Ticks, tocked!
Oh, and here's a pic.
Think you should have frozen the bugger first Ben thereby avoiding the release of its saliva which contains the nasty stuff. You will want to get it all out thou. What’s Craig’s advice?
I used to use a methylated spirit cotton ball and soak them before using tweezers but apparently you're not meant to do that and they recommend a freeze spray from the chemist.
Ha ha prepare for the itch! I got one on my back last week and accidentally scratched it off leaving most of the head in. You can get devices from the chemist that freeze them off and it is worth doing as they can cause a nasty allergy.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/ticks-bring-on-...
Tik Tox. Don't mess about, freeze the little fucker. Hit it swiftly before it can pump more toxins into you.
Woke up with one last week burrowed deep into my forearm, which began to swell like a lopsided Hulk. Needed antihistamines and continual lathering of steroid cream to stop the bastard itching - which is arguably the worst aspect of ticks.
I have special tick removal tweezers – the plastic ones. Where you twist don’t pull.
I have the scab cream which I use on the nymphs or on the kids and or both.
I use the freeze thing for the bigger ones (not for kids)
So I’ll cream and or freeze first. Leave for several hours to ensure they are dead. Then twist them out with tick tweezers.
Mate ive even taken my kid to ED for removal of a nymph – it was so tiny I couldn’t get it out.
Ticks scare the shit out of me. I treat everyone like a life death operation. Haha. But serious.
Don’t use metho!! Hahah
https://www.allergy.org.au/about-ascia/info-updates/how-to-remove-ticks-...
Udo, I'm not watching a video with a title like that. In this case, the less I know the better, I reckon.
From my dog not so long ago. Usually get a couple every season. Evil little things they are. Can't stand them.
Ps- I try and push the tweezers down below the skin and ease the head out. Not easy.
Ticks, yeah evil fuckers. I remember seeing a dog in PNG, well it was more ticks than dog, poor thing, absolutely covered with them. Do you get paralysis ticks in Japan Zen?
Always wear gloves when dealing with ticks. The ticks found on your dog are very effective disease carriers, and some of these diseases can also affect you and your family.
You don’t want to flush a live tick down the toilet because they can crawl back up
seaslug wrote:You don’t want to flush a live tick down the toilet because they can crawl back up
well that's just great. if i wasn't scared enough
Empty tick versus full tick
One fat firker
When i was living in a Kombi van traveling the east coast on the dole as a grommet.
I had headache one day, didn't think much of it until i found a tick in my forehead hairline, due to the place it was i went to the Doctors to get it pulled off.
Different kombi van and different trip with an X we went all the way past Cairns. and went for a short walk too some rapids in some rainforest type place, i didn't wear shoes, got back to the van and i had half a dozen leaches over my feet, most of them had started sucking me too.
over east i used to go to one secret spot and almost every time would come back with ticks..small ones though but stopped surfing there anyway.
The golfcoarse here is pretty good so i bought a set of golf clubs then went to play a round and came home with two huge kangaroo ticks..haven't played golf since.
I had never seen a tick until last week when I had a big blue tongue lizard in the yard and it had two ticks on it just behind its head.
I yanked them off and threw them in the garden but in hindsight I probably should of squashed the fuckas
Little buggers get around like 'The Predator'. They drop out of the foliage unseen using a high tech Haller's organ on the forelegs which "can detect CO2, ammonia or pheromones .It can even sense humidity and infrared light, which includes body heat...." https://entomologytoday.org/2018/01/16/up-close-look-tiny-sensory-pits-t...
5G frequency ticks
https://theconversation.com/a-lab-stage-mrna-vaccine-targeting-ticks-may...
I woke up one morning a few years back in Margs, went for a piss, saw something brown/black on the back of my thigh and brushed it off without thinking. It was a fucking tick. Now we supposedly don't have Lyme disease in Aust but I came out with the classic bull's-eye pattern rash that is associated with Lyme's.
When me and a mate were working in the bush we would come back with kangaroo ticks from time to time.
We would heat the tweezers with a lighter then grab the tick watching their legs go stupid, it seem to work as we pulled them off complete every time.
Hey guys,
Working as a Bush Regenerator I have probably had hundreds of ticks over the years. Don't make the same mistakes I did. Always freeze them off and never touch them or the surrounding area until you intent to get them out.
Believe it or not I actually have contracted a nasty Mammal Meat Allergy from ticks, no I'm not a lame vegan I am legitimately allergic to all mammal meats and by products which is a colossal inconvenience and now I have to have carry an EPI Pen with me. I can still eat fish and chicken though ;)
Ticks are no jokes guys, get yourself a freeze pen and save yourself a lot of trouble and literal headaches. Squiezing them with tweezers etc just injects the poison.
Cheers
thanks udo, that's really interesting and encouraging to see some good research being done on this. I've often wondered how I've dodged this 'mma' bullet, and also if I actually havent, especially now after reading the details of different cases in that article. I've had so many nasty bites over the years, and so many strange ailments, including sudden total body painful hives/rash that have long gone undiagnosed. I'm now going to hassle the doc to test for this.
most recent bite was right on the shoulder/deltoid about 7 weeks ago. I got it with the tick tox, but it had already bitten me and clearly injected some poison. The poison was visibly travelling down the arm heading towards the gland in that armpit, something which I've experienced many times, but it's mostly been into the groin glands. Anyway, but this time it didnt seem to make it to the gland, instead it seemed to just pool below the deltoid and in the top of the bicep muscle. Was red and inflamed there for days and that arm became very weak. And even now it is still painful when using those arm muscles.
anyway, just gotta hope I can avoid them, its always a blow, physically and mentally, each time I get bit
I'm always gobsmacked when I get bit by how powerfully toxic these paralysis ticks are.
When I felt my body go into a burning itch on Sun morning I knew straight away I had a tick somewhere. Unfortunately my reflex action to scratch the back of my head both felt the tick and irritated it.
The response was immediate. Straight away I felt surges of tick toxin going into me, in throbbing waves.
Luckily my wife was there, we had no epipen but were about 15 mins from Ballina Hospital.
By the time I got there I knew I wasn't having an anaphylactic reaction so it was a matter of freezing it off.
By nightfall, I had a lump the size of a cricket ball on the back of my head and the swelling went into my neck.
There was a very uncomfortable pressure on my brain stem for 24hrs and mild lockjaw and weird feelings.
They can definitely knock you around and I have no idea why.
Why would they need such a powerful neurotoxin just to get a blood feed from a mammalian host?
I had tick typhus years ago, june long weekend, Drs were not sure if i had meningococcal or Typhus......similar symptoms, red blotches appear and fever and feels like your leg bones are going to snap when you try to walk. Pretty much feel like your dying. Ended up in Grafton emergency and lucky for me a Dr who had seen Queensland Tick Typhus knew what i had and i got the right antibiotics but still in hospital 4 days later having hallucinations and sick as a dog.........funny thing is when i saw my Dr that first day, because i had red marks going into my glands in my groin coming from my belly button.......little cunt was in my belly button.......Dr said to go home you probably are getting the flu and take some panadol.....boy was she wrong.
Hi Freeride,
that sounds rough and it's always remarkable how hard they can knock you and manage to ruin a weekend.
As you said the majority of harm comes from irritating the tick which is when they will usually inject you with the saliva that does the damage and can spread through your lymphatic system in a matter of minutes. So never touch the affected area until you can instantly kill it by freezing it with a wart off device you get from the chemist. Anti-histamines work remarkable well to take down the swelling as well.
Those links Udo posted are really interesting on the Mammal Meat Allergy and I think as the anecdotal evidence slowly translates into clinical date we will see in the coming years the North Coast becoming a big hotspot of it as well. I picked up the Mammal Meat Allergy on the North Coast and I know a few others who have picked it up from the ticks up here as well so be wary.
"Why would they need such a powerful neurotoxin just to get a blood feed from a mammalian host?"
My understanding is that rather than each tick having powerful neurotoxins it's a matter of individual ticks accumulating it's own unique blend of harmful bacteria, blood, enzymes and even pathogens from previous hosts that are then introduced into our body by the tick injecting it's saliva into us which triggers adverse immune system response to this foreign material.
This also explains why sometimes ticks don't always cause a reaction and some seem to be worse than others. I'm not sure how true this is but this is based of my experience of having hundreds of ticks over the years and a little bit of reading online.
https://thenativeantigencompany.com/why-are-ticks-such-good-vectors-of-p...
Thats interesting Jedi.
Was under the impression ticks had neurotoxins (as well as the toxic brew you mentioned) and that was the prime cause of tick paralysis in animals and occasionally humans.
"Don't scratch anything you can't see, don't disturb the tick because you'll squirt allergen into you," Professor van Nunen said.
Thats been the big one for me- trying not to initially disturb the tick.
Yeah because you're body lets you know, ie go to try and scratch what feels like a little pimple etc. Hard one.
Patting a dog, eating veges grown using blood and bone, MMA sounds like a nightmare.
My nervous system is over-sensitised now, constantly feel like I have ticks crawling on me.
False positive rate is extremely high.
Good reminder to get a freeze pen today…
There seems to be an accumulative impact on some people. As per Jedi, friend of mine over the years developed an allergy and now has to carry an epipen.
I saw that article earlier this morning Craig - very pertinent to my life right now. Still accepting it and working through a process of dietary change. And that was interesting reading about the dogs - I've long had a strong aversion to dogs, just never interested in patting them, feeling uneasy about dog hair or when they jump all over you, want to lick you. That's always made me itchy, irritated. Maybe there's something in that for me.
and wow, looking back through this thread and reading my comment from around a year ago. My luck did run out... but in hindsight, I'm now convinced I've had this mma thing undiagnosed for a long time.
and far out freeride - you describe my feeling exactly. Although I'm always certain when its already injected some of its shit into me.
and on the lyme indicator thing - a bullseye rash at the bite site. I'm doubtful about that. Most of my tick bites react like that, and I just had a lyme tests as part of the recent investigations and it was negative (thankfully). Bu then how good are those tests in Aus when authorities continue to question whether it can even be caught in Aus?
Agh bummer Greenjam, did you get bitten by big ticks?
Can you get MMA from the tiny ones that are only on there for a little bit?
I dont know the answer to that Craig. I've been bitten often by both. Majority of recent times have been the tiny ones, with a handful of bigger ones (still small, but you can clearly see them and get them out) recently too. And the level of bite intensity/reaction seem to be highly variable - even some of those tiny (unseen) ones were the equivalent or more than bigger ones, quite painful and inflamed and itchy for over a week. Seems there are so many variables in tick bites and this mma thing, and that many people may have it without knowing - it's a continuum of reaction, from full-on anaphalaxis to lower-grade inflammation. I suspect I've had a chronic mild-lower-grade allergy thing going on, with occasional bouts of more intense full body flare-ups.
Yeah I've had a couple of tiny ones this season, got them out probably within half a day to day, but I've had this persistent upper back/shoulder itchy ness and not sure if related. It comes and goes but can't find the trigger..
Stoked to see this thread still going and the awareness spreading. Like those people in that article I had a mystery illness for a couple of years that no doc could work out what it was. However my general health and wellbeing has been noticeably improved the past year since I’ve been getting less ticks. An allergy specialist recommended I avoid ticks at all costs as he explained getting bitten by a tick as like being consistently re-innoculated with the same toxins and enzymes which my body couldn’t break down. I’ve had a few ticks the past 12 months but always ensure to freeze them off therefor I’m most likely taking in less of its toxins and always take an antihistamine ASAP as well which seems to stop the reaction from spreading too much.
I also hope to be able to eat meat again one day as I can handle and cook raw meat with no problems now but still will have a reaction if I eat it. Allergy specialist also said the less reactions I get from eating meat the faster I am likelier to get over the allergy. I still have occasional reactions which I don’t even know what from, usually I suspect it’s from the animal rennet which is in a lot of cheeses or dips
Anyways sorry to bore you all with the details but long story short
less ticks= better health= more surfing= happy life
Stay safe
+1 on the freeze pen. Used to have to remove em from my dogs quite often. I hate the lil bastards too. Be careful, though not to spray too much. You can always squirt a little more, but ya can't undo it once on.
Mamallian Meat Derived Additives...
https://www.allergy.org.au/patients/food-allergy/mammalian-meat-tick-faq
Just discussed on ABC radio a ladies meat allergy so bad she can’t eat vegetables grown in soil that contains blood and bone.
It’s on Landline today at 12.30pm
seeds wrote:Just discussed on ABC radio a ladies meat allergy so bad she can’t eat vegetables grown in soil that contains blood and bone.
It’s on Landline today at 12.30pm
Seeds Hi. Thanks., i will listen to that.
Blood & Bone, caution when handling (gloves) and avoid the dust (mask).
After all it contains blood products, Cadmium. Chromium & Mercury. AW
dont be sorry Jedi - I've appreciated reading your posts. It is good to hear of others' experiences, and that what you describe matches my hope - that less or no future tick bites will result in better health for me. To that end, I'm now actually considering a move - no way am I ready to sell, I've put far too much sweat, heart and soul into my little farm, but am now thinking a change for a year might be just what I need. Rent here for a bit and go elsewhere, back to the coast... and hopefully in future years the tick numbers will not be as large as they are right now.
and I'm about 10 days since my last red meat meal, and do feel better in the guts. But only 3 days since my last tick bite. It has been relentless, despite being very careful
Still nymphs GJ?
Or have the adults showed up?
still both types FR - but more adults lately (the latest one on the arse was an 'adult' - if we call ones that are only the size of a 'dot' you'd make with a pen an adult?) Certainly not large, but I rarely if ever see or get such larger ones on me
Been a few mentions of ticks in the FC notes lately so I thought it was time for a thread. Especially seeing that - amazingly - until this morning, I've never had one, despite decades of camping all over the place.
Anyway, this morning I got out of the shower, had some tension in my back muscles, looked in the mirror and momentarily thought a melanoma had increased exponentially in size.
But, lo and behold, a tick was borrowed into my skin. My wife managed to get most (but not all) of it out.
So, other than a good pair of tweezers and a steady hand, anyone else have a recommended strategy?