Field Herping Warning

[guidofatherof5]

I saw this news story yesterday and thought it would be good to post about, especially for our Northeastern U.S members.
The black-legged deer tick is increasingly carrying a disease called Babesiosis. It's not just lyme disease you have to watch out for.
Let's all be safe out there.

New Infectious Disease From Ticks | Video - ABC News

Babesiosis Fact Sheet

[RedSidedSPR]

dang, i get a loooot of ticks... makes ya little paranoid.

thanks, although i'm not in northwest...

[snakehill]

It's INSANE! I live in North Scituate Rhode Island. We have trails out behind our house. I go (or used to go) down the trails snake hunting or walking my dogs. The last time after a 1/2 hour walk I came home and picked almost 30 ticks off of myself and continued to find more in my hair or other places for the next few days. Good thing I didn't have my dogs with me then. I haven't been down there since!

[RedSidedSPR]

Same here. Bug spray never seems to work with them so i dont.

[RedSidedSPR]

don't use spray i mean

[Mommy2many]

Growing up, our next door neighbor was our family doctor. Literally walked down the road to see him, came to the house, etc. My Mom had 3 girls (my sister's and me) and one of his sons had 3 sons; all around the same age as my sister's and me. When I was 12 (his grandson as well), his grandson became very ill and within a matter of days (3-4) passed away. Both the grandfather and father were doctors. Turned out, he had contracted Lymes disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Except they couldn't diagnose the two in that amount of time to save him (the 70's) First time in my life that I actually realized that someone my age could die. And the worst of it was the family couldn't handle the loss. The parents divorced and nothing was ever the same. Ticks are nothing to mess with.

Please stay safe when outdoors.

[Sonya610]

For a scare watch "Under Our Skin". Netflix apparently taps into google searches for suggestions.

One of my dogs (stray female dog that showed up and had six puppies, that statement does not begin to describe the drama it caused) lost weight and went off food, vet diagnosed "tick borne disease".

5 days later I was hurting bad, something bit me and my neck was swollen and I had a pounding headache. Turns out ticks feed their entire lives off different animals. That means if an infected individual (like my precious Jules who was infected) sleeps in your bed tiny microscopic ticks can bite one and then the other and transmit the virus.

Seriously, tick borne disease ain't fun. Thank goodness for my vet! He is brilliant but I still went to the human doctor (ugh) for the script (cause I didn't want to ask the vet). Same script as my dog got but more expensive and if I had not known what it was they probably would not have had a clue!

Vet got infected while treating a tick ridden dog, he says Lymes is not a problem but Rocky Mt Spotted fever and one other IS.

He thinks he will suffer for life even though he treated it within 2 days. : (

[RedSidedSPR]

That sucks...

[RdubSnider]

Always wear pants and all of Your clothing should be dark. The dark clothing really helps to keep some off of you. Also ticks are slow feeders so if you check your self up and down really good then normally you can get them off of you before you even suffer a bite. It can be scary with all the diseases they can carry. I was also told to watch out for dead birds as these could be from getting bit by a tick that's passing diseases

[guidofatherof5]

We are asked to report all dead birds because of West nile disease. Mosquitoes pass it to the birds. We have millions of extra mosquitoes this year do to all the water problems.
CDC: West Nile Virus - What You Need To Know