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Deer Ticks Redux

© Barbara Hall

Of all the times of year for me to wander away from the Suite again! I seem to be doing more Wild Things than Weeds as I leap straight from Groundhogs to DeerTicks.....But yez indeedy, folks, it's Tick Season in more places than you all might realize. We HAD a Lyme Disease editor here for awhile to whom I was determined to give a hard time as her story left her feeling a need to convince folks that Lyme is, while not quite a death sentence, certainly an "End Of Life As You Once Knew It" sentence and I beg to differ.

I've been writing about Lyme here for a long time now, having been 'graced' with at least 8 crippling rounds of it. The fact that I can teach over 2 hours of bellydancing at a time these days just might TELL you something about my splendid recovery.

So let's recap here and start with the ticks themselves: Here is a really good printable chart of the common East Coast ticks that do and do NOT carry Lyme. Share this scheevy little state of affairs, someone may THANK you. And don't go enlarging it, they need to see how TINY they are.

Step two, just who/what is spreading the disease?? The SPIROCHETES, wretched little corkscrew-shaped beasts, actually INHABIT the VERY common white-footed mouse, which inhabits most of the universe. (Want to blow your brain up? Figure how small the mouse is, now figure how tiny the nymph ticks can be and now SQEEEEEZE your brain to figure out JUST how teeny the SPIROCHETES can be eeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww.) The DEER are necessary to the life cycle and are long-range Tick Taxis, MEANING that just because you have a deer fence, doesn't mean there are NO ticks in your yard. Who ELSE transports them around? Chipmunks, and most certainly your indoor/outdoor pets. Where do ticks hang out? Keep in mind that they DO NOT WANT TO DEHYDRATE. So leaf-piles, wood-piles, cool, shady forests, tall grasses are tick heaven. You're a BIT safer out in wide-open, hot, sunny places.

Step three, understand how ticks MOVE. Thank GAWD they haven't figured out how to FLY or LEAP.....basically, they TRUDGE and they HITCH-HIKE. I WATCHED one once. Stands on MOST of it's legs and waves the remaining leg/arm over its head hoping ANYTHING will come by. I have to say, I WAS a little puzzled, wondering why the thing was WAVING at me, until I held a wooden match-stick over its head.....SNAG.....and THAT, my friends, is what all the pants-tucked-in-the-socks nonsense is all about....keeping those pants cuffs from BRUSHING over the grass....Don't get all falsely confident, look at the spaces between the stitches of a stretched sock. Yeah, a tick fits through, EASILY....but hopefully you made it a LITTLE harder for it to catch the bus. But understand that hitch-hiking thing and you'll be a TAD more careful as you duck under tree branches.

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