[at-l] Thinking About Ticks - Long

[thornel@attglobal.net (W F Thorneloe)]

If you are going to have ticks, those two are the best type. You want to 
prevent with long sleeves and pants, gaitors and avoiding sitting on stumps 
or ground. You are quite correct in your descriptions of the problem of 
tick checks, also known as Rednect Foreplay. It simply isn't done by anyone 
on a consistent basis.

The idea is to bathe yourself the best you can at least every other day 
with a sponge bath using whatever is handy. Bandanas are the most common, 
but camp towels and such would do fine. You want to scrub effectively. You 
want to do this away from your sleeping bag for obvious reasons, perhaps 
behind the shelter or at the privy. I didn't know that modesty was hiker value.

At least in NC, you have the reassurance that Lyme disease is less common 
that Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, as faint an assurance as that is.

OrangeBug

At 08:19 AM 4/8/2002 -0400, Draggin' Anchor wrote:
>I had two of them on me yesterday - one embedded, one roaming freely.  I
>stood in my bathroom trying to wash them off, wipe them off, brush them off.
>Nothing really worked effectively.  Even when I picked them off, I had
>trouble keeping track of them (they move fast for their size) and ensuring
>that they wouldn't become a threat later.