I am an arborist (tree guy) and am in the woods most of the time.
I pull all kinds of ticks off of myself on a regular basis, and I have noticed that a lot of them are dead. They are never full of blood, maybe because I find them too quickly but they are dead about 3/4 of the time.
I contacted CDC(center for disease control) but they weren't that interested.
I do work with various insecticides, including a couple of systemic ones...one has the same active ingredient (imidicloprid) as frontline. I wonder if that would do it? Anyway, if it doesn't kill me maybe they should start prescribing it.
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(breaking up the post for easier reading for many here)
[ 08-08-2016, 04:04 AM: Message edited by: Robin123 ]
Posted by Catgirl (Member # 31149) on :
Awesome they die off but insecticides/chemicals are not good for anyone (slowly build up in the body). Most lyme patients cannot tolerate them. My doc said eventually everyone has a tipping point (the immune system slowly starts to fail/disease sets in).
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
That would scare the %$#% out of me. Insecticides will definitely crash your entire body. Please take care of yourself.
Once you become chemically sensitive, you can never go back.
Posted by Rumigirl (Member # 15091) on :
Good grief, Dan, if I were you, I'd really rethink my line of work!! I know that is a big deal. BUT, CT is sooo endemic, and the fact that you're in contact with so many ticks---yikes!
ANd then the insecticide issue, too, that's a lot to think about health-wise! That sounds like the only likely culprit why you are finding so many dead on you. That's not a good sign either (in terms of the insecticide affecting you).
Knowing what I, and most here, know about how dangerous ticks are, not to mention the insecticides, this scares the heck out of me, and probably most on the forum. Please, think long and hard about all this.
Oh, and on top of all that, if they are biting you, they are injecting their saliva into you, which also means their pathogens. Wow, all quite serious.
Posted by bluelyme (Member # 47170) on :
Welcome dan ....wish i had a dog collar on..
Posted by me (Member # 45475) on :
Welcome, Dan. Thank you for sharing this information, and thank you for trying to contact the CDC.
Lyme is not only a physical disease, it is also a political disease with two very different "camps" that disagree sharply. Therefore, it is not surprising that CDC was not interested in hearing out your information.
I think you've received some very valid responses, and speaking for myself, I am very adamant when I try to relay the seriousness of Lyme disease.
It can be extremely debilitating, and even deadly. We have sadly lost a few people on this site recently to Lyme disease.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation in the mass media about the gravity of Lyme disease along with how "easy" it is to treat.
Many of us have been on long-term antibiotics for months to years. Countless people lose their jobs and everything they own due to this disease.
I want you to know that although some may respond strongly, the overwhelming majority of people on here are well-intentioned, trying to be helpful,
and help guide you away from a world of hurt. Everyone who has responded thus far is very well-intentioned.
Please take care of yourself. Wishing you the best.
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(breaking up the post for easier reading for many here)
[ 08-08-2016, 04:11 AM: Message edited by: Robin123 ]
Posted by Robin123 (Member # 9197) on :
Dan, that sounds very bizarre - I assume what you're saying is the ticks are alive when they first bite you, and then you find them dead.
That sounds a bit ominous to me - perhaps you ought to get yourself tested for blood levels of the insecticides you use. And if high, find out how to detox from them. if that is possible.
Anyone know how to detox the "cides"?
Posted by tulips (Member # 44773) on :
I have another thought too. If you continue in this line of work, can you wear protective clothing when using insecticides? And is there some sort of protective face mask you could wear?
When I have to go out into a field or through grass, I wear either a tick repellant spray or make my own from peppermint. I have Lyme and am always taking herbs Lyme and the coinfections. The one constant that I take is Cat's Claw and
when I find an embedded tick, he is not only dead but has become part of a scab. (I don't know to think about that!)
The herbalist who writes about Lyme remedies, Stephen Buhner, recommends for those who are not infected, strengthening the immune system with Astragalus, Eleuthero and others, prior to exposure to Lyme ticks.
His book, "Healing Lyme" is worth reading.
Posted by Brussels (Member # 13480) on :
I don't know if you have a dog or cat, but if you do, you know that some owners use Frontline on them (on the animal's skin), just one TINY SPOT of their skin.
Then, the BLOOD absorbs it, and spread the poison over their whole bodies.
When a flee comes, bites the animal, it dies and we never see the flee.
Same with ticks: they come, attach, suck a bit of blood, then they may die after (they drop on their own).
If the animals do not have any repellent in their blood, the ticks stay attached until the end, very engorged, and drop off only when they did their business (and I swear, they are still very much alive).
I use less poisonous pesticides on my cat, not Frontline. But it does kill many ticks too.
As you probably know, there is barely any beehive in the US. You guys need to import queens from abroad, due to extensive use of pesticides.
If the bees die, well, ticks and flees may die too.
Many forest workers here in Switzerland get constantly bitten by ticks, and they are still healthy. Not everyone falls sick with lyme, but if you poison yourself too much with pesticides, your immunity may suffer... Take care!
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- "f the bees die, well, ticks and flees may die too."
Looking at the big picture, though, when we destroy the bees, we destroy our food supply, too. Then the trees, a huge function of our climate control & air support systems will fail. There is already so much damage.
There is nothing good that comes from killing off the bees (as these kinds of insecticides are doing). Even looking just at the short term, food supplies are at risk when bees die off.
And sort term - today - these chemicals in a human can cause nerve, liver & kidney damage. -
[ 08-08-2016, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- Dan,
For what it's worth, a few years ago there was a poster here who did his own amateur experiments and starts taking internally the very thing you mention in the tick repellent collar.
Sadly, whether due to lyme / tick borne disease, the insecticide experiment, or for other reasons, he is no longer alive today.
That you would consider the need for extreme protection is understandable. Yet, actually taking such chemicals into one's body - or even putting on skin too much, too often - well, it's such a risk.
Others have been able to address this better than my brain can construct right now and we all do have your best interest in mind.
Just because a tick falls off after biting you may not be protection against the various infections ticks can carry, though.
At the very least, as soon as you can, I hope you can connect with a lyme literate naturopathic doctor who can guide you both with preliminary assessment of possible tick borne disease
and - just as important -
very specific attention to liver / kidney & nerve tissue issues that may be connected to the insecticides.
As well as safer methods to consider in your line of work or other avenues of employment or using your skills in a different way.
Take care -
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
LymeToo posted above: "Once you become chemically sensitive, you can never go back."
That is so true. Even if you are feeling relatively okay, it might not take much as all to send you reeling into MCS and, once there, it can be severely debilitating and life altering - and very hard to come back from.
CIIN - Chemical Injury Information Network -
Posted by whollysheet (Member # 51477) on :
I have the same problem I have been positive for Lyme twice taken antibiotics in the past now every tick hat has bitten me I find dead but I don't deal with pesticides. I would love to know why this is. I live in the Hicks of Maine
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- Many variables here that pique my interest.
Could these ticks have been dead before they landed on you - as you brushed some greenery they might have been on?
More likely if the areas where you frequent and find this happen have been sprayed.
Do you use any chemicals at all on your body prior to these tick attaching? Do they crawl over fabric that has been chemically treated?
Have them been squished while on you & killed? Those might be some reasons why.
Even so, just keep in mind that the bite can still transfer infections when they bite if they are infected. There is no time limit that says they have to be attached. The bite itself can be enough.
Might also be that if you find a dead tick on you it may have died from a chemical on your clothes or skin before having bitten you. But not all ticks will be engorged after a bite if they are somehow deterred from finishing the meal and move on or drop off.
Decades ago when I had a beagle, the anti-tick medicine we gave him each morning was supposed to make ticks fall off if they bite her. I never saw a tick on her, even after going out in the woods after rabbits.
Is there anyway you are taking something internally that would do that? If you apply chemicals directly to your skin - or even if they might be absorbed through fabric - they might build up in / just under your skin, perhaps.
Later learned there were some risks that medicine that my beagle took. And there had been no guarantee that any bite would not transmit infections. Just that the ticks would drop off after the bite.
There may be an answer if you call some of the LLMD's office managers in your area. Or ask an an animal doctor. -
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- Full name, either as the "nick name" or in a signature of a post could affect privacy. Also keep in mind that if you post a link or town in your profile, that also can pose a risk.
It's a whole lot easier change name in a signature, though. Just use setting in your profile to change.
Why posting your real name can risk your security / privacy on line and even at home. -
[ 06-24-2018, 04:55 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posted by Brussels (Member # 13480) on :
I have a friend who also finds dead ticks (still attached, but dried out).
It never happened to me: all of the dozens of ticks I found were all alive, with my blood. I just pulled 3 ticks in these last days, all very alive.
My cat though comes with ticks, some die, some not (all attached). I wonder too... But good they die: there must be something in the blood killing them.
Posted by map1131 (Member # 2022) on :
I'm a tick magnet. Majority of the ticks I've pulled off the last several years have been from my own landscaping area.
Most of them are also dead. I'm guessing they have walked thru the Sevin or DE that's applied in my landscaping and are on their last leg.
For the very first time a few weeks ago I pulled off a larva tick. I as so puzzled by the looks I had to go searching for pictures on the web. Sure enough it was a tiny tiny yellowish looking larva tick.
Sure am tired of these tick education I'm exposed to.
Pam
Posted by whollysheet (Member # 51477) on :
I use no pesticides and none are sprayed in the areas I am on my land I don't use any deodorants or harsh cleaning stuff when I find the ticks it's because I itch and there will be what looks like a blood blister and its always a dead tick I pull out. Never a live one. I have no health problems other than a bad back. Another weird thing I got retested for Lyme disease and came back negative I thought once you had it it never goes away.
Posted by tickbite666 (Member # 43399) on :
The dear ticks I've seen don't seem to swell up wit blood nearly as much as the common dog tick does.
There are lots of people out there that get bit very often like you but for some reason their immune system works great and deals with the infection(s). But someday watch out... an accident, or other trauma may trigger the disease years from now.
Posted by map1131 (Member # 2022) on :
whollysheet, the test is looking for anti-bodies. They didn't see the antibodies in this blood drawl or.....
you are not producing antibodies. And that's not a good thing. Also many things can interrupt a good test, like being on antibiotics or steroids.
Or just a lousy lab. Did you get a copy of all the test pages? Sometimes they call it negative because you didn't meet the CDC requirement for a positive. But if you look at the test results you could still have positive bands.
Now you have a negative test and that's not always in your best interest. Are you still having symptoms?
I finally got a highly positive Western Blot 3 yrs after getting ill. That was in '02. I've never taken a WB since. If the symptoms are still there, then so is the bad guys.