Pine Barren Culture; Dead or Alive

[Pan]

Guys and gals, this is all you need. Best thing since sliced bread. Works on people and mans best friend and will not leave the head behind. The only thing I use.

The Original Ticked Off Tick Remover https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CAQ7C8K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_IUPdxbM7HTGYR

Cynic that i am I read the 1 and 2 star reviews first...

So then what did the old time Pineys who grew up in those woods do?

 

[GermanG]

Do they have any real evidence that such is the case? i used to remove a lot of ticks with gasoline with no ensuing problem that I was aware of, but once I started messing around with tweezers trying to twist them out I started getting festering parts of their bodies left behind.

There's no doubt you will occasionally leave mouth parts in your skin when you pull them out with tweezers. But the "festering" you are talking about is not much different than the infection you get from a splinter left in too long. That's whole different ailment than Lyme Disease and I'll risk the former over the latter any day. And while I hear ya about not having problems you were aware of, one has to keep in mind that many, if not most, of the ticks that bite you are not carrying the bacteria that cause the problem in the first place, and even fewer did in the "old days", so a lack of ever drawing that short straw is as much good luck as it is an endorsement. I'm reminded of my dear departed mother-in-law, who more than once answered my criticism of the turkey that spent the previous eight hours or so thawing on the kitchen counter with a "I never killed anyone yet doing it that way". One day I finally responded by asking "Is that what it would really take to make you stop?"

 

[Pan]

There's no doubt you will occasionally leave mouth parts in your skin when you pull them out with tweezers. But the "festering" you are talking about is not much different than the infection you get from a splinter left in too long. That's whole different ailment than Lyme Disease and I'll risk the former over the latter any day. And while I hear ya about not having problems you were aware of, one has to keep in mind that many, if not most, of the ticks that bite you are not carrying the bacteria that cause the problem in the first place, and even fewer did in the "old days", so a lack of ever drawing that short straw is as much good luck as it is an endorsement. I'm reminded of my dear departed mother-in-law, who more than once answered my criticism of the turkey that spent the previous eight hours or so thawing on the kitchen counter with a "I never killed anyone yet doing it that way". One day I finally responded by asking "Is that what it would really take to make you stop?"

No, I don't think Lyme disease was a problem in the 60's and 70's, tho it had become so in my latter days going down there in the 90's. They said that ticks could carry rocky mountain spotted fever, but that was very rare. Yes I have had tick parts festering in me but like you said it just was a minor local infection.

When you pull off ticks with tweezers or SuperCooch's device or something similar is it certain that they don't disgorge into you on the way out then like they are said to do with gasoline or fire? Maybe they can't if they are grasped properly right behind their head. But isn't it hard to do that method with the really tiny ticks like I used to get in the Barrens, especially if they are in some out of the way tight corner of your body - and likely impossible to do if you are alone?

 

[smoke_jumper]

Now that this thread has been officially hijacked I have to admit. I have never used anything successfully other then my fingers to pull a tick out. Grabbing low and rolling my thumb and forefinger together as if I was pinching myself below the tick has always worked for me. The slow smooth pull has never left the head in for me. Tweezers have sharp edges and left parts behind for me in the past.

 

[46er]

The tick nipper has always worked well for me, and the dogs. And its cheep.

http://www.theticknipper.com/

 

[Pan]

Now that this thread has been officially hijacked....

Just borrowed, off on a temporary tangent.

I still say the old gasoline method was the neatest, and if u were alone u could even do it on yourself even if u couldn't see the tick or barely reach it, say if it was behind your ear or on your back...except for the disgorging caveat, and has that really been proven? That time we camped in the woods at the PB ghost town, lolling around on the grass for a few days, my wife and I didn't even realize it until we spotted them - didn't feel a thing - they were small and went straight to the nooks and crannies - but we each had about fifty ticks in - not on, in - us. Some nasty job it would have been taking them off with a tool, leaving bits of them inside...

 

[46er]

No, I don't think Lyme disease was a problem in the 60's and 70's, tho it had become so in my latter days going down there in the 90's.

According to the Wiki, Lymes has been around for quite some time; the first detailed report in 1764.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease#History

The bacterium is present in the system of the tick and is transmitted while it feeds. I never found anything that proved they disgorged.
I had Lymes in 2012 and had successful tresatment, I think. The tests are not always accurate. There is a huge amount of info out there, how much actually is accurate is the question.

The quote below is from Boston University;

http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/PH/PH709_LymeDisease/PH709_LymeDisease_print.html

Ticks do not bite and quickly feed, like a mosquito. Instead, they grasp the skin surface and cut into it over a period of 10-60 minutes. Once the skin is penetrated, the tick becomes glued in place by a substance secreted by the tick to hold the mouth parts in place. This allows the tick to feed gradually over a period of days.

The smaller mouthparts on larval and nymphal ticks penetrate less deeply and evoke a smaller host reaction. Adults, however, can penetrate into the subdermal layer of skin making tick removal more difficult. The illustration to the right is from the Tick Management Handbook.

It usually takes about 48 hours for the pathogen to be transmitted, so it is important to remove the tick properly as soon as it is found. For more information on tick biology, click here.

Ticks can attach themselves to any part of the body. While moist and warm areas (such as the armpits, bellybutton, back of the knees, ears, neck, groin area, etc.) tend to attract more ticks, a tick can attach itself anywhere on the skin and transmit the disease. A tick bite is not necessarily painful, which is why it is important to check for ticks everyday.

 

[Pan]

I hope you are completely rid of the Lyme, 46er. If Lyme was around for a long time they didn't even know about it. Then they named it after Lyme, CT.

May 1976. Forty years ago. Camping in the NJPB Plains, lolling around on the ground. No wonder I caught a lot of ticks. Testing out my brand new propane lantern - the only time I ever actually used it. Still have the tarp.

 

[46er]

From the link to the history. The disease goes back quite a few centuries. A disease by any other name... The 'worm' that is mentioned, is what is now called the spirochete; the little worm that spreads the bacteria thru the body. More than 51 cases of mostly pediatric arthritis was brought to the attention of researchers at Yale by Polly Murray of Lyme CT. In 1977 it was named Lyme Arthritis and in 1979 was given the name Lyme Disease by the doctors doing additional research on the disease. And in 1982, the spirochete was named Borrelia burgdorferi after the doctor that discovered the infectious agent. A very complex disease; no 2 cases of it are alike. Some folks think the bacteria escaped from Plum Island research center in Long Island Sound

Perhaps the first detailed description of what is now known as Lyme disease appeared in the writings of Reverend Dr John Walker after a visit to the Island of Jura (Deer Island) off the west coast of Scotland in 1764.[205] He gives a good description both of the symptoms of Lyme disease (with "exquisite pain [in] the interior parts of the limbs") and of the tick vector itself, which he describes as a "worm" with a body which is "of a reddish colour and of a compressed shape with a row of feet on each side" that "penetrates the skin". Many people from this area of Great Britain immigrated to North America between 1717 and the end of the 18th century.

The examination of preserved museum specimens has found Borrelia DNA in an infected Ixodes ricinus tick from Germany that dates back to 1884, and from an infected mouse from Cape Cod that died in 1894.[204] The 2010 autopsy of Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old mummy, revealed the presence of the DNA sequence of Borrelia burgdorferi making him the earliest known human with Lyme disease.[206]

 

[Pan]

Daily Mail, 28 April 2016

'Lyme disease is a ticking time bomb': Leading expert explains how life-wrecking illness is spreading - and what YOU can do to protect yourself"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...cking-illness-spreading-protect-yourself.html