Tick Protection leggings

Do a search for "gaiters."

Yeah, that is the idea. Impregnated with tick repellent, and that would do.
N

I usually rely on a daily shower 🙂

Sounds a lot like what we use for mountain climbing. They're called 'gaiters' and are designed to fit over your boots and pant legs to keep snow and debris out. I suppose impregnating them with an insecticide would be effective at keeping ticks out as well. I think some are even made to be snake proof, though that's not much of a problem around here.

Nate,
Sign up to be a beta tester for the new ROBOT TICK KILLER

😉 DDSM

DDSM I read about that in this mornings Dem Gaz. The Carbon monoxide attractant was fascinating!

Nate

I have been following your tribulations with the ticks. I have done the regimens of antibiotics too many times - I can relate.

If you have not used it yet, get a probiotic. I take Florastor. It really helps the digestive system. Take the antibiotics on a full stomach.

Cover up or stay out of the sun!

Your legging or gaitor idea will help, but it could lead you into a false sense of security.

Wear light colored clothes and check during the day.

As Foggy said, take a shower, but first, you have to CHECK EVERYWHERE! the little basterds will climb up into places you do not want to find a tick!

I look every evening with a 6" diameter makeup mirror, then take a shower.

Then, I check again in the morning for the one that I missed the night before. He is the one that was going to get me sick again.

And remember, there are the big adult ticks, and the little nymphs that are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

Check, check and check again.

And if you are feeling flu like symptoms and it is not flu season, see your doctor!

Feel better.

Ken

Ken,
My wife has a regimen planned as soon as this run of antibiotics is done. Kefir grains, in our fresh cow milk. And lots of yogurt. She has not put me on probiotics yet, but she has a jar waiting on me. Can I take it now? It seems that she thought it would work against the Antibiotics. I appreciate the post above, Ken. My stomach is upside down, my mouth tastes antibiotics. I drink a gallon of water a day. My lymph nodes are sore, and swollen. I just wait for this to be over.

N

[pedanticism]They use carbon dioxide because that is what people and animals give off in their breath. Carbon monoxide is the much more dangerous stuff you get from incomplete combustion like running a barbecue or engine in a confined space. [/pedanticism]

A couple older threads on tick prevention
surveyorconnect.com/index.php?mode=thread&id=68955
https://surveyorconnect.com/index.php?mode=thread&id=151516#p151533

Note the warning about flea collars in contact with the skin having caused illness. Permethrin is supposed to be not readily absorbed into the skin; it is a standard treatment for body lice, and the army uses it on uniforms.

This says overdose is possible. Breathing it is particularly bad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin
Maybe either the flea collars have such a high concentration of permethrin, or there something else in the flea collars that is more dangerous, like propoxur and tetrachlorvinphos (TCVP).
http://www.naturepedic.com/blog/2011/01/toxic-flea-collars-on-pets-are-also-toxic-to-your-kids/

Nate - my Dr. prescribed the probiotic WITH the antibiotics specifically to help with the problems you are describing. The way I understand it, your body is full of bacteria, most good, some not so good. The antibiotics kill off most of them, leaving vast fields for the bad ones that survive to colonize, causing problems. The probiotics are good ones, that multiply and take up space, limiting the space available for the bad ones to grow.

The same give and take occurs on your skin and in your gut, so antibiotics and antibacterial soap is not really good stuff, except when something like a tick makes you sick, then there are not too many options.

I'd take the probiotics now. Try yogurt with live cultures too, but be careful; pharmisist said no dairy 2 hours before and 2 hours after taking the antibiotics; the calcium apparently binds with the antibiotic and it just gets flushed through your system without working if taken too near dairy. And do not take the pills on an empty stomach -

A crude description, I'm sure, but you get the idea. If you're not sure, call your doctor.

Ken

Probiotics with antibiotics

:good:

Nate - I would suggest moving to Central Oregon,
The winters are somewhat harsh compared to Arkansas,
the growing season is significantly shorter, but in
all of my 35+ years in the field I have only had two ticks on me, and,
as a bonus we do not have any chiggers or fleas, or cockroaches.

Scott

Nate- Hope you're feeling better and can get back to work soon. I've about decided that if you use enough spray to actually do any good, and do it day after day, the way we must if you work in tick country, you will poison yourself. The last couple of years I've just been spraying a little on the inside of my boots to keep them off my ankles. I then wrap duct tape sticky side out around my little finger and just tap them as I see them crawling up my pants leg or shirt. When the tape gets full, just toss and get a fresh one. (on a bad day, I may go through 5 or 6 tapes) I'm getting a lot fewer ticks attached at the end of the day. Also, in the shower, soap down with your bare hands, it's a lot easier to feel the tick that way.

> And do not take the pills on an empty stomach

That reminds me of an episode some years ago in which I got the flu and then a secondary sinus infection. The doc wanted me to ride it out, but I knew from prior experience that the sinus infection might turn into pneumonia, and I already felt crappy enough. He relented and prescribed Zithromax, and told me to take it on an empty stomach.

Already possessed of an empty stomach (the flu bug/sinus infection double-whammy had killed off any semblance of appetite), I took one of the Zithromax caps as soon as I got home. I then spent the next 15 minutes hovering over the toilet trying desperately to keep it down. My stomach didn't like that antibiotic and wanted it to come up really badly, but I wanted it in my system even worse, and in the end I won out. I was drenched with sweat, but on the road to recovery. The Zithromax started working within 24 hours, and it was all downhill from there.