doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ticks and tick prevention

After 44-months of nearly continuous treatment, I have finally been cleared of my Lyme's Disease (which went undiagnosed for 11-years, almost killing me first). After I was in for a final check-up in May, my lymes-literate sawbones admitted that only about 20% of his patients ever achieve that end. Most have components of the disease that have to be managed....until end-of-life. My health has improved dramatically since those early days of May; I've lost almost 40 lbs, I'm walking 15 to 20 miles a day (w/the dog, of course) and I've re-entered the workforce again. A gift from God, right? Well, yes...and no. My marriage has been badly damaged by the many years of an almost total disability and late-stage....Lymes psychosis, which is the devastation the disease does to your cognitive skills (and which absolutely nobody warns you about). Severe loss of executive function and being easily frustrated leads to unwarranted outbursts (look up Lyme psychosis & Lyme rage sometime) and a thoroughly oppressive atmosphere at home. My spouse and I are working through all that now (please pray for us!) and I finally have a glimmer of hope (our 33rd anniversary was last Thursday, hopefully it won't be our last).

Forgive me for venting here but it leads to my next question...I was visiting my brother in New Hampshire last week and even after being very careful where I went and what I did, I was awoken Friday morning by a deer tick crawling up my neck while in bed. I know about Permethrin and Deet, are there other options that folks use to keep these now-dangerous little bast*rds at bay? I'm headed to Minnesota next week and I don't want any more surprises.

Lloyd, there will always be ticks and there will always be Lyme Disease.
You are truly blessed by having shaken it entirely!

All you can do is use those nasty chemicals you refer to to minimize exposure but there's no way you can ever be entirely tick-free when you go out into the woods and fields where these little bast*rds live. Perform personal tick checks (including with a mirror for those hard to see areas) every time you come out of the field. Tick checks with a wife or girlfriend can be a lot of fun.....

I gave up spring turkey hunting because the tics for the last 10 to 15 years have taken over central/northern Wisconsin.....not quite as bad in the fall but like to wait for a couple hard frosts....and really prefer to hunt grouse in western Wisconsin these days....not as many birds but fewer tics....and hunt phez in SE Wisconsin with far fewer.....don't remember tics being no where near as bad from my youth [60s] into the late 90s....

I dose my clothes with permethrin and use any good deet based bug spray on my skin. I also use a thermacell when the skeeters are out. I think it provides relief from not only skeeters, but ticks and sand gnats or no see-ums as well.

I still get a tick now and then. Don't think I'll stay home which is all else I can think of...Geo

I have Alpha Gal from the Lone Star tick, two of my friends too. It�s not nearly as bad as Lyme, Alpha Gal produces a strong reaction to meat from mammals . Avoid meat no issue, eat meat you can be in big trouble.

Best preventive routine is avoiding ticks. They can�t fly and can�t jump. Attach themselves to you when you brush against a plant the tick has climbed. On your body they climb until they have to stop. If you get him off right away chances of infection much less.. I also take two Doxcycline pills, prescription from my GP. This is recommended by the CDC

And strong repellent, however my experience with replent is not all that good. Problem is you dose heavy when going in the woods, just as likely to pick up a tick close to home.

Boats

I live in Georgia and 77 years old and stay in woods a lot.I use no tick sprays etc and just got a tick off my left leg.i have been very fortunate so far. Bobby

My hunting clothes are sprayed with Sawyer's Permethrin. I use glow-in-the-dark 98% Deet on neck, ears and face. I wash my clothes infrequently during hunting seasons and re-spray with Sawyers. I haven't had a tick attach in several years. Seresto collars for my dogs. I use a Pro Tick Remedy tool that I carry in my wallet permanently for those times when one digs in. It also works great on my dogs.
Every few years, I buy these by the half dozen from Amazon for friends and family.

You guys should try Picaridin repellent. As effective as Deet but nicer to use. You can treat clothes and it remains effective after 5 or 6 washings. Won't damage gun stock finishes either. I used it in africa and if it worked there, it will work anywhere. Best of luck to you Lloyd.

I don't know how well it would work on clothing, or if it would be safe, but there is a product called Bifenthrin that is unbelievably good on ticks. I spray it around my house, shrubbery and areas of my lawn where we walk our little Yorkshire terrier. There is a little road through the woods that my wife walks him down every afternoon, and she used to have to pick ticks off him nearly every day. I spray that road every six months with Bifenthrin and it keeps them gone. Hasn't been a tick on him since I started spraying it. I spray the eaves and no wasps build nests around my house anymore, the spiders don't make cobwebs all under the carport and porches, and there are no fleas or ticks.

It's manufactured from an extract of chrysanthemum flowers.

SRH

Cutter makes a product called gear guard. It lasts a few weeks on your hunting clothes.. I have never had a issue with any type of bug crawling on me while using it. When I don't here in south GA they find me and let the red bugs and other critters know that I am an open chubby target