Not *that* bad. I just worry about ticks
May. 22nd, 2020 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauradi7dwOver years, we have done most of the Across Lexington walks, in a haphazard way
https://www.lexingtonma.gov/across-lexington
We knew Rick Abrams, who was one of the organizers and promoters of the system. The walks are very clearly signposted, and go through conservation land in Lexington (of which there is a lot) and down residential streets, including ours, I think. We had never done route M, so we set out this morning to walk it. Before we went, we covered up a fair amount, and I sprayed myself with DEET (and whatever else is in OFF).
I spent a lot of my childhood in mild woods near our neighborhood, and did all kinds of Girl Scout hiking and camping, but the only kind of ticks we knew about then were the kind that can cause Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (even though we were thousands of miles from the Rocky Mountains). The CDC calls those ticks American Dog Ticks. I am not good at geography, but it looks to me like they aren't in the Rocky Mountains at all.
https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/geographic_distribution.html
They are big enough to see pretty easily, and in GS camp, we had a time every day where we would take turns with our buddies checking each other's scalps. I guess the idea was that you were responsible for your own skin otherwise.
Everybody I knew had ticks on them from time to time, but I never knew anybody with RMSF. That is not true of Lyme disease. At this very minute, the (40-something) son of a friend is being treated with heavy-duty antibiotics for a Lyme infection. Fortunately, they are working, and he feels better. I don't think I know anybody who has had babesiosis, but it scares me too. I do know a physician and an entomologist working on such creatures and the diseases they spread.
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/babesiosis/
The whole time we were walking, I was worrying about social distancing (we saw at least two dozen other walkers, although we had the boardwalk section of the the Hayden Woods to ourselves), pointing out poison ivy to Arthur, who for some reason can never recognize it, and worrying about ticks. The Lemonheads "I lied about being the outdoor type" was running through my head, although that would not be true of me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijlk0GTQbB4
It is true that when we got home we stripped down and took showers immediately, including for me, scouring my skin with a loofah. No ticks adhering, please. Then I washed everything we had been wearing except our sneakers, which we had rinsed slightly at the outside spigot. Too much?
There was a thread on the Lexington email chat list the other day about a firm that hires out its goats for Poison Ivy clearance. I am grateful that we don't have it in our yard, but I would definitely go for hired goats, rather than Roundup, heatedly discussed on the thread.
Brad Paisley: "Ticks." Not exactly recommending it, but pertinent, in a hitting on someone kind of way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OctrGD4JW8U
https://www.lexingtonma.gov/across-lexington
We knew Rick Abrams, who was one of the organizers and promoters of the system. The walks are very clearly signposted, and go through conservation land in Lexington (of which there is a lot) and down residential streets, including ours, I think. We had never done route M, so we set out this morning to walk it. Before we went, we covered up a fair amount, and I sprayed myself with DEET (and whatever else is in OFF).
I spent a lot of my childhood in mild woods near our neighborhood, and did all kinds of Girl Scout hiking and camping, but the only kind of ticks we knew about then were the kind that can cause Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (even though we were thousands of miles from the Rocky Mountains). The CDC calls those ticks American Dog Ticks. I am not good at geography, but it looks to me like they aren't in the Rocky Mountains at all.
https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/geographic_distribution.html
They are big enough to see pretty easily, and in GS camp, we had a time every day where we would take turns with our buddies checking each other's scalps. I guess the idea was that you were responsible for your own skin otherwise.
Everybody I knew had ticks on them from time to time, but I never knew anybody with RMSF. That is not true of Lyme disease. At this very minute, the (40-something) son of a friend is being treated with heavy-duty antibiotics for a Lyme infection. Fortunately, they are working, and he feels better. I don't think I know anybody who has had babesiosis, but it scares me too. I do know a physician and an entomologist working on such creatures and the diseases they spread.
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/babesiosis/
The whole time we were walking, I was worrying about social distancing (we saw at least two dozen other walkers, although we had the boardwalk section of the the Hayden Woods to ourselves), pointing out poison ivy to Arthur, who for some reason can never recognize it, and worrying about ticks. The Lemonheads "I lied about being the outdoor type" was running through my head, although that would not be true of me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijlk0GTQbB4
It is true that when we got home we stripped down and took showers immediately, including for me, scouring my skin with a loofah. No ticks adhering, please. Then I washed everything we had been wearing except our sneakers, which we had rinsed slightly at the outside spigot. Too much?
There was a thread on the Lexington email chat list the other day about a firm that hires out its goats for Poison Ivy clearance. I am grateful that we don't have it in our yard, but I would definitely go for hired goats, rather than Roundup, heatedly discussed on the thread.
Brad Paisley: "Ticks." Not exactly recommending it, but pertinent, in a hitting on someone kind of way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OctrGD4JW8U
no subject
Date: 2020-05-23 06:40 pm (UTC)Anywho, this girl scout thinks that your measures are not at all too much, they are Very Reasonable!
~Sor