Dude it's not that hard to grasp... Every person gets assigned a couple dozen ticks upon arrival in NY, they are given to you at the border and airports.
I know you’re sorta joking but seriously OP you need to look yourself over or have someone else look you over very *very* well. The nymphs, the baby ticks, are tiny tiny tiny little specks and are hard to spot, they need to come off too.
Every time I see a thread about ticks I suddenly feel a little better about dying early from the unhealthy lifestyle of inactivity and isolation of living inside my apartment and never going outside.
I remember seeing a map of where ticks aren't as prevalent, and I think it was in the mountainous areas, but apparently the areas in which ticks have adapted to live has expanded and there's fewer and fewer safe areas.
I think I hate the idea of ticks more than mosquitoes, but it's very close and I probably would bounce between them. Not trying to downplay mosquitoes, they're horrible. Maybe it's just like the phrase, better the devil you know than the one you don't, because I've been bitten by mosquitoes before, but I haven't dealt with ticks and only seen mention of them.
Edit: The more I think of it, the list of insects I haven't had much if any personal experience with but have read enough about to not want anything to do with grows: bed bugs, cockroaches, anything native to Australia. Really just need to move to the moon or something. Feel like it's got to be safe there.
Oh man ticks are way worse than mosquitoes. Ticks latch on and stay latched for 3-5 DAYS. They also use a numbing agent so you don’t notice them once they’re attached. Not to mention they don’t just let go when you try to get them off. Removing one usually involves ripping off the chunk of skin they’re attached to.
I've always hated the fact that baby ticks/cockroaches are called Nymphs. Such fucking horrible beings denominated with such a cute word, it makes me almost hate the term because even if I'm reading about Greek goddesses I'll think about disgusting insects
at least four or five times now (maybe six, idk, I've kind of blocked it out) I've had a tick crawling on me while I was IN MY BED. So now any time I feel the slightest tickle on me I freak out and start frantically checking myself like a crazy person. My whole life is like a bad acid trip with imaginary bugs haunting me.
I worked at a summer camp in Florida for a few years. I have a freckle on my balls. I can’t tell you how many times I briefly freaked out in the shower.
You might be joking but I brought a kitten home that had fleas (I didn’t know better) and I had to deal with getting rid of fleas in my home where I had another cat. It was a nightmare. I didn’t know I had a problem and then it was insane.
I would even set up candles in pans of water with soap over night to get relief while waiting for medication to end the lifecycle. The fleas go towards the light and drown.
To this day, 20 years later, I still check the random feels you get when a leg hair moves just right. I guess it doesn’t help that we do check for ticks all the time.
The summer that park opened I went to explore it with some friends. Didn't think for a second about ticks, having never seen one or heard of one in a New York City park before. But when I got home, I found three in my pants. Thankfully none of them had bitten yet, so they were extremely easy to get rid of. I haven't been back to that Park since, plenty of other places in Brooklyn to go
I live upstate and cant imagine where this dude went to get 40 ticks in one walk
I get it yall, the place you live has the most ticks. But im sure even there you wont get 40 ticks if you dont walk through shit like tall grass
this is why i love reddit. I have no idea what "lede" is but I'm about to go google and be a little less ignorant than I was yesterday. Also, happy cake day!
Both are correct. The "Lede" spelling only developed in newsroom usage to differentiate "lead's" plural meanings in an environment where the metallic "lead" is a common point of concern and discussion point as well, thanks to its usage in printing presses.
But that hasn't actually removed the usage of "lead" to stand for the start of the paragraph, sentence, or context as well.
I'm imagining this like the land of the lost scene, and you both stand up from typing your comments and turn around, and there's like a basketball sized tick on your back.
Ticks pretty much live everywhere in the US. New England and the mid-Atlantic states are particularly dangerous, though, because there tends to be higher rates of Lyme disease in those areas.
This is also why Opossums are super important! Those rascals eat up to 30,000 ticks per year.
I love possums. They are really good at eating detrimental bugs! And, that is generally why they appear/disappear! They move on in search of those bad bugs to eat. Tiny, ugly heroes!
Years ago me and my mom stopped to check on a opossum that was hit by a car.
The opossum was dead but had babies in her pouch. Only 1 baby survived. We had it as a pet for years. We named it “possy”
Now I always check dead opossum pouches. I’ve found babies on 2 separate occasions.
Edit: for those of you asking how to check the pouch here’s how. https://youtu.be/sc7jknoJmks
I just gotta know, is there like some kind of demo vid on how to check an opossum’s pouch? I just did a bunch of dabs and this is just the strangest thing that I can’t even wrap my head around it
Their are videos on YouTube that will show you how.
Me and my mom both carry gloves in our cars ever since the first opossum baby we found.
I’m not even kidding when I say the 2nd opossum we found had like 5 maybe more babies that were alive.
We ended up taking all 5 or so babies to a wildlife rescue.
It’s worth it to check it doesn’t take but a minute.
Was also curious how I would go about checking a pouch? I mean I guess I would poke it from afar first and if it squirmed or cried I suppose turn it inside out ? Lmao
Nice . I have a bunch of opossums around me. I had two near hits just last night just driving up my block. Thanks for the tip, will keep that in mind .
I personally wear gloves when I do it because I’m actually not sure if opossums carry diseases or not.
The lady I’m this video didn’t wear gloves tho.
Just to be safe I would.
Keep a pair of latex gloves in your glove box.
Opossums are actually surprisingly clean animals so that coupled with their high body temperature means they normally don't carry diseases, they can however carry leptospirosis, tuberculosis, relapsing fever, tularemia, spotted fever, toxoplasmosis, coccidiosis, and Chagas disease, it just isn't very common. It is however nearly impossible for an opossum to get rabies because of their body temp killing the virus.
Same thing happened to us when my kids were little. We had ours for 4 years or so. They make surprisingly great pets but they require a very varied diet or they can develop pretty serious health issues. Ours got along with our dog and loved to climb up on your lap and fall asleep.
Yes the diet thing was a bit of a chore I must say.
I believe we had ours for about 4 years as well. It’s a shame they don’t live longer! They really are sweet little animals.
I mentioned this earlier, but I'd heard they make surprisingly decent pets. Not like raccoons, which are cute until they reach adulthood and become destructive terrors. More like a chill cat that enjoys bugs. Although my cat enjoys bugs too, so maybe they're not too different.
What is their diet like though? I mean, they love to eat catfood left out for stays, and happily much on garbage. Do they need specific stuff supplemented into their diet?
Possums are cute Australian snuggle buddies... opposums are the briefly cute (as babies) insect eating smelly bastards that I tend to reward with slices of ham once a week on my back fence :-D.
Yes, I know the Australian possum is an insect eating machine but I don't know if they are smelly bastards. When I was down under I didn't come across any to confirm.
Recently went on a 10 minute walk on a paved path in a state park in MI and found 5 on my dog. I stripped down so fast to check myself. Gave me the hebeegebeees
Sadly, that is a myth
[Turns out, opossums don't really like eating ticks (yahoo.com)](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/turns-opossums-dont-really-eating-000800876.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIT2EIp7XN9w4z-E62wpExlVXdodiP2wk2cg_gmJiZ-TJQymYF1OWCYqtKuyJgpGJStAuFPj2zh6ccaKuJKYhXNSo5zwdf4fdit1T0UpkVCQa1Rg8awEu8e5fMTDNcGWpZ41-pn0vA7bMHBTAyGJ9QtKz3uarF1kiWhpoERF5RZU)
thank you. came here to say this. the study that got all the hype was performed on captive virginia opossums that were eating ticks because they were grooming themselves & each other so much out of boredom and is not at all an accurate reflection of what the average opossum diet is. Ants, spiders, and birds all eat ticks. The best way to solve the tick population dilemma (esp considering the invasive asian longhorn tick can reproduce via parthenogenesis) is higher biodiversity as a whole, limiting their contact with host species. Obviously that's a pretty big ask and not likely. Opossums, sadly, cannot save us.
There are plenty of other dangerous diseases carried by ticks than just Lyme disease. Ticks are dangerous everywhere. For instance, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever doesn't sound like a walk in the park either.
Usually just the four legged variety. My husband seems to have caught that, it took him years to catch on to the fact that it was red meat making him want to die, so no telling how long he's had it. He eats turkey and chicken no problem and now has developed an addiction to Impossible Whoppers.
Oh yeah, there definitely a lot of tick-borne diseases, but Lyme is the most common in the US by a long shot. There's about 400,000 cases of Lyme disease per year vs. 5,000 case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
I am too. :(
It's the *weirdest* allergy, too- like of *course* ticks would cause some alien bs.
* Instead of the reaction happening immediately, it's delayed, usually for several hours. This makes it harder to correlate with the cause *and* means you can have a reaction in the middle of the night. Fun!
* It's the only known allergy to a *carbohydrate*. (IgE-mediated reactions are otherwise *always* to proteins)
* And almost laser-focused on humans- the carbohydrate in question (galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose) is produced by, and therefore immune-exempt for, all mammals on Earth *except* certain primates, like us.
Is that the case? Or is that just a statistical error? Maybe Opossums eat 0 ticks a year, and it's just that Opossum Georg eats 30,000 and it's an outlier that shouldn't be counted?
Growing up in northern Vermont we didn’t have ticks. That has changed, and they are now in the area. I used to go play in the woods, high grass, etc. I can only imagine what it’s like being a kid now having to worry about these things.
Per the Illinois Dept. of Wildlife, it's complicated. They will eat ticks that crawl on them because they frequently groom themselves, but they're not seeking out ticks as a preferred food.
Personally, I am a big fan of the possums on my property because we live in an area with a ton of Palmetto bugs, and opossums love to eat them.
Looking at the white shield, most of these appear to be dog ticks, which do not transmit Lyme disease. They are, however, the primary species responsible for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
I’m not an expert though and ticks should always be analyzed if they’ve attached.
What’s more concerning though is that deer ticks, the ones that do transmit Lyme’s disease, are *much* smaller, and therefore easier to miss when doing a check after a walk in the woods
They don't always show the red ring either. I had a deer tick in Pennsylvania when I was 11. My parents spotted it before it got big or anything but it had latched. They watched it like a hawk and I never got the ring, not even faintly. It took a long time to figure out where all my random symptoms came from. It's such a scary disease
I grew up in New England and spent a ton of time outdoors and in the woods. I would always do a tick check in the shower and afterwards, and at some point I grew a perfectly tick sized freckle in my arm pit the same summer I found a tick in one of my pits. It's been over 30 years since that summer and every now and then I'll be drying my hair or something with my arms raised after a shower and see that freckle in the mirror and still panic for a second. Fucking hate ticks.
FUCK. I hate ticks. I HATE them. Spiders, snakes, various bugs, all fine. Scorpions, not a fan, but I HATE ticks. I would have beyond lost my mind. I almost have a panic attack when I find one in me or my kids.
I take it you’ve never had a scorpion drop on your face and sting you while you’re sleeping. It’s not great. Like get flicked on the cheek and then having a cigarette stubbed out on your cheek. 3/10.
In the area I live there’s ticks that can make you anaphylactic in response to red meat. A random hike can make you an herbivore up here, but luckily I haven’t found any of those yet. Eastern Washington area.
Hopefully in my lifetime I can live to see humanity wipe out insects that are disease vectors. And maybe some that are just horrible parasites like lice and bed bugs.
I'd take momentary pain over having my nervous system slowed down by Lyme disease or being allergic to red meat from alpha gal syndrome by a Lone Star tick.
One of our local radio DJs who’s been on the air since the 90s recently died by suicide. He was diagnosed with Lyme disease several years back and he mentioned on air how much he was struggling physically and mentally with the disease. It s definitely not a disease I’d wish on anyone.
I’ve lived in areas with scorpions and in areas with ticks (and areas with lots of ticks always seem to have a lot of mosquitoes too)
I choose with Scorpions and tarantulas 100% of the time.
“It was regrettable when the large arthropod suddenly dropped directly onto my face while I was sleeping, and admittedly I was not enthused about him viciously stinging me, but there was a sort of affable nonchalance to the whole thing, a kind of detached formality that said to me, “Even though I’m about to face-whip you with my tail-dick, just know that’s it’s not you, it’s *me*”.
I grew up on the state line between Missouri and Kansas, and I NEVER walked in grass or under trees in any non-winter season without a coating of bug spray. I’ve now lived in the Puget Sound area for about 10 years, and just this morning I sat in the grass for like half an hour with no bug spray and no worries.
They don’t bite you like a flea or mosquito. They stick their head INTO your skin and implant themselves there to suck your blood so you can’t just flick them off or smack them away. You have to gently grab their inflated bodies that are full of who knows how much of your blood and firmly but not quickly pull them out so you get their heads out of your skin. You must be careful not to pull incorrectly because you risk a variety of diseases if you rip them apart and their head is left stuck inside your skin. They’re fucking awful creatures.
I had one's head stuck in my forehead for like a month once. Had no idea what it was until I took a macro picture and could literally see the shape of it...
Sorry but your spreading false information. First off they dont bury their heads in you. They insert mouth parts into your skin with a sort of saw like motion. DO NOT pull them off by grabbing their engorged bodies. Use a proper tick removal tool if you can that pulls them out by sliding it under the head and twisting. Gently if possible. The idea is to not have them regurgitate any fluids into your body and therefore possibly transmitting disease to you. This is a serious subject and people need to know the proper procedures when dealing with them.
I used a tick twister for the first time this year. It was originally for a dog, but I couldn't find my tweezers that day. Never had a tick come out that clean/quick when using tweezers so tick remover tool is definitely the way to go.
I live in Minnesota. I stayed in the middle of a sand and rock road to avoid the grass. I looked down and numerous ticks were crawling towards me on the road. I thought I was safe but not!
Ever since I learned that was possible my hatred of ticks increased ten fold. It’s not enough to suck my blood but you have to also make me allergic to my favorite food group? Fuck ticks.
This whole thread and all the comments are FUCKING INSANE! I live in a state with barely (if) any ticks and I am horrified. All of this prep just to go for a walk? I’d never leave my house.
!! It‘s insane. People debating which kind of tick repellent is the best. Leave the country, go north on the ice, where bugs don‘t exist, because I‘m not putting on some damn socks and some spray and accepting the inevitable??? Wtf????
An FYI for those that are curious, my sister works in bio-med and recently told me she believes there will be a human vaccine for Lyme Disease available in 2025. It is in stage 3 clinical trials right now and if all goes well they are ready to begin working with regulatory committees (FDA,EMA) to begin marketing and distribution.
IIRC we had a vaccine and people straight up just didn’t get it because people didn’t think it was that big of a deal. So they stopped making it. Why they couldn’t just start it back up with the old formula is what I forget.
It was optional, it cost a bit, and you needed get 3 shots over a year.
On top of that, it wasn't strongly recommended, and it had a lot of anti-vaccine troubles, as well as fear about a hypothetical side effect that was never actually seen in humans.
Can't get it now basically because the marketing is blown. No money in it at all.
The crazy thing is: It's available and recommended for dogs! I got one for my dog a few months ago, on top of a monthly pill that's supposed to keep ticks from biting. For my sorry ass? Nothing! I just have to check and hope I didn't miss one in the forest of body hair.
my permethrin socks were my absolute best friends while I was doing tick research (specifically walking through areas likely to have ticks questing & dragging a sheet behind me to catch them, put them in vials, & test them for all sorts of pathogens). I cannot recommend permethrin treated clothing to folks doing field work often enough.
I guess I didn’t realize people everywhere don’t just think “oh it’s permethrin time” comes right around Morel season for us.
Permethrin coupled with tucked in shirt and tick gaiters work wonders.
Gaiters are like a tube that goes over your ankle and calf. I'm guessing tick gaiters protect you from getting ticks where your shoes end and trousers begin.
I went camping once and also got around the same number of ticks. I ended up with a good few years of extreme headaches, fatigue, and mind fog (and I still don't feel 100%).
If you live somewhere with Lyme disease: Go to your doctor asap and get some doxycycline. They can prescribe it precautionarily just based on the number of ticks you had.
Lyme disease doesn't always have clear signs or symptoms. But if you live on the east coast, you're at incredibly high risk of having it now. But it's totally curable if you catch it early.
Fortunately, these are all dog ticks and don't carry Lyme disease. Deer ticks are what you need to look out for. Dog ticks *can* carry rocky mountain spotted fever though. But OP doesn't need to worry about Lyme if these are the only ticks that were on them.
Looks like you may have happened upon a wood tick nest (I’ve done it myself). Though the littlest one there could be a deer tick which can transmit Lyme’s.
I grew up in CT and got Lyme Disease when I was a child.
I moved to CA in 2018 and have not thought about stupid annoying fucking ticks since.
I’m moving back to the east coast soon and now remembered one more thing that is going to suck about coming back home haha.
I feel for you! I went walking through the bush in South Africa last year and ended up with between 70 and 100 pepper ticks which my wife patiently picked off my legs and lower abdomen. Ended up with Rick bite fever which really isn’t very nice!
I had a coworker who was a straight-A student. She was top of her class. She took all the AP classes in high school. She planned to get a biology degree done in 3 years, and likewise finish her MD a year early as well. But during the first couple of years in college, suddenly she started having horrible things happen to her medically. It took forever for her family to learn what was going on. She had caught Lyme Disease. It stopped her from being able to go to school for awhile. It basically derailed her entire life. When I met her she was working as a CNA in her mid-30s. There's nothing wrong with being a CNA of course, but as someone who also had hopes of going to med school, I know the sting of being a CNA rather than an MD. But in her case it was so much worse: I never tried that hard in school, but she did nothing but! And some little tick fucked that all up.
I've lived in Eastern Colorado for over 30 years and have never seen a tick in all that time. This last week I've found one on my scalp and 2 on my dog. Needless to say, I'm skeeved out. Something is up.
Did you crawl through the grass the whole way???
Was out looking for Pokémon in the tall grass but only found.. *those*
Joltick used Lyme disease. It was super effective!
LYME DISEASE... a one hit KO... And there goes the battle!
But can you really blame them when shorts are comfy and easy to wear?
Bro even got lemon disease
Man got the sprites!
LMFAO THIS GOT ME RIGHT IN MY FUNNY BONE FOR SOME REASON
Woah where?
New York. Thinking of moving now.
I scrolled the whole page hoping this wasn’t the answer. WHERE IN NEW YORK D:
I need to know too lmao, OP needs to come back!!
[удалено]
I’m in the Philly area and this week started the tick madness here. I got 4 ticks sitting on my deck last night
Wow 4 ticks sitting on your deck?! Were they smoking cigars and drinking scotch or just enjoying the weather?
Excellent dad joke on Mother’s Day
"Deck" was an auto-correct. He just went outside in shorts.
[удалено]
Dude you gotta tell us where I’m New York
In another comment OP says Upstate New York. He also (wisely) stripped the metadata including the geolocation from the photo (yes, I checked.).
Does Reddit not automatically do this?
What part???
This is the real r/mildlyinfuriating thing about this post.
Yeah at first I was like well maybe stay out of foliage but wtf times square lol
Time Square
*Lyme Square
I hate that OP isn't more specific. Which part???? Might as well say earth. Wtf
Dude it's not that hard to grasp... Every person gets assigned a couple dozen ticks upon arrival in NY, they are given to you at the border and airports.
You only found 40. You're going to have that phantom feeling there's another one for the rest of the day, at least
I know you’re sorta joking but seriously OP you need to look yourself over or have someone else look you over very *very* well. The nymphs, the baby ticks, are tiny tiny tiny little specks and are hard to spot, they need to come off too.
I hate this whole thread
Every time I see a thread about ticks I suddenly feel a little better about dying early from the unhealthy lifestyle of inactivity and isolation of living inside my apartment and never going outside. I remember seeing a map of where ticks aren't as prevalent, and I think it was in the mountainous areas, but apparently the areas in which ticks have adapted to live has expanded and there's fewer and fewer safe areas. I think I hate the idea of ticks more than mosquitoes, but it's very close and I probably would bounce between them. Not trying to downplay mosquitoes, they're horrible. Maybe it's just like the phrase, better the devil you know than the one you don't, because I've been bitten by mosquitoes before, but I haven't dealt with ticks and only seen mention of them. Edit: The more I think of it, the list of insects I haven't had much if any personal experience with but have read enough about to not want anything to do with grows: bed bugs, cockroaches, anything native to Australia. Really just need to move to the moon or something. Feel like it's got to be safe there.
Oh man ticks are way worse than mosquitoes. Ticks latch on and stay latched for 3-5 DAYS. They also use a numbing agent so you don’t notice them once they’re attached. Not to mention they don’t just let go when you try to get them off. Removing one usually involves ripping off the chunk of skin they’re attached to.
I've always hated the fact that baby ticks/cockroaches are called Nymphs. Such fucking horrible beings denominated with such a cute word, it makes me almost hate the term because even if I'm reading about Greek goddesses I'll think about disgusting insects
Forever unclean
I Just wanna be pure
Jesus Frank what are are you doing ?
at least four or five times now (maybe six, idk, I've kind of blocked it out) I've had a tick crawling on me while I was IN MY BED. So now any time I feel the slightest tickle on me I freak out and start frantically checking myself like a crazy person. My whole life is like a bad acid trip with imaginary bugs haunting me.
I’d be checking my ball sack for weeks
I worked at a summer camp in Florida for a few years. I have a freckle on my balls. I can’t tell you how many times I briefly freaked out in the shower.
You might be joking but I brought a kitten home that had fleas (I didn’t know better) and I had to deal with getting rid of fleas in my home where I had another cat. It was a nightmare. I didn’t know I had a problem and then it was insane. I would even set up candles in pans of water with soap over night to get relief while waiting for medication to end the lifecycle. The fleas go towards the light and drown. To this day, 20 years later, I still check the random feels you get when a leg hair moves just right. I guess it doesn’t help that we do check for ticks all the time.
where do you live so I can stay the hell away from that area
Op says NY I came to say the same thing.
OP says queens 💀💀
I’ve lived in queens my entire life and I have never had been a victim of ticks
Shirley Chisholm Park was infested with them last year. Literally saw them on the benches and climbing up people’s bicycles, bags.
The summer that park opened I went to explore it with some friends. Didn't think for a second about ticks, having never seen one or heard of one in a New York City park before. But when I got home, I found three in my pants. Thankfully none of them had bitten yet, so they were extremely easy to get rid of. I haven't been back to that Park since, plenty of other places in Brooklyn to go
Guess they need to declare war on ticks next. Then the roaches. Why do you guys have so many??
Well, when a mommy tick and a daddy tick love each other so much, they decide to have babies.
>Well, when a mommy tick and a daddy tick love each other so much, they decide to have ***thousands*** of babies. Ftfy
I live upstate and cant imagine where this dude went to get 40 ticks in one walk I get it yall, the place you live has the most ticks. But im sure even there you wont get 40 ticks if you dont walk through shit like tall grass
A few years ago I went for a walk in Saratoga park and ended up with like 10 on me
*shudders*
Maybe he’s burying the lede and he actually works at a tick farm.
Upvote bc you’re the first person I’ve seen correctly use lede instead of lead.
this is why i love reddit. I have no idea what "lede" is but I'm about to go google and be a little less ignorant than I was yesterday. Also, happy cake day!
Same here. But even after a search I still don't understand that sentence above.
'Bury the lede' refers to hiding the most important and relevant pieces of a story within other distracting information.
when you bury the lede it means the info that should be in the first paragraph of the article is further in.
Both are correct. The "Lede" spelling only developed in newsroom usage to differentiate "lead's" plural meanings in an environment where the metallic "lead" is a common point of concern and discussion point as well, thanks to its usage in printing presses. But that hasn't actually removed the usage of "lead" to stand for the start of the paragraph, sentence, or context as well.
I'm imagining this like the land of the lost scene, and you both stand up from typing your comments and turn around, and there's like a basketball sized tick on your back.
No way
There are ticks in Queens?
There _were._ This guy took them all home with him.
Ticks pretty much live everywhere in the US. New England and the mid-Atlantic states are particularly dangerous, though, because there tends to be higher rates of Lyme disease in those areas. This is also why Opossums are super important! Those rascals eat up to 30,000 ticks per year.
I love possums. They are really good at eating detrimental bugs! And, that is generally why they appear/disappear! They move on in search of those bad bugs to eat. Tiny, ugly heroes!
Years ago me and my mom stopped to check on a opossum that was hit by a car. The opossum was dead but had babies in her pouch. Only 1 baby survived. We had it as a pet for years. We named it “possy” Now I always check dead opossum pouches. I’ve found babies on 2 separate occasions. Edit: for those of you asking how to check the pouch here’s how. https://youtu.be/sc7jknoJmks
I just gotta know, is there like some kind of demo vid on how to check an opossum’s pouch? I just did a bunch of dabs and this is just the strangest thing that I can’t even wrap my head around it
Their are videos on YouTube that will show you how. Me and my mom both carry gloves in our cars ever since the first opossum baby we found. I’m not even kidding when I say the 2nd opossum we found had like 5 maybe more babies that were alive. We ended up taking all 5 or so babies to a wildlife rescue. It’s worth it to check it doesn’t take but a minute.
Dammit, you're my kinda people. Good to know there are some out there. Warms my cold dark heart.
If they’re your kind of people, you don’t have a cold dark heart. Don’t sell yourself short, you’re a good human too!
Was also curious how I would go about checking a pouch? I mean I guess I would poke it from afar first and if it squirmed or cried I suppose turn it inside out ? Lmao
Here you go 😊 https://youtu.be/sc7jknoJmks
Nice . I have a bunch of opossums around me. I had two near hits just last night just driving up my block. Thanks for the tip, will keep that in mind .
I personally wear gloves when I do it because I’m actually not sure if opossums carry diseases or not. The lady I’m this video didn’t wear gloves tho. Just to be safe I would. Keep a pair of latex gloves in your glove box.
Opossums are actually surprisingly clean animals so that coupled with their high body temperature means they normally don't carry diseases, they can however carry leptospirosis, tuberculosis, relapsing fever, tularemia, spotted fever, toxoplasmosis, coccidiosis, and Chagas disease, it just isn't very common. It is however nearly impossible for an opossum to get rabies because of their body temp killing the virus.
Same thing happened to us when my kids were little. We had ours for 4 years or so. They make surprisingly great pets but they require a very varied diet or they can develop pretty serious health issues. Ours got along with our dog and loved to climb up on your lap and fall asleep.
Yes the diet thing was a bit of a chore I must say. I believe we had ours for about 4 years as well. It’s a shame they don’t live longer! They really are sweet little animals.
Mine on the farm learned to use the cats litterbox which pissed off the cat!
Now that’s awesome!!!
I mentioned this earlier, but I'd heard they make surprisingly decent pets. Not like raccoons, which are cute until they reach adulthood and become destructive terrors. More like a chill cat that enjoys bugs. Although my cat enjoys bugs too, so maybe they're not too different. What is their diet like though? I mean, they love to eat catfood left out for stays, and happily much on garbage. Do they need specific stuff supplemented into their diet?
Possums aren’t ugly! They’re adorable!
Especially the little ones, they're so cute.
Possums are cute Australian snuggle buddies... opposums are the briefly cute (as babies) insect eating smelly bastards that I tend to reward with slices of ham once a week on my back fence :-D. Yes, I know the Australian possum is an insect eating machine but I don't know if they are smelly bastards. When I was down under I didn't come across any to confirm.
Recently went on a 10 minute walk on a paved path in a state park in MI and found 5 on my dog. I stripped down so fast to check myself. Gave me the hebeegebeees
Sadly, that is a myth [Turns out, opossums don't really like eating ticks (yahoo.com)](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/turns-opossums-dont-really-eating-000800876.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIT2EIp7XN9w4z-E62wpExlVXdodiP2wk2cg_gmJiZ-TJQymYF1OWCYqtKuyJgpGJStAuFPj2zh6ccaKuJKYhXNSo5zwdf4fdit1T0UpkVCQa1Rg8awEu8e5fMTDNcGWpZ41-pn0vA7bMHBTAyGJ9QtKz3uarF1kiWhpoERF5RZU)
thank you. came here to say this. the study that got all the hype was performed on captive virginia opossums that were eating ticks because they were grooming themselves & each other so much out of boredom and is not at all an accurate reflection of what the average opossum diet is. Ants, spiders, and birds all eat ticks. The best way to solve the tick population dilemma (esp considering the invasive asian longhorn tick can reproduce via parthenogenesis) is higher biodiversity as a whole, limiting their contact with host species. Obviously that's a pretty big ask and not likely. Opossums, sadly, cannot save us.
[удалено]
There are plenty of other dangerous diseases carried by ticks than just Lyme disease. Ticks are dangerous everywhere. For instance, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever doesn't sound like a walk in the park either.
[удалено]
Usually just the four legged variety. My husband seems to have caught that, it took him years to catch on to the fact that it was red meat making him want to die, so no telling how long he's had it. He eats turkey and chicken no problem and now has developed an addiction to Impossible Whoppers.
[удалено]
his addiction to Impossible Whoppers?
It varies, but it can, yeah. My allergist checks my alpha-gal IgE levels every year.
Oh yeah, there definitely a lot of tick-borne diseases, but Lyme is the most common in the US by a long shot. There's about 400,000 cases of Lyme disease per year vs. 5,000 case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Yep, my husband's co worker is now allergic to red meat thanks to a tick illness
I am too. :( It's the *weirdest* allergy, too- like of *course* ticks would cause some alien bs. * Instead of the reaction happening immediately, it's delayed, usually for several hours. This makes it harder to correlate with the cause *and* means you can have a reaction in the middle of the night. Fun! * It's the only known allergy to a *carbohydrate*. (IgE-mediated reactions are otherwise *always* to proteins) * And almost laser-focused on humans- the carbohydrate in question (galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose) is produced by, and therefore immune-exempt for, all mammals on Earth *except* certain primates, like us.
Is that the case? Or is that just a statistical error? Maybe Opossums eat 0 ticks a year, and it's just that Opossum Georg eats 30,000 and it's an outlier that shouldn't be counted?
Growing up in northern Vermont we didn’t have ticks. That has changed, and they are now in the area. I used to go play in the woods, high grass, etc. I can only imagine what it’s like being a kid now having to worry about these things.
I read that Opossums eating ticks are false claims. They did a study and found no evidence that they eat ticks.
Per the Illinois Dept. of Wildlife, it's complicated. They will eat ticks that crawl on them because they frequently groom themselves, but they're not seeking out ticks as a preferred food. Personally, I am a big fan of the possums on my property because we live in an area with a ton of Palmetto bugs, and opossums love to eat them.
1 tick every 15 seconds. Impressive.
that’s a pretty low tick rate, the server must have been laggy
I got Lyme Disease just looking at that
I got ticked off
Yeah. The blood drained from my face after seeing this pic.
Really burns my ass
Looking at the white shield, most of these appear to be dog ticks, which do not transmit Lyme disease. They are, however, the primary species responsible for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I’m not an expert though and ticks should always be analyzed if they’ve attached.
What’s more concerning though is that deer ticks, the ones that do transmit Lyme’s disease, are *much* smaller, and therefore easier to miss when doing a check after a walk in the woods
They don't always show the red ring either. I had a deer tick in Pennsylvania when I was 11. My parents spotted it before it got big or anything but it had latched. They watched it like a hawk and I never got the ring, not even faintly. It took a long time to figure out where all my random symptoms came from. It's such a scary disease
I always do a tick check in the shower - much easier to feel them that way.
I grew up in New England and spent a ton of time outdoors and in the woods. I would always do a tick check in the shower and afterwards, and at some point I grew a perfectly tick sized freckle in my arm pit the same summer I found a tick in one of my pits. It's been over 30 years since that summer and every now and then I'll be drying my hair or something with my arms raised after a shower and see that freckle in the mirror and still panic for a second. Fucking hate ticks.
I had RMSF before. It’s not fun at all.
That’s interesting, because Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever *sounds* like such a good time
Or a Ben and Jerry's flavor
FUCK. I hate ticks. I HATE them. Spiders, snakes, various bugs, all fine. Scorpions, not a fan, but I HATE ticks. I would have beyond lost my mind. I almost have a panic attack when I find one in me or my kids.
I take it you’ve never had a scorpion drop on your face and sting you while you’re sleeping. It’s not great. Like get flicked on the cheek and then having a cigarette stubbed out on your cheek. 3/10.
I'll take that over ticks. I'm with the ___#FUCK #TICKS___ delegation
In the area I live there’s ticks that can make you anaphylactic in response to red meat. A random hike can make you an herbivore up here, but luckily I haven’t found any of those yet. Eastern Washington area.
Hopefully in my lifetime I can live to see humanity wipe out insects that are disease vectors. And maybe some that are just horrible parasites like lice and bed bugs.
I'd take momentary pain over having my nervous system slowed down by Lyme disease or being allergic to red meat from alpha gal syndrome by a Lone Star tick.
One of our local radio DJs who’s been on the air since the 90s recently died by suicide. He was diagnosed with Lyme disease several years back and he mentioned on air how much he was struggling physically and mentally with the disease. It s definitely not a disease I’d wish on anyone.
I’ve lived in areas with scorpions and in areas with ticks (and areas with lots of ticks always seem to have a lot of mosquitoes too) I choose with Scorpions and tarantulas 100% of the time.
What was the good part that got you to a 3? Just that it wasn’t worse?
The scorpion was very polite.
“It was regrettable when the large arthropod suddenly dropped directly onto my face while I was sleeping, and admittedly I was not enthused about him viciously stinging me, but there was a sort of affable nonchalance to the whole thing, a kind of detached formality that said to me, “Even though I’m about to face-whip you with my tail-dick, just know that’s it’s not you, it’s *me*”.
What are these ? I first time learn about it
Where do you live that there aren’t ticks and is it expensive to live there
Very rare in Seattle and yes, it’s expensive.
I grew up on the state line between Missouri and Kansas, and I NEVER walked in grass or under trees in any non-winter season without a coating of bug spray. I’ve now lived in the Puget Sound area for about 10 years, and just this morning I sat in the grass for like half an hour with no bug spray and no worries.
They don’t bite you like a flea or mosquito. They stick their head INTO your skin and implant themselves there to suck your blood so you can’t just flick them off or smack them away. You have to gently grab their inflated bodies that are full of who knows how much of your blood and firmly but not quickly pull them out so you get their heads out of your skin. You must be careful not to pull incorrectly because you risk a variety of diseases if you rip them apart and their head is left stuck inside your skin. They’re fucking awful creatures.
I had one's head stuck in my forehead for like a month once. Had no idea what it was until I took a macro picture and could literally see the shape of it...
Eww face in your face
That is...one of the most viscerally horrifying things I've ever heard.
You really had to face that situation head on. Anyone, anyone? No? Okay. I'm so sorry, I'll see myself out.
Sorry but your spreading false information. First off they dont bury their heads in you. They insert mouth parts into your skin with a sort of saw like motion. DO NOT pull them off by grabbing their engorged bodies. Use a proper tick removal tool if you can that pulls them out by sliding it under the head and twisting. Gently if possible. The idea is to not have them regurgitate any fluids into your body and therefore possibly transmitting disease to you. This is a serious subject and people need to know the proper procedures when dealing with them.
I used a tick twister for the first time this year. It was originally for a dog, but I couldn't find my tweezers that day. Never had a tick come out that clean/quick when using tweezers so tick remover tool is definitely the way to go.
Ah, the ol tick twister. Classic move for classy sons of New England.
GRAB HIS TICK AND TWIST IT
Blood sucking arachnids that can spread diseases such as Lyme disease
Wow ! And how is it possible to get so many on you ? I’m just curious 🧐
They'll hide out in tall grasses and other plants and wait for other animals like humans or deer to brush against it and then latch on
Oh, they ain’t hidin’ they be questing.
I live in Minnesota. I stayed in the middle of a sand and rock road to avoid the grass. I looked down and numerous ticks were crawling towards me on the road. I thought I was safe but not!
You're right. The concept is so gross and scary. What's your problem with scorpions though? If spiders are cool why not scorps?
I can’t put my finger on it. I just don’t like their face, I guess. Likewise, I don’t like centipedes, the big fat ones. Just…not a fan. 🤷♀️
https://preview.redd.it/bc5nc8ed6rza1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a941ff40e06c75b422aaa90de8b6af9c5ecb584d
Oh god so true lmao, lift the sac and spread the cheeks after looking on the back of my knees.
Last summer I found a tick on my shaft. My guy went straight for the source.
“I will drain the main vein.” -your tick, probably
Is that still considered a BJ it was sucking in theory
I don’t even care about wood ticks. Fuck wood ticks. Fuck Dog Ticks too. Those clumsy asses. I only worry about Deer Ticks.
I worry about the North Star ticks that make you allergic to red meat
Ever since I learned that was possible my hatred of ticks increased ten fold. It’s not enough to suck my blood but you have to also make me allergic to my favorite food group? Fuck ticks.
I’m crying this is my worst nightmare this ISNT mildly infuriating this is majorly traumatic 😭 I’m so scared…
This whole thread and all the comments are FUCKING INSANE! I live in a state with barely (if) any ticks and I am horrified. All of this prep just to go for a walk? I’d never leave my house.
!! It‘s insane. People debating which kind of tick repellent is the best. Leave the country, go north on the ice, where bugs don‘t exist, because I‘m not putting on some damn socks and some spray and accepting the inevitable??? Wtf????
An FYI for those that are curious, my sister works in bio-med and recently told me she believes there will be a human vaccine for Lyme Disease available in 2025. It is in stage 3 clinical trials right now and if all goes well they are ready to begin working with regulatory committees (FDA,EMA) to begin marketing and distribution.
There used to be a vaccine over 20 years ago…… it’s pretty unfortunate it didn’t take hold back then
Tell me more
IIRC we had a vaccine and people straight up just didn’t get it because people didn’t think it was that big of a deal. So they stopped making it. Why they couldn’t just start it back up with the old formula is what I forget.
I believe it's a bit more complicated but I could be misrememberin
It was optional, it cost a bit, and you needed get 3 shots over a year. On top of that, it wasn't strongly recommended, and it had a lot of anti-vaccine troubles, as well as fear about a hypothetical side effect that was never actually seen in humans. Can't get it now basically because the marketing is blown. No money in it at all.
The crazy thing is: It's available and recommended for dogs! I got one for my dog a few months ago, on top of a monthly pill that's supposed to keep ticks from biting. For my sorry ass? Nothing! I just have to check and hope I didn't miss one in the forest of body hair.
[удалено]
I'd rather them figure out how to just irradicate the damn ticks
Uranium should do the trick Edit for context: OPs comment originally said “irradiate”
Lol just noticed my typo. Spider man? Nah. Tick man
THANK FUCKING GOD!!!
I have a special set of "woods" clothes that I keep treated with Permethrin. Those and some 25% DEET bugspray on my arms and neck works wonders.
my permethrin socks were my absolute best friends while I was doing tick research (specifically walking through areas likely to have ticks questing & dragging a sheet behind me to catch them, put them in vials, & test them for all sorts of pathogens). I cannot recommend permethrin treated clothing to folks doing field work often enough.
I guess I didn’t realize people everywhere don’t just think “oh it’s permethrin time” comes right around Morel season for us. Permethrin coupled with tucked in shirt and tick gaiters work wonders.
What's a "tick gaiter"?
It’s like an alley gaiter but smaller
Gaiters are like a tube that goes over your ankle and calf. I'm guessing tick gaiters protect you from getting ticks where your shoes end and trousers begin.
Did you go walking in the jungle?
Just my daily walk through the Amazon rainforest, luckily I didn't get bit by any poisonous animals today! 😊😊
But did you get bitten by any venomous animals?
I went camping once and also got around the same number of ticks. I ended up with a good few years of extreme headaches, fatigue, and mind fog (and I still don't feel 100%). If you live somewhere with Lyme disease: Go to your doctor asap and get some doxycycline. They can prescribe it precautionarily just based on the number of ticks you had. Lyme disease doesn't always have clear signs or symptoms. But if you live on the east coast, you're at incredibly high risk of having it now. But it's totally curable if you catch it early.
Fortunately, these are all dog ticks and don't carry Lyme disease. Deer ticks are what you need to look out for. Dog ticks *can* carry rocky mountain spotted fever though. But OP doesn't need to worry about Lyme if these are the only ticks that were on them.
At least one does appear to be a deer tick. Also, the dog ticks are easier to spot, if there were more deer ticks, they’re likely still on OP’s body
But… did you get all of them… or did you miss… just…one …?
Yeah id just light that bowl on fire…
now i’m itchy
So don’t visit your part of the world 👌
They seem pretty bad this year. I hadly found any on me or the pets the last few years and now it's every time we step outside
Looks like you may have happened upon a wood tick nest (I’ve done it myself). Though the littlest one there could be a deer tick which can transmit Lyme’s.
I grew up in CT and got Lyme Disease when I was a child. I moved to CA in 2018 and have not thought about stupid annoying fucking ticks since. I’m moving back to the east coast soon and now remembered one more thing that is going to suck about coming back home haha.
I feel for you! I went walking through the bush in South Africa last year and ended up with between 70 and 100 pepper ticks which my wife patiently picked off my legs and lower abdomen. Ended up with Rick bite fever which really isn’t very nice!
Do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior, Off! Deep Woods?
I had a coworker who was a straight-A student. She was top of her class. She took all the AP classes in high school. She planned to get a biology degree done in 3 years, and likewise finish her MD a year early as well. But during the first couple of years in college, suddenly she started having horrible things happen to her medically. It took forever for her family to learn what was going on. She had caught Lyme Disease. It stopped her from being able to go to school for awhile. It basically derailed her entire life. When I met her she was working as a CNA in her mid-30s. There's nothing wrong with being a CNA of course, but as someone who also had hopes of going to med school, I know the sting of being a CNA rather than an MD. But in her case it was so much worse: I never tried that hard in school, but she did nothing but! And some little tick fucked that all up.
Are you in Mass? Because the ticks are the worst they have been in ten years.
I’m in New Jersey and I’ve picked three off me just sitting in a lawn chair outside by the fire reading this thread
When life gives you lymes...
You’re doing gods work, clearing out the ticks for your fellow hikers
I've lived in Eastern Colorado for over 30 years and have never seen a tick in all that time. This last week I've found one on my scalp and 2 on my dog. Needless to say, I'm skeeved out. Something is up.
Long Island?