[pct-l] Ticks

[Dale Combs]

I've seen zero ticks in 660 miles of PCT.
Seen 2 ticks in 291 miles of AT. One tick removal, dead.
I've seen about 120 tick incidents in 405 miles at Henry Coe/Orestimba. One live tick removed.

Ticks feed three times in their life. If they have last feed on the ubiquitios Blue Fence Lizard,
(often seen doing pushups) then that clears the bacteria from the ticks.

When it's alive a steady pull makes the tick let go after about 20 seconds.
When it's dead, because the immediate instinctive reaction is to crush it with your fingernails,
you pull and the snout breaks off with the digits on the mandible still inside the wound.
Then you have to dig it out.

Don't save the tick. Lymes Disease is diagnosed based on the symptoms.

If the bite location doesn't turn into a bulls eye, the size of a dime, and you don't otherwise have symptoms.......the Doc is not going to do anything. 



“Fortunately (or
unfortunately, depending on your perspective) I have had a previous tick get to
my skin so I knew what it felt like -- not a sharp pain, just a slowly
increasing, nagging prick, as if someone held a pencil against your skin and
ever so slowly increased the pressure,” Bob Burd.
I'm not saying you should be paranoid. But, if you do see one, then start putting deet on your lower legs, tuck your pant legs into your socks.
Dale