posted
While visiting in Tennessee last weekend, I read an article on Governor Bredesen's possible tick-borne illness. The person being interviewed said that tick season is just about over - they will be gone soon. If my LLMD is right - that they can survive in temperatures as low as 28 degrees- then I am wondering where exactly they are going! It won't hit 28 in my area until January! And Tennessee is a neighbor!
I have this vision of the Tennessee ticks packing their little suitcases and hitching a ride further south.
This misinformation is simply dangerous! If anyone knows of an impeccable source that can refute this "May to November" nonsense, will you post it here so that we can share it with our friends?
Posts: 422 | From Herndon, Virginia | Registered: Oct 2005
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Jill E.
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9121
posted
I don't have any documentation. But here in Southern California I was bitten in January of 2003 during a rainy season. I recently talked to vector control in my city and he said that most of the ticks happen here during the rainy season.
But my father was bitten here in July of this year during a heat wave.
And both of us are city people - no hiking, camping, walking on trails, canyons, whatever - so I personally don't believe the so-called tick guidelines.
Jill
-------------------- If laughter is the best medicine, why hasn't stand-up comedy cured me? Posts: 1773 | From San Diego | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
I remember reading a newspaper article quoting some entomologist from Vermont or somewhere up North that quoted the 28 degrees. Maybe someone can help you find this reference.
Bea Seibert
Posts: 7306 | From Martinsville,VA,USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
Someone should tell the ticks when season is over huh?
Geez I have had ticks on me all through the winter and summer hotest days and coldest days. Sure there lax periods in between there life cycles blood meals after emerging from egg masses a 2 or 3 then a molt then again and of coarse after they have had 2 or 3 they move on to next cycle either mating or laying eggs or molting .
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
valymemom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7076
posted
Just the other day my friend (who has a laundry list of lyme/babs symptoms herself) remarked that soon she would not have to treat her skin when she is gardening and I reminded her that my youngest and I removed our ticks on Jan/Feb mornings.
I would also like to refute this myth of tick bites being a seasonal concern only.
Posts: 1240 | From Centreville,VA | Registered: Mar 2005
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Areneli
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6740
posted
Still, majority of bites (80% or so) occurs in June and July.
But these little beasts are dangerous all year round.
Posts: 1538 | From Planet Earth | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
I live in TN and yes, we have what we call a "tick season", and yes, it's just about over. This does not mean there are no ticks at all, but not nearly as many. I don't know where they go. They just seem to simply disappear.
They start disappearing when we start having dry weather. Our worst tick problems are during rainy and humid months (April-late August/early September, sometimes March if March is mild and wet. By mid-September we rarely see ticks in this part of TN.
I have spent several days over the past couple of weeks working on clearing out brush, tall weeds, and low hanging tree limbs in a wooded part of my yard that has been previously unused. I didn't get one single tick on me. Last month I couldn't even go out on my deck for a minute to let the dog out without a tick getting on me, let alone try to work in an overgrown area, but this month I can go into all this tall brush without tick repellant and not worry about it.
So yes, I would agree that "tick season" is over, at least in this part of TN, although an occasional tick might still show up, but usually once tick season dies down like this, I don't see ticks here anymore at all.
Our tick season usually begins in March or April (depends on whether March is wet or dry, April is almost always wet), and runs until August or September (again depends on when it starts getting dry).
Posts: 106 | From USA | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I would also like to add that last year when I went to Florida to visit my parents in the winter, we could not go out in the yard at all without getting ticks. In the 25 years my parents have lived in that house, they had never had so much as one tick in their yard before, and suddenly they had this infestation during winter! Florida had a very wet year last year with all those hurricanes, and the month during the winter that I was there was also unusually rainy, and suddenly there were ticks where there were no ticks before.
Posts: 106 | From USA | Registered: Aug 2004
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lymednva
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9098
posted
Lymeout, I think your question has been answered here. The TN ticks have all gone to FL to hang out in the warmer weather! They probably want to work on their tans.
Seriously, Cave is 100% on with her comments. I spoke with a friend in Nashville and the news she has read and heard does not seem to be the news we have had reported here about the governor.
I don't know how that works! Selective listening, or did they censor all non-Lyme homes with the info they reported?!
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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groovy2
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6304
posted
Tick season is over- Dam - I wanted to blast a few-
Posts: 2999 | From Austin tx USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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lymednva
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9098
posted
You'll just have to go a bit further, to FL, to do it now. It sounds like there are still plenty there waiting for you!
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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Vermont_Lymie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9780
posted
This reminds me of the duck who told me, when I showed up in his clinic with a bulls-eye rash and fever -- "you do not have Lyme disease because ticks do not bite in August (in the Northeast)."
And this doctor was supposed to be a lyme expert.
Misinformation is very dangerous!
Posts: 2557 | From home | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
I'm sorry so many of you disagree with me. But I live here, and have plenty of experience with how things are here and I find that the article is true.
I also have plenty of experience with nymphs. Any time I've been outside I use a magnifying glass to check my body for nymphs soon as I come in.
I'm one of the most tick-paranoid people you'll ever meet and I'm always criticizing ducks and the media for misinformation, but in this case, I believe what that article says, due to my own experiences.
I probably should not have said they "disappear". It just seems that way, but I'm sure they're still around, but they become inactive and if they're inactive they're not much of a threat. Once "tick season" is over, I have never seen them become active again until spring.
I also don't believe that it's this way across the whole state. Just because our area has a tick-free period, doesn't meant they become inactive everywhere else. All I can do is post my experiences in the part of TN I (and the governor)live in.
This is the time of year my dog and I finally get to go out and have fun, after being cooped up in the house all spring and summer due to my fear of ticks. He'll get his usual end of season testing to make sure he didn't get infected over the past couple of months, and if all is well, we get to go out and enjoy nature finally! Posts: 106 | From USA | Registered: Aug 2004
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