The stuff of nightmares...

[RoadKingLarry]

A couple of hours into my shift last night I get a little itch on my left ankle. I'm driving so not much I can do about it. It gets a little worse and I get another itch further up the leg and another on the other side of the ankle.
I get to the location I'm going to and when I get inside I pull down my sock and I've got a tick dug in on the ankle. Tiny damn thing. Then I see another, and still another up on my leg and I see 2 or 3 crawlers. I head to the bathroom and strip down. Holy Hell I'm *expletive deleted*ing covered in ticks so tiny I had to use a strong magnifying glass to verify that they were ticks.
I shook out my clothes as best I could and went back to work but I'm now getting itches all over, under my waist band, on my back, up in my beard...
I managed to finish out the night and when I got home I stripped down in the laundry room and headed for the shower with the Flea and tick shampoo.

I don't know where I picked them up but they were the tiniest ticks I've ever encountered. I must have had 30-40 ticks dug in by the time I was able to engage in proper chemical warfare on them.

Yuck.

[BlueStarLizzard]

Seed ticks?

The dogs pick up a batch occasionally. I've been known to take a dull blade (like a butter knife or the dull edge of a curry blade) and just slide it down against the skin. They pop right out once engorged.

Nasty little *expletive deleted*ers.

[wmenorr67]

Then there is a guy I heard about that had one imbedded inside the head of his penis.

The medics had to draw straws to see who got the pleasure of helping him.

[brimic]

Once you've had a few hundred of them on you, they still have the yuck factor, but they become less of a big deal.

[Perd Hapley]

Nightmares? More like a day in the life of 9-year-old fistful. Shrug. Another reason why cold weather is teh awsum.

[JN01]

You might want to keep an eye out for Lyme's disease symptoms over the next couple weeks: http://www.healthline.com/health/lyme-disease#Description1

[RoadKingLarry]

As often as I get tick bit I'm either already dead from Lyme disease or I give it symptoms.
I might go 2-3 months out of the year in particularly cold winters where I don't encounter at least one tick bite a week.
I buy my Deep Woods Off by the carton and still manage to find ticks mostly year round.

Last night though was way beyond ordinary.

[HeroHog]

Reminds me of when I was 10 - 11 and we spent our summers at our OLD farm house in the woods of Louisiana. Family tick-pickings were a thing. One year I go to get my pre-school physical and the doc is around "back there" and goes, "uh, you um, seem to, have a, well, tick!" Me: "Well, get it!" Danged city docs...

[BlueStarLizzard]

Reminds me of when I was 10 - 11 and we spent our summers at our OLD farm house in the woods of Louisiana. Family tick-pickings were a thing. One year I go to get my pre-school physical and the doc is around "back there" and goes, "uh, you um, seem to, have a, well, tick!" Me: "Well, get it!" Danged city docs...

Summer camp was a revelation to me. All the kids getting ticks and freeking out and I'm like "well, pull it out" 

I didn't know you were supposed to freak out over ticks. The things country kids think are normal. 

[RoadKingLarry]

Now that all the tick bites have had time to show up as little red itchy dots the revised tick bite count is well over 100. Where the hell is my Cortizone10...

[LadySmith]

Then there is a guy I heard about that had one imbedded inside the head of his penis.

This made me cringe & cross my legs! 

Man, oh man, am I glad that ticks, fleas, and mosquitoes do not like to bite me.

[birdman]

Deer tick?

[BlueStarLizzard]

This made me cringe & cross my legs! 

Man, oh man, am I glad that ticks, fleas, and mosquitoes do not like to bite me.

If I had total body irradiation, would you donate your marrow to fill me back up?

Because if I go outside for ten minutes, I come back in with pink poka dots. 

[Brad Johnson]

When I was a kid my grandmother would spray our legs down with WD40 after we came in from the pasture. Any attached critter would fall off in a few minutes.

Brad

[MechAg94]

I recall stories of my brother getting seed ticks somewhere in the woods.  He foot/ankle was covered with them.  I was told my mother used rubbing alcohol and they fell right off.  His foot was a bit swollen for a little while. 

When I was a kid, we lived in Houston and visited my grandmother and hour out of town.  I used to get ticks bite me occasionally.  After we moved out there, I found the occasional tick crawling on me, but rarely got bit.  I have heard eating certain local foods can help.  I am not sure.

[RoadKingLarry]

I have heard eating certain local foods can help

When it comes to ticks I am the local food.

[Jocassee]

Never heard of seed ticks, nor have I seen them that small. Have encountered them occasionally both here and in Africa, but never to any great annoyance. People to get Lyme's fairly frequently here, it seems, so I stay vigilant. But you're talking to the man who wears pants and 8" boots whenever I go cross country. I like to think that helps.

Like Liz, not sure why they are a cause for freaking out for some folks, except maybe the disease factor. If you're a healthy outdoors kid, you'll pick them up.

[Boomhauer]

I have heard eating certain local foods can help.

Lol who comes up with crap like this?

Ticks like whatever convienient, warm prey is available. When I lived on the coast we had a serious overabundance of ticks. The local deer population would be absolutely covered with them on every part of the body



Like this but all. *expletive deleted*ing. over.

That *expletive deleted*it was nasty. I went through lots of high concentration DEET and permethrin when I lived on that island.

I didn't know you were supposed to freak out over ticks. The things country kids think are normal

At the last job I had a woman come into the store freaking out after she found a tick on her young daughter on the inner thigh and wanted to know if she needed to go to the ER to remove it

[BlueStarLizzard]

At the last job I had a woman come into the store freaking out after she found a tick on her young daughter on the inner thigh and wanted to know if she needed to go to the ER to remove it

I stumbled on an article about doing outdoor stuff that actually said that you should remove the tick, save it and take it to the doctor to have it tested for disease.

First thing that popped into my head (after laughing at how paranoid some people are) was "Damn, that would get expensive, fast!"

Somehow, I've managed to stay fairly tick and chigger free the past few summers, mostly because I've stayed inside to avoid being eaten alive by the damn skeeters, but even with that, I still get more ticks on me than I could remotely justify taking them in to be tested every time I get bit.
I figure, if I get sick, I'll just tell the doctor to go ahead and just test me for Lyme's disease and save everyone the hassle of testing a *expletive deleted*it ton of ticks.

[bedlamite]

I'm not sure why, but there seems to be a strip a few miles wide next to Lake Michigan where there just aren't ticks.

[LadySmith]

If I had total body irradiation, would you donate your marrow to fill me back up?

Because if I go outside for ten minutes, I come back in with pink poka dots. 

Of course. 

[KD5NRH]

I stumbled on an article about doing outdoor stuff that actually said that you should remove the tick, save it and take it to the doctor to have it tested for disease.

First thing that popped into my head (after laughing at how paranoid some people are) was "Damn, that would get expensive, fast!"

And pointless; mosquitoes provide me with at least a few blood transfusions every day for most of the year, and I'm supposed to believe a tick is more dangerous than those?

I've had one on the scrotum before.  Right where everything had to be uncomfortably pulled up to even see it.  After some debating whether to get help with it, (and just who I would ask to help with that, since my GF at the time was out of town) I finally just put axle grease (first thing I spotted that looked like it would seal air away from the skin) over the general area and waited for it to let go.  Hint: if for any reason you end up with a glob of axle grease smeared in your pubic hair, you might as well just shave.

[AJ Dual]

And pointless; mosquitoes provide me with at least a few blood transfusions every day for most of the year, and I'm supposed to believe a tick is more dangerous than those?

I've had one on the scrotum before.  Right where everything had to be uncomfortably pulled up to even see it.  After some debating whether to get help with it, (and just who I would ask to help with that, since my GF at the time was out of town) I finally just put axle grease (first thing I spotted that looked like it would seal air away from the skin) over the general area and waited for it to let go.  Hint: if for any reason you end up with a glob of axle grease smeared in your pubic hair, you might as well just shave.

[RoadKingLarry]

And pointless; mosquitoes provide me with at least a few blood transfusions every day for most of the year, and I'm supposed to believe a tick is more dangerous than those?

I've had one on the scrotum before.  Right where everything had to be uncomfortably pulled up to even see it.  After some debating whether to get help with it, (and just who I would ask to help with that, since my GF at the time was out of town) I finally just put axle grease (first thing I spotted that looked like it would seal air away from the skin) over the general area and waited for it to let go.  Hint: if for any reason you end up with a glob of axle grease smeared in your pubic hair, you might as well just shave.

Goop or GoJo hand-cleaner would take care of something like that with no problem.

[lupinus]

Goop or GoJo hand-cleaner would take care of something like that with no problem.

Pft. Baking soda, water, and sidewalk shavings for some grit would work so much better than a perfectly affordable and good commercially available option.