Oregon Hikers

I started in frost yesterday on my way up to the snow zone, but I guess I picked some up in the warm afternoon at Lyle Cherry Orchard. On the drive home, pulled over twice to flick the nasty beasts off.
Time to look for my permethrin.

Tick on my back: Rogue River. A couple weeks ago. I thought it was still winter and I didn't need to worry about ticks. Yeah, time to treat with permethrin.

We can always count on Jerry to post a pic of his latest harvest

I'm fortunate that all my ticks have been in places I can reach. I cringe at the thought of one in "the mirror zone".

I could not see it except using camera

It was too far embedded that the tick twister couldn't get under the tick. I tried maybe 100 times.

I then got radical and scraped it off with fingernail. With the body scraped off, I could than get the tick twister under the legs that were still remaining, and they came off.

Then time for adult beverage. Beer too heavy

retired jerry wrote: ↑

March 17th, 2019, 7:35 pm

the tick twister

You have one of those little plastic twister tools? I got one after getting two bites last year but (thankfully) haven't had to use it yet. How do you find it works? The advertising plug was very convincing.

I have heard other people recommend it

It works okay, as good as anything else

The problem is when the pesky little things fully embed, it's hard to get the twister between the tick body and my body

On the twister, the bottom is curved towards the middle and the two edges are sharply beveled towards each other so the slot goes to almost zero width which makes it work a little better

I don't really use the twisting action so much. If you can get the slot edges between the tick body and my body then I'm almost there.

retired jerry wrote: ↑

March 18th, 2019, 4:58 am

... the slot goes to almost zero width which makes it work a little better

Yeah, tick removers are worthless if the slot never pinches down tight. The tick just twists sideways and slides through. Duh. The manufacturers know this, but they deliberately foist garbage on us, with the eager participation of sleazy retailers. (the above pertains to all products: junk boots, junk tents, junk GPS, junk sunglasses, junk headlamps, on and on)

to remove ticks first i smear petroleum jelly on them. then a little peanut butter. I've also heard bleach works so at times I've sprayed that in addition to the above. Finally a quick splash of gasoline I'm told is something they really really hate, so then I put a freshly it match head right to it, they totally back out!!! There's also a swedish device that creates a vacuum that one can put over it and more or less vacuum them off! I'd have to google the official name of it.. it was actually featured in Austin Powers

more seriously.. after 2 tick bites, one on the side of my torso and one on my shin, taking like 16-18 months to 'subside' and basically be 'gone', in the last week~ they have kicked back up with intense itching and acting like they were right after i got the bite, we're now 24 months after bite.. crazy. I assume this has to do something with my immune system at this point.. because they were dormant for about 6 months with no itching. crazy shit, not about to chase my tail and empty my wallet with doctors trying to figure it out while they scratch their head and tell me nothing. I think they're granuloma.. a relatively rare response to tickbites which i seem to have developed in spades. f$%@^ing monsters..

One of my companions got a tick on Coronary Ridge (Kings Mt.) on Sunday. They've been lurking under the snow.

Water wrote: ↑

March 18th, 2019, 8:01 pm

then I put a freshly it match head right to it, they totally back out!!!

I tried the lit match solution with leeches. Did more harm to myself than the worm. Since leeches don't carry disease, I resigned myself to the idea that a good old fashioned medieval blood letting was healthier for both human and parasite and let them feed to their hearts' content (Yes, they actually have two hearts).

Bad news, I found a tick crawling on me while hiking in the Memaloose Hills area today. So much for early season nonchalance.