And before anyone moves another post of mine (and doesn't tell me it was moved, or doesn't post info saying it is moved from the place where I originally put it so I am not chasing my tail around looking for stuff from one day to the next)...
Please explain why information like this- that is directly related to Lyme & other tick borne diseases (as it says below)- and is NOT related to patient "support" or "discussions"- doesn't belong here and belongs in General instead.
Medical Questions Medical questions and information related to Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.
General Support General support and discussion for Lyme disease patients.
[ 07-24-2015, 03:14 AM: Message edited by: Tincup ]
Posted by Spiritwalk (Member # 46032) on :
Anyone want to explain in layman's terms what it's saying? I grew up and lived a good portion of my life in South Texas. I gathered that they are studying said tick and that there was a presence of tick-borne disease and that the rain has increased population?
Anyone know if there have been previous studies or is this something just recently being researched?
Posted by SacredHeart (Member # 44733) on :
Yes Spiritwalk. It really isn't saying much that already isn't known regarding rain, spring, and ticks.
However, the importance of finding all of those strains of lyme are important for the mainstream to accept that it is here, and probably wide spread.
Maybe the AandM study peaked everyones' interest?
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Tincup .. as it currently stands, Medical Questions is for questions.
It hasn't been a problem lately, but for quite awhile people were posting 5 and 6 articles/links a day (one person) and if they put them HERE .. the QUESTIONS from newbies and everyone else got dropped to the bottom of the page.
Add those to everyone else's articles and links and it would fill the entire forum.
Since our number one goal is to help newbies and those who are ill, we try to keep research items in General Support.
This is MY TAKE on the current situation. Other moderators can chime in if they like.
Now that Lymenet is not as busy, perhaps things could change in regard to the threads posted.
PS .. I "always" click the note to tell the poster that an item has been moved. Always could be = to 99% of the time. Posted by Tincup (Member # 5829) on :
Well well. That NOW makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.
Sacredheart is right. I posted it as evidence Lyme and tick borne diseases ARE in Texas (which we already know). Still a lot of ducks saying it isn't. And Texas is a bad place for that for some reason.
Posted by TX Lyme Mom (Member # 3162) on :
Nice find, TC! We'll add this one to our collection of articles on the epidemiology of infected ticks here in Texas in hopes that it will help us convince our Texas Medical Board to do a better job about educating our Texas doctors about the risk of contracting tick-borne diseases here in our state. I appreciate knowing about this research group too because I doubt I would have learned about them if you hadn't posted it for us.
This study supplements the work of Marie Esteve-Gassent, PhD on the main campus of Texas A&M Univ. who has published several other similar studies about the epidemiology of infected ticks in Texas and extending southwards into neighboring central Mexico. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=esteve-gassent+m+%5Bau%5D
Stay tuned 'cause I've got a fun news clipping from a small town newspaper, written by an old-timer out in West Texas, to post next. You're gonna' get a laugh outta' it.
Posted by TX Lyme Mom (Member # 3162) on :
OK, as promised, here's a light-hearted news clipping about "blood suckers" from a small town newspaper in the north western part of Texas. It's written by an old-timer rancher who can remember about the evolution of our Texas tick population and also about the increase in out state's deer population over the period of the last 50-75 years.
(Since most small town newspapers take their stories off-line after a few weeks, I'll post the entire article for the sake of anyone who might not see this topic until later after this link is no longer available.)
NOW HEAR THIS: Chiggers, ticks, and other bloodsuckers
By LARRY M. JONES | Posted: Saturday, July 25, 2015 5:15 pm
I must apologize in advance to all my long-time readers, but this column is not about lawyers. Despite being the apex predator in the category of bloodsuckers, I have in recent years tried to be more empathetic to the plight of these wretched creatures. Just like rattlesnakes, lawyers, too, have feelings.
Just over a week ago, I was getting my ears lowered at Randy Martin’s barber shop and I overheard a conversation he was having with another customer. They were discussing how bad chiggers were this year. This struck me as quite unusual, because I have not had a chigger or a tick in so long I can’t remember when I was last bitten.
Despite my recent good fortune of not being bothered by “redbugs,” as chiggers are called throughout the southern states, I have, for most of my life, been a chigger magnet – definitely not a chick magnet. I vividly remember a time when I was 5-6 years old that I was so covered in chiggers that my eyes were almost swollen shut. Although they are not actual bloodsuckers, as I inferred, chiggers inject an enzyme to dissolve skin tissue upon which they feed. This causes an allergic reaction in most people and can itch like crazy.
The tiny little red monsters particularly love this area of North Texas, with one major exception. They are normally never found in areas of sandy soil. I’ve read that the adult stage of chiggers live in the soil, and perhaps the lighter sandy soils are not compatible with their life cycle.
Ticks, on the other hand, were never a problem when I was a youngster in the 1940s and ‘50s. Our farm dogs always had a few big gray ticks, but never the smaller deer ticks, Lone Star ticks or tiny little seed ticks. Grandpa Jones told me of what he called “wood ticks” that inhabited an area across the river near the mouth of Hill Creek. I always stayed away from this area to avoid them. It was not until the deer population exploded as a result of the screwworm eradication program that tick populations soared, as well. There was no avoiding them at this point.
When my wife’s daughter married almost 20 years ago, we had an outdoor ceremony here on the “pore farm.” A June wedding, it was prime time for chiggers. For weeks afterward, the good Jones name was seriously impugned by guests attending the event. Everyone was absolutely covered with the little boogers and suffered mightily, except my wife Helen, her daughter, her sister and her mother. For some reason, chiggers tremble in their presence.
Having been free and clear of both chiggers and ticks for many years, I have assumed that perhaps fire ants had decimated their populations. Hearing the tales of woe in Randy’s barbershop, I may have to reconsider my assumption. Having eating my wife’s cooking for the past couple of decades, I may be taking on characteristics of Helen’s German female family members – total immunity from chigger suffering.
Whatever the reason for this new and delightful syndrome, I heartily endorse it. Like we did with the space program in the 1960s, we need to rally the nation’s best and brightest minds to study this issue. Surely the same principles can be applied to developing a vaccine against lawyers and other bloodsuckers
***
Larry M. Jones is a retired Navy commander and aviator who raises cattle and hay in the Brock/Lazy Bend part of Parker County. Comments may be directed to [email protected].
Posted by TX Lyme Mom (Member # 3162) on :
As follow-up to the clue given in the news article (above) about the increase in the deer population following the eradication of the screwworm, here are the results of a Google search which will substantiate this fact -- for benefit of anyone who is curious or who might have a genuinely serious interest in this subject:
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