posted
I call mine a recycled tree! In fact I have room to store it decorated, so I just though a sheet over it and fluff the branches each year. Merry Christmas!
Posts: 5 | From arizona | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
I insisted on a real one every year until this year when I was diagnosed with Lyme.
We bought our first fake tree ever this time and will use it from now on.
I'm not taking any more chances.
-------------------- Diagnosed with :yme and mycoplasma pneumonia Aug 08. Treating with Doxy and Ceftin ever since. 15 sessions in hyperbaric o2 chamber Posts: 183 | From all around | Registered: Jul 2008
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TerryK
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 8552
posted
quote:I call mine a recycled tree! In fact I have room to store it decorated, so I just though a sheet over it and fluff the branches each year. Merry Christmas!
Great idea. LOVE IT!!! Posts: 6286 | From Oregon | Registered: Jan 2006
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disturbedme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12346
posted
Nope, we have a fake one. I refused to get a live one after I became ill (we had a live one the year before I became ill). The fake one was $70, but well worth it since it will last a number of years. I love my fake one. Buy a candle that smells like pine and you'll have the smell of the real thing too...
My mother in law has always had a live one and I really am not a fan of going down to visit them. We stay at their place for a week or so during the holidays and staying at a house with a live tree that could possibly be infested with ticks for a week is something I do NOT want to do.
Luckily, she's been thinking of getting a fake one, but she can't find any she likes... and then fake ones she does like are $300!!!!
So I am sitting here hoping she gets a fake one (but not sure if she will and almost doubting it even). The last thing I need is the stress of knowing I have to spend time in a house with a live tree with possible ticks (In PENNSYLVANIA for that matter)... that added to the stress of just having to travel 5 hours and stay in a place other than my own home and that far away from my home for a week or so.
-------------------- One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. ~ Helen Keller
My Lyme Story Posts: 2965 | From Land of Confusion (bitten in KS, moved to PA, now living in MD) | Registered: Jun 2007
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Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
It took many moons... but after being sick every Christmas since I can remember as a child... I finally figured out I was allergic to Christmas trees!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
And grandpa use to pride himself on getting the biggest one around!
Of course that was back when Santa lived in my grandpa's attic.
He did so!
My grandpa told me that.. and he also told me not to tell the other kids in the family because it was "our" special secret.
I have a fake tree inside now... and because we all don't love that idea... we have a LIVE one outside too. A real live pine tree, still in the ground... and forever it will stay there tree.
I decorate it for the birds and animals (peanut butter cones, popcorn strings, suet blocks, bird seed bells, cotton balls for nesting material, etc) and it can be seen from the window.
BTW-
Why do we call it a "live tree"?
Technically, what is referred to as a "live Christmas tree" has been cut off just above the roots and is basically waiting to totally drop dead...
So why do we call it a LIVE tree?
Shouldn't we call it a "sacrificial-on-the-road-to-heaven" tree?
posted
This issue isn't going over very well here. I have approached a couple tree lots here and they like the subject about as much as the bubonic plague.
The last lot told me their trees come from Calaveras Cty in Oregon high up in the mountains.
Does low elevation vs high elevation matter when it comes to tick exposure?
Posts: 13171 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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posted
No matter how sick I am...I love the real trees!
Maybe I am a gltten for punishment but, I can't bring myself to buy a fake one.
Posts: 193 | From New Jersey | Registered: Oct 2008
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tickbattler
Unregistered
posted
I love the live trees too.
I just had a thought. If we get a live one, I may spray it with the Sawyer permethrin clothes spray and let it dry before I bring it inside. I bet this would do some damage to any ticks on that tree.
posted
I don't have a choice. My partner refuses to have anything but a real tree. I don't help decorate it or water it so I don't have to touch it. The carpeting is a light color so I can check to see if ticks are crawling away from it.
Posts: 449 | From Vermont | Registered: Nov 2004
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TerryK
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 8552
posted
Robin wrote:
quote:The last lot told me their trees come from Calaveras Cty in Oregon high up in the mountains.
Does low elevation vs high elevation matter when it comes to tick exposure?
I've never heard of Calaveras City in Oregon and can't find it via a google search. I did find a Calaveras County in CA.
Apparently ticks that transmit relapsing fever live in high altitudes in Oregon. Don't know about CA but when I looked up ticks and Calaveras this is the page I got. http://cecalaveras.ucdavis.edu/lyme.htm
I believe the tree that harbored the ticks that were found last year was grown at a low elevation but of course that doesn't mean that they don't exist at higher elevations.
Terry
Posts: 6286 | From Oregon | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Terry - Calaveras Cty in Oregon is a little secret county, not on the map, or registered, that grows trees in high places with no ticks on them. You didn't know?
Posts: 13171 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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MADDOG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 18
posted
Hi Gang The only true live tree is one with roots intact. for lator planting. Were a dogie can pee on it!!!! HHHE HHE HE HE !!!!
Posts: 4083 | From Ohio | Registered: Oct 2000
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Only real Christmas trees in this house. : ) I seriously don't stress about it. It's so cold here, is it really possible ticks would survive?
-------------------- Mom to a 5 year old lymie.... Taking it one day at a time. Posts: 182 | From Ipswich, MA | Registered: Jul 2008
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
-
Oh, officially we have no ticks in Oregon. But that depends upon which official one wants to believe.
However it was either last Christmas or the one before, that someone did contract lyme from a tick in a Christmas tree from his home. He got it from a tree farm and it was possible to notify the farmer. That was good. (Same guy as TerryK mentioned above.)
While there are no LLMDs here, fortunately, he was able to quickly see a very good LL ND who is an ILADS member.
-------
I don't know how to find the citation for this but I read (over ten years, I think) ago that ticks can survive up to "17 degrees below zero" - and even colder if they are sheltered.
-
[ 05. December 2008, 09:10 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
I hate to freak anyone out about live Christmas trees... I've always loved them too.
But, someone I know said they (and all the members of their family) contracted Lyme after getting bitten by ticks that came off the live Christmas tree they purchased. I think there were 4-5 people infected. (parents and kids) This was in CA.
Obviously, this is an extreme example, but it shows that there certainly can be Lyme-infected ticks in the trees.
Posts: 443 | From The Wild West | Registered: Jan 2002
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gemofnj
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 15551
posted
I am very sad to have to give up the tradition of a live christmas tree.
But, after some 45 years of having a live one, I made a decision this year to get an artificial.
Last year I got sick right after Christmas and really thought it could have been a tick from our tree.
Its probably much healthier for us, and also environmentally friendly. ( I keep telling myself)
Lyme did a number on me this year, and in addition, I 'pinched nerve' in my back from putting up decorations this week. UGH.
Still so hard to let go of tradition. Posts: 1127 | From atlantic city, nj | Registered: May 2008
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shazdancer
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1436
posted
Robin, supposedly, there are fewer ticks the higher up you go. But I don't know how high is high enough.
And, for what it's worth, I get a real tree. And I try to be careful.
-- Shaz
Posts: 1558 | From the Berkshires | Registered: Jul 2001
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
39 years ago this christmas i was bitten by a tick off my folks' LIVE XMAS TREE!!
35 years of being misdiagnosed by 40-50 drs!!!
i'm at library; 10 minutes before they close up; my story is somewhere else around here.
i will NOT go into a home with LIVE TREE OR FRESH WREATHS!!
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posted
I too found out I was allergic to Christmas Trees! NOt as a child but as an adult. Every year for the past 6 Christmas's I wuld get very Ill the day after I put up the tree! Last year I bought the fake tree, and no sickness, as I was just diagnosed eith lyme and mycolasma, etc.
Thisyear, I still have lyme, but most of my allergies ohave gone away! My t reatment is helping I believe. I think it is the mycoplasma and co-infections for me with the allergies!~
posted
To the people posting about "tree allergies"...
A friend of mine mentioned the other day that he knew a couple who couldn't have a live tree due to mold allergies. Maybe you are not allergic to the trees, but to a mold on them.
Thought I'd pass this on...
Posts: 443 | From The Wild West | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
I'm livin' on the edge, just went out and cut a real tree yesterday with my husband and 3 kids. Yeah, I know....probably dumb. As sick as I've been with this stuff and my tx results are marginal thus far, ugh. My kids mentioned - how sick could another bite make me? I certainly don't want to find out and do believe it could make me plenty more sick! I am going to vacuum it before it comes in the house, probably spray it as well (non-chemical type, of course). TS
Posts: 566 | From West Coast | Registered: May 2008
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posted
This was the first year I ever had an artificial tree and I must say. I LOVE MY NEW TREE!!!!
Sorry about the bold, but the tree is perfectly shaped and came with the lights already on it. I will save money in the long run and do not have to water it or worry about it(or ticks for that matter).
It's a nine foot tall frasier fir look-a-like and for the smell I got pine scented candles.
I used to be so against artificial trees. Well, no longer. It was the least stressful trimming party I have ever had with my family last Sunday evening.
They were not too keen on it at first and now they love it too.
Happy Holidays to you all!!!! Elizabeth
-------------------- aka: Lyme Warrior
In order to do "real" science, you have to have a "real" conversation with nature.
Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History!
"Just Demand your Rights" Posts: 869 | From nor - cal | Registered: Apr 2008
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