-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
My friend has a theory that they go for less healthy people and animals to start with. She claims the more mercury you have in you the more they are attracted to you.
Dr. S. told me they seem to prefer some families and blood over others. Maybe they do smell it.
Whatever the equation they like my family because my cousin and I have grown up on different coasts of the USA and both he and his nephew have had Lyme disease twice.
I think it probably never went away to begin with with my cousin but you can not tell him anything. I also think our Grandmother might have given the whole family Lyme from the start. That is one of my theories so each time we get another bite it gets worse.
Anyway study or no study I am really popular with the ticks.
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posted
Years ago I recall reading that ticks are attracted to mammals by the scent of butyric acid.
It went on to say that researchers had proven this by filling a balloon with water and scenting it with butyric acid.
Apparently the ticks would crawl to the balloon, attach and gorge themsleves on plain water.
Evidently not the brightest of creatures, just a very successful design
Neville
Posts: 37 | From Kentucky USA | Registered: Jul 2004
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MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
Well, there's something to our immune systems being able to deal with tick attachments. Some people reject ticks more than others apparently, there's some info in Buhner's book about this.
-------------------- Symptom Free!!! Thank you all!!!!
posted
I also thought Robert Lane from UC Berkeley did a study where the first time a tick with LD bites a horse nothing happens but the second time the horse gets a bite by a tick with LD it gets symptoms.
Of course unless it is Mr. Ed how are you going to know for sure if the horse is not having symptoms for the first bite.
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Interesting, it does seem that some people are more prone to getting bites than others.
But here's a thought. This study relied on self-reporting of tickbites. If Ixodes ricinus ticks inject an anesthetic the way I. scapularis ticks do, I wonder if some of what they're finding is a difference in the ability to notice tickbites (rather than actual bites)? Maybe something to do with neurological functioning - how well does the tick's anesthetic work on a person?
And another thought. Research is finding that humans build up antibodies to tick saliva, so the more you're bitten, supposedly the more resistant you become to additional bites. Ticks don't feed well when you have antibodies to their saliva, they tend to fall off. This is now an area of vaccine research (not lyme vaccine, but vaccine to prevent tickbites & tickborne diseases in general). More on that at http://www.canlyme.com/spitvacc.htmlPosts: 621 | From US | Registered: Jun 2006
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Vanilla: Thanks for the Mr. Ed line. Priceless. Made me forget how bad I feel for a moment.
Posts: 175 | From Colorado | Registered: Feb 2007
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
GOOD commentary LDFIGHTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! True!!!
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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