Ticked Off in Michigan

Talking to the Southeastern Michigan Geocaching Facebook Group, many of our members reported ticks (and mosquitoes the size of finches) this weekend.  We even found a tick on Fiona, the geo-wonder-pup, while doing to Metropark trails.  It’s been a bad season.  SuperJosh reports he prefers the Northern ones – our deer ticks are larger than ones in the Southern states so they are easier to spot.

You are not supposed to squeeze and kill a tick embedded in your skin for fear of them releasing all their toxins into your blood stream.  Worse yet, I heard a tale (urban legend?) about a guy that poisoned himself because he would pull ticks off his dogs and then bite off the ticks’ heads to kill them.  Oh my.

Read my earlier post TICKS – A GEOCACHERS’ BANE HERE

As a result of the increase, there have been many posts about Tick removal remedies. Snopes.com has disproved the “liquid dish soap method” as an old wives tale. Another post states you should use a lint roller after being outdoors to remove ticks from your clothes – I’m not sure if this works or not. Wear light clothes so you can spot them easier.

What I do trust is Ben of TheGrundalow’s CDC link about Tick removal.  The goal is to remove the tick as quickly as possible and to clean the wound.  It’s a short article, but it’s really clear about what to do and to watch out for.  It even has this nifty graphic:

SOURCE: CDC Website

As for Fiona, we used my new tick key on her, which was quite quick and quite painless.  I bought this from gxproxy.com but, after a quick Internet search, they seem to everywhere now.

Remember: Nothing is quite as fun as a tick-check with the one you love!

Ticks – a Geocacher’s Bane

Rumor has it that 2014 will not be a bad year for ticks.  It has something to do with late frosts in 2013 and a tick’s 2-year life cycle.  Plus the extreme cold this Winter.  Either way, it’s best to stay cautious.  TaGeez and I have spent a lot of time in the woods already.

A friend posted on Facebook a remedy for removing ticks involving dish soap and cotton swabs.  Unfortunately, another friend immediately debunked it using Snopes.com as a reference.

Reaching out to that second friend, Ben of theGrundalows, he said, “The ONLY way to safely remove a tick is tweezers at the mouthparts/your own skin and pull.”  He also advised, “Do not remove a tick in any way that will kill/injure the tick in the process.  If you do, it is more likely the tick with spew its nasty diseases into your bloodstream.” I trust Ben’s knowledge in this area – he and Amanda are hikers and spend a great deal of time outdoors.

Scary, right?  I’ve come across ticks twice – one embedded in my cat’s eyelid (I cried the whole time I was tweezing it out) and one on myself (discovered during a shower).  I screamed (and almost took out the shower curtain) as I scrambled to get it off.  This year I bought myself and TaGeez a Tick Key – we’re carrying them in our special essentials kits I mentioned back in October.

I must remember to pack it when I head off to Beverly GC28 this month.  Brad Paisley’s song, Ticks, is cute but the real thing is not.