Truthfinder
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8512
posted
Hi, Betty -
Maybe nobody can be absolutely sure that it was a tick from a Christmas tree, although they suspect it just like you do.
I've been wondering about this Christmas tree problem in my area. According to the guy who used to spray my trees, bugs like spider mites actually crawl out of the evergreen tress and burrow into the debris on the ground for the winter because it is too cold in the tree itself.
But these days, Christmas trees can come from much warmer places and be sold all across the country, so I'm sure the possibility is there.
I wonder, too, about firewood that is brought in to houses in the winter for burning. I found a very healthy earwig in my hall the other day, and I'm sure it came in on the firewood that was brought in that day.
So, I'll bet there are lots of ticks that can get into homes via firewood. A wood pile would be a perfect place for a tick to hide out during the winter.
We don't burn wood very often, and sometimes the firewood sits in the house for quite awhile before being burned. I'm not sure that's a terrific idea!!
Sorry, didn't mean to change the subject of your thread, but I think the firewood might be another avenue of entry for ticks in the winter.
Tracy
-------------------- Tracy .... Prayers for the Lyme Community - every day at 6 p.m. Pacific Time and 9 p.m. Eastern Time � just take a few moments to say a prayer wherever you are�. Posts: 2966 | From Colorado | Registered: Dec 2005
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My family of 4 (2 young kids) all started showing symptoms of lyme disease beginning the first 3 months of 2004. We had gotten our Christmas tree in December of 2003.
Although we never did see a tick (we weren't looking for them) we all did eventually have bulls eye rashs. Our indoor cat was scratching like she had fleas. Our christmas tree is highly suspicious, and what we assume, as being the key factor in us contracting the disease. No proof though.
We did have other opportunities for exposure. The previous August we were at a game farm in NY petting and feeding the deer. Yea, real smart...I know.
- Mike
Posts: 153 | From Watertown, CT USA | Registered: Feb 2004
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
quoting cave from my other xmas tree post:
Probably couldn't pronounce Ixodes for the life of her.
By Sarah Yang, Media Relations | 08 April 2004
Shoot this over to him---- and see if he even recognizes what PubMed is. Doubtful. No "media person visible here!
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J Med Entomol. 2004 Mar;41(2):239-48. Links Human behaviors elevating exposure to Ixodes pacificus (Acari: Ixodidae) nymphs and their associated bacterial zoonotic agents in a hardwood forest.
Lane RS, Steinlein DB, Mun J. Division of Insect Biology, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Epidemiological evidence suggests that the nymph of the western black-legged tick, Ixodes pacificus Cooley and Kohls, is the primary vector of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigerwalt, and Brenner, to humans in northwestern California.
In spring 2002, six different human behaviors were evaluated as potential risk factors for acquiring I. pacificus nymphs in a deciduous woodland in Mendocino County, California.
Also, the prevalence of B. burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) and the causative agents of human granulocytic (Anaplasma phagocytophilum [Foggie] Dumler, Barbet, Bekker, Dasch, Palmer, Ray, Rikihisa, and Rurangirwa) and monocytic ehrlichioses (Ehrlichia chaffeensis Anderson, Dawson, Jones, and Wilson) was determined in nymphs that had been collected from subjects or by dragging leaf litter.
Activities involving a considerable degree of contact with wood resulted in greater acquisition of nymphs than those involving exposure solely to leaf litter.
Time-adjusted tick-acquisition rates demonstrated that sitting on logs was the riskiest behavior, followed, in descending rank, by gathering wood, sitting against trees, walking, stirring and sitting on leaf litter, and just sitting on leaf litter .
The number of ticks acquired appeared to be unrelated to the type of footwear worn (hiking boots, hiking sandals, or running shoes).
Overall, 3.4% (n = 234) of the nymphs were infected with A. phagocytophilum, 3.9% (n = 181) with B. burgdorferi s.l., and none (n = 234) with E. chaffeensis. Of 13 nymphs infected with either A. phagocytophilum or B. burgdorferi s.l., 2 (15.4%) were coinfected with both bacteria, as were 1.3% of 158 nymphs obtained from leaf litter, the first report of coinfection in this life stage of I. pacificus.
Four unattached, infected nymphs were removed from subjects, including two acquired while sitting on logs that contained A. phagocytophilum, another with the same bacterium obtained while walking, and one acquired while gathering wood that was infected with B. burgdorferi s.l.
Despite the use of extreme personal preventive measures by both subjects, two attached, uninfected nymphs were removed from one of them > or = 1-2 d postexposure.
The public health implications of these findings are discussed.
PMID: 15061284 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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Now, you'll have to have your "ducks" in a row and also get the information to him about the incidence of ticks and disease in your state. (I'm assuming you have some.) Because he'll say--- yeah, yeah, that's in CA, not here. Jerk.
The point is ONLY that there is a risk to people who buy Xmas trees and his paper is not giving them the information they need in order to protect his paper from any liability.
Log vs. Xmas trees that have been cut and allowed to sit on the ground where questing ticks are proven to exist.
Xmas tree trunks ARE logs. There's no defining er, um, definition of how big a trunk has to be before it's called a log.
tdtid
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10276
posted
Betty,
As has been mentioned above, many of us have no idea where we got bit. And those that have talked about all the tick bites, who's to say which one infected them.
I'm not saying this isn't a valid theory since I'm one on the fence that honestly don't recall EVER pulling a tick off me.
Even when I got my diagnosis, my first words were, "I don't even remember a tick". This is when the LLMD put a period on the piece of paper and asked me if I would see that if it jumped on my head in my hair?
I got sick New Years Eve but it's possible I had symptoms I wasn't reporting beofore that. But I imagine a high percentage have no clue when they got bit or which one did them in, so it's going to be hard for many to know if it was the tree.
I only say this, since I know you probably aren't getting the response you want to this, but most of us JUST DON'T KNOW.
I've been to all fifty states and five continents. I could have been bit anywhere. Just no clue. Good luck in your quest though.
Cathy
-------------------- "To Dream The Impossible Dream" Man of La Mancha Posts: 2638 | From New Hampshire | Registered: Oct 2006
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
quic/Mike, Cathy, Tracy, and others,
thank you each for your comments above. Mike, I'm especially glad to have gotten yours since I couldn't remember your name, but only your story!
the board is up, so this is all so I can reply to others and send my newbie links to those joining! thanks again to ALL!
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