|
 Ticked
Off
by Rachel Lagodka
When I came out of the woods
the other day and checked myself for ticks I found one burrowed into my belly
and yanked it out. Soon after the classic circular pattern emerged around the
bite indicative of Lyme disease; I went to the doctor and got the
antibiotics.
If you live in the area,
chances are you know someone who has contracted Lyme disease. According to the
Center for Disease Control 5.5% of the population in New York has contracted
the disease. As you probably know, Lyme is caused by a nasty spiral shaped bacteria
that is carried by ticks and invades your tissues.
The
word isn’t
in yet on what percentage of Lyme bites exhibit the rash or how long the
tick needs to be on your body to transmit the bacteria.
Because I went into the woods
twice that day and checked myself twice, I figure my guest had only been dining
on me for around six hours, but there I was with the bull’s eye rash and a nasty
scab. The experience changed my view of deer from an avid Bambi protector to an
ambivalent and chagrinned nature lover. (That and a nasty encounter with a deer
and a car I was in that nearly killed me, and the fact that deer compete with
the far cuter beaver for food.) I no longer feel like urinating when I see a
deer stand. (Human urine scares deer away from hunters.)
Scientists
don’t yet understand the complex mechanisms that sustain the bacteria
through its various hosts. The tick can carry the disease through three blood
meals which they have at the larval, nymph, and adult stages of their lives,
biting whitefooted mice, deer and humans.
If you catch
the disease soon enough the antibiotics will knock it right out, if not you
can be struck with chronic debilitating symptoms.
In the fall you can see the
suckers, in the spring, the nymphs that can bite you are so tiny you can barely
see them, and you probably won’t even realize that you were bitten.
NYMPH
ADULT
Here you can
find an educational
videos on tick identification and removal. Warning: contains graphic content
for the arachnophobic. There is all sorts of erroneous and anecdotal information
on the disease on the web, but here is the
best source of information.
The next time I go into the
woods, I intend to spray myself with DEET around my cuffs and collar and take an
extra long shower, scrubbing myself completely.
Interesting
unofficial website with lots of pictures of ticks
Just for fun: How to dissect a tick
Images that may give you nightmares
Go Back to Blogs.
| 
