Actually Road Runner and Mary Pat are right on the money. Ticks can be found in many places. Places where you wouldn't believe.

Ticks can be found in the carpet in your home...still alive and kicking after 6 months. They can take up residence under your sofa cushions, in your winter boots, and in canoes.

Ticks can be found on birds, especially on their heads. Ticks can be found in wood piles (indoors or out), walls inside your home, in your closet, in trees, in tall grass along the rivers edge, and believe it or not...I found one in my local video store crawling around one day. I have even found them in a box of ceramic tiles.

I can't say absolutely for sure they set up house and "live" in sand...but they can definetly be found there. In addition...deer flies (black flies) can be infected with Lyme and are often wicked along the shores of beaches. Phil...just use the same precautions you would normally use...and xtra sunscreen.

A good example of ticks on beaches would be Assateaque Island and Chinateaque Island. (I don't get much further north than the Mason Dixon line...so I can't say what all is found on the NJ beaches.) The horses and all species of wildlife on these islands carry the ticks and roam the Islands freely. (Except the shrew from the last report I saw). Ticks, where ever the host happens to be at the time...can fall off and can go at least 6 months without feeding. They can be just about anywhere. I have seen a partial nest (of babies) under trash people threw out along the beach.

And remember...all species of ticks can carry Lyme..it's not just the deer ticks anymore!!

All good points. We could probably just say that these buggers live on land but not in tropical areas. Darn it! An idea! I need to live in a tropical area (with a Corona Ebbyban). My gosh, the brain fog is clearing!

Drinking bad 06 02 01
Immune response to the Lyme spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi affected by ethanol
consumption.

Pavia CS, Bittker S, Cooper D.

Department of Medicine, New York Medical College, Valhalla.

Rats fed excessive amounts of ethanol developed marked hematologic and
immunologic changes. These included a reversal of the normal lymphocyte to
granulocyte ratio in the peripheral blood, lower spleen and lymph node weights
and a greatly reduced capacity to express normal cell mediated immune
functions, based on poor lymphocyte reactivity in vivo, and in vitro to T and B
cell mitogens and borrelial antigens shortly after primary immunization with
the bacterial spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi. Further evidence for impaired
immune function caused by ethanol was based on little or no antibody response
against Borrelia in rats following in vivo sensitization with B. burgdorferi
incorporated in complete Freund's adjuvant. These findings provide substantial
direct evidence strengthening the notion that high levels of ethanol ingestion
adversely affect the host immune system and can interfere with the immune
response to microorganisms.

PMID: 1774157 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

This disease has taken too much from all of us.
Everyone listen...PLEASE!

DO NOT LET THE FEAR OF TICKS TAKE AWAY OUR FUN!!!!
DO NOT LET LYME DISEASE WIN!!!

That said, there are many less ticks on the beach than in grassy areas. Parking lots, hotels and pools don't have them. So, you could go to a Holiday instead. Just kidding. Enjoy your vacation and just be as cautious as you are everywhere else. Can't live in a bubble.

I love the Jersey Shore. Have fun.

She can tell you all about the Jersey shoreline!

I think I got my Lyme Disease after a vacation at the beach at Assateague, MD. (spelling?) It is the beach where the horses are, on Maryland's eastern shore.

I do believe they live in the grasses, if not right in the sand. Also, crawling on the boardwalks and wooden walkways....

I am sorry to spoil anyone's beach fun.

On the bright side, I didn't know that there could be ticks there, and I didn't do any tick checks or even think about the danger. Forewarned is forearmed, and you could maybe just keeping jumping in the water and washing off?

If you are already on abx, can you be infected on top of the abx?

(Just trying to remain positive!)

When I was working in the Gobi a few years ago, I would see ticks in the sand, and they would home in on me 25 feet away. When I moved they would immediately change direction towards me.

These ticks had been dropped from sheep which had been in the area in the winter. Now it was the heat of summer and they were still surviving looking for a meal.

Another tick story, in Honduras, the ticks would be in the over hanging foliage and fall on you when they sensed a "host". In one area, the ticks were so plentiful they sounded like rain falling.

Did someone post earlier about ticks not being in the tropics? HA!

So please do not underestimate the tick, they will do anything for a meal.

take care, Ernie

Ooops, might as well include this. Also in Honduras, was walking thru a pasture on morning and starting seeing splots of mud on my pants, but I hadn't been in any mud yet, so I looked at one of splots with my magnifing glass ( I was a geologist, so aways carried on) and it wasn't mud but a nests of nymph stage ticks-hundreds of them.

So probably lots of us get bitten by these small guys and not even know it. It is not a fun idea, but may be closer to reality.