Topic: Live Xmas Trees; any reputable links we CAN get lyme from ticks in the trees?
bettyg
Unregistered
posted
Do any of you have PROOF that we can get Lyme disease from a tick FROM A XMAS TREE?
Do we have any links supporting this theory that I feel 99% sure is how I got my LYME disease from a tick off live xmas tree?
My project this week is getting ALL my phone documentation, bills, plus writing a letter to Iowa's INSURANCE COMMISSION to file a complaint on our BCBS for FAILING to promptly handle my LYME office bills, $1,000 of supplements including 5 RX compounded meds, and body lab tests! This I'm GOING TO COMPLETE TODAY.
Worked all afternoon on this project and STILL NOT DONE! Forgot how much work goes into getting these all in order, printing all emails to/from, and all my phone documentations plus other necessary files to go to insurance comm!
BCBS has had 75% of my bills since end of April 06, but has NOT done anything nor can I get a DENIED BENEFITS CLAIMS form from them even after talking to 1 of their VP of company since August after 3 phone calls and 6 emails!!
I do want to get my letter published but I need HARD, DOCUMENTED FACTS . Can any of you help me since they started selling live xmas trees last week in Ames, where I live?
HEARTFELT THANKS to any of you who has a little time to spend helping me. Betty
Betty, I appreciate your concern and, as always, welcome letters to the editor. But in this case, the science of ticks in trees did not square with my own understanding. So I checked with an entomologist at Iowa State University, who replied with these facts:
1. Ticks do not live in trees. Assumptions otherwise are one of the most common misunderstandings about ticks. The erroneous belief that ticks live in trees or move to trees in order to attack their hosts is widespread and nearly unshakable.
2. Ticks do not lay eggs in trees.
3. Aphids and spiders do lay eggs in conifer trees, and aphids and spiders are known to emerge inside the house from a cut tree. These unfortunates quickly desiccate and die, and are harmless to the house, its contents and occupants.
4. Hoaxes of the past have included recommendations to spray holiday trees with flea and tick insecticides to kill ticks. This is a misuse and abuse of pesticides. It does no good and unnecessarily exposes users to unneeded pesticides.
Bumping/shaking a cut tree to dislodge debris is not a bad idea. It just has nothing to do with ticks or Lyme disease.
His bottom line is that ticks do NOT live in trees. Of course, Lyme disease still is real. But in good conscience, I cannot disseminate false information about ticks in Christmas trees. I'm going to decline the letter. Thanks, Dave Kraemer
-----Original Message----- From: Betty Gordon Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 4:36 PM To: Kraemer, Dave;
Subject: LETTER TO EDITOR: Christmas Tree Alert -- TICKS!
To:
Subject: Christmas Tree Alert -- TICKS! Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:10:10 -0600
I would like to CAUTION all buying LIVE Christmas trees this holiday to check for ticks coming off the trees!
When you get your tree home, lay some old white sheets on the floor of your garage, and then the tree on top. KILL all those little BLACK SPECKS coming off your trees; they are ticks!
Some ticks carry lyme disease and/or 1 of 10 other victor-borne diseases:
Ticks are 4 sizes and easily confused with our freckles:
larva & nymph are the size of a period at the end of a sentence: Female size is a small o. Male is a capital O unless blood engorged!
36 years ago late Jan. 1970, I became very sick with flu-like symptoms and pain. MD said it was mononucleosis/Epstein barr virus, but it was actually the beginning of my CHRONIC lyme disease! I was misdiagnosed 34 years with many other illness names/symptoms progressing. Been 27 months into long-term antibiotic treatment. I can not be cured, but HOPE to go into REMISSION some day!
I never saw a tick; never had a bulls-eye rash; but my western blot IGM & IGG blood test results from Igenex diagnostic TICK lab in Calif. showed I was positive for both IGM & IGG.
These are the 3 top USA LYME/TICK diagnostic labs: Igenex, MD Labs in New Jersey, and Bowen in Florida. Each has their web sites you can go to.
Please kill/step on ALL LIVE TICKS coming from your Christmas trees and live wreaths! Use caution prior to bringing them inside your home to decorate. I want you to be able to enjoy your tree without jeopardizing your health as mine's been! Betty Gordon, Ames, Iowa
PS --- thanks to Tutu, Alexis, and Cave for responding privately today since the board was down.
I even sent my letter/editor's response to entomologist Dr. Cameron, ILADS member, for his input; hope I hear back from him putting ISUniversity to shame for WRONG info again. Earlier it was Tenn. Gov's lyme incident they quoted in the newspapers. BG
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
up for more input, and I brought up OLD xmas tree links for someone else, and will check that myself but hoping folks will read here this weekend who have NOT been online for awhile!
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stymielymie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10044
posted
yo betty be safe and get a plastic one. no plastic ticks on them. lol
do you think if we ask the manufacturer ,they can place plastic ticks on them, just for memory lane??????
sorry i'm jewish, but my chanukah bush will be white and blue plastic, no ticks for me please. i had my fair share.
why would anybody here take a risk, the artificial trees even smell like pine now, and you can reuse them. granted their not real, but ticks are.
just a merry thought
rabbi docdave
Posts: 1820 | From Boone and Southport, NC | Registered: Sep 2006
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
Cave, wonderful article! I'll try this with our local newspaper editor AGAIN about the xmas trees and also the Conn. AG article and IDSA's new guidelines which has NOT been published in the 1 week since I sent him! Thanks so much!
Dave, I've had an artificial one for 32 years! Bought it after xmas sale for $5.00; best $5 I ever spent, and the holes in it allow MORE decorations to go on there!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL! Hope you were able to spend it with your families! We spent quiet one alone, and I SLEPT ALL AFTERNOON after getting up at 8 am to watch parade and read those sale ads of stores I will NOT be going to! Went to bed 4 am, so short of sleep.
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
Cave, I just got done copying what you had above and sent to my local newspaper editor AGAIN asking that he print my letter to editor
plus IDSA's new treatment guidelines and Conn's AG filing antitrust suit against IDSA.
I included this time the 05...top 20 states with lyme disease; Iowa is no. 15 and 2 maps 2003 of humans and dogs in USA.
We'll see if anything happens or not, but I am pursuing! Thanks again for retrieving that for me Cave!
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posted
I got bit in the face by a spider on a bush. The red rash on my face was so big and awful my doc didn't know what to do...so she gave me steroids and one wk of abx.
Now, five years later I have severe chronic neurologic lyme disease...
-------------------- We are spiritual beings on a human journey...
posted 23-11-2006 11:01 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bettyg,
I haven't looked for any *reputable* articles vis a vis Xmas trees but here's the way my mind works on this:
Excerpt from full article at end of this reply.
1. three actions found to be riskiest for acquiring the western black-legged tick: leaning against a tree, carrying wood and sitting on a log.
"We sat on logs for only five minutes at a time, and in 30 percent of the cases, it resulted in exposure to ticks," said Robert Lane, professor in the Division of Insect Biology at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources and lead investigator of the study.
"It didn't matter if we sat on moss or the bare surface; the ticks were all over the log surface.
The next riskiest behavior was gathering wood, followed by sitting against trees, which resulted in tick exposure 23 and 17 percent of the time, respectively."
2. So, what constitutes a "log"?
3. It would seem that when they cut down Xmas trees at the farm, they can't possibly do that in a "sterile" way.
4. Xmas trees will lay on the ground for X amount of time. Mice will frolic. Deer might roam.
5. Draw your own conclusions.
Ticks and Logs
******************************** [In case a newbie hasn't seen this]
Researchers find no safe place to sit in California tick-infested forest
By Sarah Yang, Media Relations | 08 April 2004
BERKELEY - After a long hike through some of California's forests, it may be tempting to rest on a log or lean against a tree. Wrong move, say researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, who found that such activities may increase the risk of acquiring ticks harboring the Lyme disease bacterium
' Cave, do you know who this Sarah Yang is, what her credentials are, and who she works for? Davey asked this in his DECLINING email to me earlier.
IF I can get ammunition again, I'll try again the live xmas tree story, and keep in mind your comments deleting all the co-infection names.
Cave, I understand he has fought to keep lyme stories out of the paper; his previous reporter who interviewed me and another woman also did a yearly editorial about another chronic lyme woman in May.
I've sent other lyme articles to letters to editor and were rejected also by woman who makes the decisions. When I get done here, I'll go online seeing if my letter appears in TODAY'S letters to editor. Hubby said newspaper called for verification while I was napping yesterday.
Cave, again, thanks my friend for all your info/suggestions, etc!
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
cave, thanks! I'll send this tomorrow; want to get my 1 article in the paper now; whatever it is. I checked today's online, but it doesn't shown what will be in today's; still shows yesterdays letters.
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posted
Unless the trees are grown inside or something (sprayed continually with rude poisins is one "something" that may apply; another might be guaranteed deer-free growing areas, which are probably hard to come by, too...) I don't think you can be at all sure that they won't harbor ticks! Thus, if you have a live tree, you should definitely be on the lookout for ticks.. DaveS
Posts: 4567 | From ithaca, NY, usa | Registered: Nov 2000
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mbroderick
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5220
posted
As much as I've always loved the smell of pine in my house, I'm going to forego bringing any trees in!!! This is certainly something that we CAN control. Why put yourself and your pets at risk for yet another bite??!!!!!! There absolutely must be ticks on the live trees!!!
Buy a pine-scented candle or two!!! Artificial trees have come a looooooooooong way over the years. Some of them look so real that it's actually hard to tell without getting really close to them.
Posts: 2097 | From PA | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
Just got my new artificial tree up & an Airwick evergreen scented thingy...Kids are not pleased, but gotta do what you gotta do- One plus, other than the obvious no tick threat is you can just bend the branch tips up to hang onto the heavier ornaments better! Sue
[ 12. December 2006, 09:33 PM: Message edited by: susiecv ]
Posts: 249 | From finger lakes, ny | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
given that I had no high risk behaviors for a tick bite and susyained one with severe effects, live Xmas trees are out here. Why take the risk?
Posts: 719 | From Delaware | Registered: Jan 2006
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stymielymie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10044
posted
you guys are brillant!!!!! i said aLL THIS IN THE BEGINNING OF THE POST
am i the davey your calling a butthead, you must know me very well.
so the decision is DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!!!
PLASTIC TREES, BOTTLE OF PINESOL OPENED, AND PLASTIC TICKS FOR THE KIDDIES TO REMEMBER. AND OF COURSE Y'ALL NEED TOOS GO TO TARGET AND GET SOME THEM RED TARGET BULLET STICKERS TO PUT ON THE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS.
ALL CHRISTMAS CARDS COME FROM TARGET WITH THE RED BULEYE.
SEND A CARD TO WORMSY FOR CHRISTMAS WITH A BULLEYE ON THE INSIDE.
HEAD ELF TO JULIE DOCDAVE
Posts: 1820 | From Boone and Southport, NC | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
Usually folks here -- San Francisco bay area -- have not heard about Lyme, much less a problem with xmas trees. So I was relieved today to hear that my cab driver's girlfriend told him not to get a live tree this year because of the possibility of tick danger.
Whoopee. First aware statement I've heard in a while here. I reinforced the message. He was surprised, as he hadn't realized yet what it all meant.
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
robin, thanks so much for posting that!
calif. is 14 on lyme diseases followed by IOWA... thanks for sharing more with your cab driver!
i think i'll start a specific post to find out how many others were also bitten from xmas tree ticks!
posted
hi all, this is sort of on a tangent to the subject of xmas trees/ticks. the "experts" say that ticks don't live in trees; how would they explain the large tick that dropped from a big maple tree onto my head last year? luckily for me,i felt it crawling on my hair when i got to the post office, and knocked it off onto the floor, where i killed it. i know it came off the tree when i walked under it,because i felt something hit my head, and then i got in my truck and drove to the p.o. whattya think?
-------------------- ~*~ Carole ~*~ Young at Heart Grandmother of 4 Posts: 140 | From Morristown, NJ, USA | Registered: Jan 2004
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
jenifer and toby,
if either of you read this, you can REMOVE FROM FEATURE area, and let it just go down with the other posts until it's buried; i'll resurrect it next nov/dec! thank you.
i sent this request to jenifer in regular email, but she must have overlooked it. thanks!!
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I know a family in northern california-bay area who got lyme from cutting down their christmas tree. Luckily or unluckily there daughter had lyme and was in treatment for 2 years with and LLMD and his wife also contracted it-so when he got the rash they knew exactly what to do.
Questions or need personal info on them-they would love to talk to you!
-Lindsay
Posts: 484 | From Burlingame, Ca | Registered: Sep 2005
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
lindsay, your PM box is FULL! please delete galore ok.
yes, i'd love to talk to them; please PM me; my box isn't full! lol
thanks lindsay for telling me about them!
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posted
Interesting, scary, and pertinent a couple of months ago!
Posts: 459 | From Connecticut - just across the river from the Lymes (Old Lyme, Hadlyme, East Lyme, South Lyme & Lyme) | Registered: Oct 2000
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
laurie, yes, it is! that's why i chose to share my feelings here on the board. others have commented on the same, or it was from leaning up against trees, bringing in firewood, etc. and dropping out of trees on a person.
i tried with no success to get this in our local newspaper without success! he checked with experts at local university!
thanks for stopping by; i'd asked to have this removed from FEATURE ON TOP to let it go down but i guess it still serves a purpose; hope you share this with others who get live trees!
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