stone walls and woodpiles where mice & other small mammals live

*under plants/leaves to prevent dehydration

So take care where you sit when taking a break or after your ride/hike
I once sat down on a toilet seat at parking area at the Candy Store on the Ortega Hwy.
Felt some thing weird under my butt cheek stood up and found a tick crawling on the seat!
Probably deposited by the last person to use the toilet as I had not hit the trail yet!

 

That's the exact reason my Doc gave me when I asked why we are advised not to do so.

 

I already have a fear of that stall. I'll never use it again.

 

From Post #9:
Don’t sit on stumps or fallen logs.

 

Followed instructions, head stayed in, used a new razor blade in a circular 45* angle motion, had a hole, had a scab, have a scar......... Will do again if needed!
Just the nastiest creatures around!

 

Ticks are here year around .Depending on weather.I have had ticks in December as well as August. Always look. Ticks only climb up not down.

 

I justed pulled 2 ticks of my dog and g/f's moms dog last week. Ours got one walknig around the backbay(newport), the other from the local baseball field near UCI. I used the tweezer method and got both out, with heads still attached. Left them in a glass jar with a lid for a few days, just incase the dogs got sick. Nasty looknig little things. Killed the ticks in rubbing alchohol.

And the match method wont work on my dog, I probably would have lost a finger if I got a match anywhere near her leg.