berner

I don't know if ticks were always active in cold months or just under reported. In any case, ticks are about year round, even in snowy months. The backpacking people I know of nowhttps://sites.google.com/site/americanlyme/ticks/winter--ticks-active take precautions year round.

spinnaker

That is an understatement.

fantom1 

I went vegan, started Crossfit, and began to drive a Prius. My air of self-righteous protects me from ticks. Problem solved.

J.Higgins 

Sounds to me like those antibiotics did a number on your liver, and that's what really made you sick.

Chuck Naill

Bite occurred in July 2015. Was prescribed doxycycline before lab results. Labs results for Lyme, Epstein Barr, Rocky Mtn were all negative. I've experienced night sweats and chills past two Winters and occasionally fatigue lasting a week or so. No sure if related, but I was anemic when tested.


I am not mentally unstable as was suggested. I was fine before the bite and had symptoms afterwards. It seems to be improving.


This time of year I use DEET when outside plus checking where I cannot see using a mirror each night checking just above the hair line. Touring alone might be a problem checking your back unless you can carry two mirrors large enough to be practical.


One idea is to wear long pants and knee socks over the cuffs. Hikers do this as it blocks the ticks Northern route. The socks and pants should be light in color as to notice the tick. Ticks respond to carbon dioxide and can be in tree limbs. A wide rim hat can help. Apparently DEET blocks the insects ability to smell the CO2.


Be careful with DEET and you synthetic clothing as they do not mix well I have heard. I am thinking about pyrethrum products for clothing as I do not care for DEET on my skin.

BigAura

As far as ticks are concerned you want permethrin, DEET is excellent for mosquitoes but less so for ticks. Spray your tent and clothes with permethrin. It lasts for weeks including washings. Wear impregnated clothes AND check your body.

DropBarFan

Apparently some experts blame both climate change & increased prevalence of deer in suburban areas. DC region summers have gotten a bit warmer & drier over recent decades but deer population has exploded which seems to have little to do with climate since deer are fairly hardy.

My dog got 2 'regular' brown ticks during chilly November weather vs only 1 in the previous warmer months. Colorado folks used to talk about dreaded tick-borne Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever far before we heard about global warming.

Lately I see the popularity of compression shirts & tights even in hot weather, maybe a good way to reduce both sun damage & tick risk.

Big Lew

If you can get permethrin, that's your best defense...good post.
As I mentioned earlier, although our armed forces use it, we in Canada can't buy it or
legally bring it in across the border yet other than as an insecticide containing 5% permethrin.
As for the tick population seeming to be rapidly increasing these last few years, it has been
suggested that it's attributed in British Columbia to milder winters. We need lengthy extreme cold periods.

ironwood

And carry some tweezers in your first aid kit.

fthomas

I live in the Philippines and travel to other areas of the Pacific Rim. Lyme is certainly a spreading problem, but depending on where you are touring there are many other "vector borne" diseases that you should research for the specific area you will be touring.

@FBinNY is spot on when it comes to overuse of antibiotics. A few months ago the Philippine government began requiring a prescription for antibiotics to help prevent resistant disease. So, please be careful if considering prophylactic use of antibiotics.


Below is a list of Vector Borne Disease:

• Chikungunya

• Dengue fever
• Rift Valley fever
• Yellow fever
• Zika
• Malaria
• Japanese encephalitis
• Lymphatic filariasis
• West Nile fever
  Sandflies
• Leishmaniasis
• Sandfly fever (phelebotomus fever)
  Ticks
• Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever
• Lyme disease

• Relapsing fever (borreliosis)
• Rickettsial diseases (spotted feverand Q fever)
• Tick-borne encephalitis
• Tularaemia
  Triatomine bugs
• Chagas disease (Americantrypanosomiasis)
  Tsetse flies
• Sleeping sickness (Africantrypanosomiasis)
  Fleas
• Plague (transmitted by fleas fromrats to humans)
• Rickettsiosis
• Hantavirus (Southwest United States)
  Black flies
• Onchocerciasis (river blindness)
  Aquatic snails
• Schistosomiasis (bilharziasis)

Here is a Wiki that lists many Insect Repellants. I use 100% DEET - Jungle Juice that I get from REI in the States and here in the Philippines. Keep it off your tent, sleeping pad, etc. as it can damage the material. I prefer it to permethrin, which is a contact repellant.


I can handle the insects, it's the leeches that really make me queasy!


Be safe!

staehpj1

Having lived much of my life in a geographic hotbed of Lyme Disease, I have have been diagnosed with and treated for Lyme Disease twice and also had the vaccine that they no longer sell. I suffer from a variety of symptoms that may or may not be the result of LD. I lost a good dog to illness that was blamed on Lyme Disease.

That said... I never thought of touring as being especially high risk for tick borne illness, at least for road touring. I have found that ticks are almost always picked up walking where grass or shrubs brush against you. That is something that I am far more likely to do when not on tour than when on. I have lived, worked, hiked, trail run, and done other outdoor activities in tick infested areas for most of my life and have found countless ticks on me, but I do not recall finding a single one during a bike tour despite having done a lot of touring in a wide sampling of the US.

JagR

How did you get diagnosed and treated 2x? I have it and will test + for the rest of my life. Did symptoms come roaring back?

Sorry to hear about your pup.

ironwood

I think a touring cyclist would be most likely to be at risk for a tick bike if he stealth camped, or stepped off the road to take a leak in the bushes.

ironwood

This thread made me do some research on ticks and the diseases they carry. I found this which is likely to make a lot of arachnophobes: [url=https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2015/07/10/not-just-lyme-disease-anymore-anaplasmosis-babeosiosis]/url] . Ticks are arachnids along with spiders, so is arachnophobe the right word? The OP was right when he said climate change is causing ticks to move. In NE it is the Lone Star tick which is moving North.

JagR

Is the "Lone Star" the one associated w/red meat? Sounds funny but there is a tick new to MD that will give you an allergy to red meat!!

Chuck Naill

I bought this product and sprayed my boots, socks, pants and shirt for doing mowing chores. https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p...4_ecom_PLA_452


This product for the skin does not damage clothing. It feels better than DEET and is orderless.
https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p...943_&rrec=true

willibrord

Good point. Does anybody have any natural remedies that are effective against Lyme?

JagR

My sister in law is a Naturopathic?? Dr (I think that is the right title) and she has never heard of any. I think there are certain things that can address each symptom but not the illness as a whole. Hope that makes sense...

FBinNY 

Lyme is too serious, moves too fast, and so amenable to early treatment with antibiotics to consider fooling around with anything not 100% proven.

While it's possible that you had a reaction to the antibiotics, those complications can be managed or worked around with the choice of antibiotic. Here's more on drug related liver issues, but of course this is something to be discussed with your physician.

Based on all the available evidence, the wisest course if Lyme is suspected is to treat it as early and aggressively as possible.

shipwreck

The town I live in has a large percentage of crunchy granola adherents to naturopathic medicine. Knowing a couple of them who have severe issues due to taking everything from deer antler to colloidal silver to who knows what instead of seeking proper medical attention is a living cautionary tale on the subject of using traditional medicine to deal with LD or other tick borne diseases. Interestingly, they were diagnosed by real doctors, but chose naturopathic "treatment" instead.

In my case, I was monitored pretty closely while taking treatment. Due to the severity of the initial reaction to the bite(I was running a fever before I even started taking the meds)we chose to hit it hard. This would be my choice again.

J.Higgins 

And you are still here to talk about it. Good choice!

willibrord

At one time there was a vaccine for Lyme but it was withdrawn for reasons of side effects.

saddlesores

i'm so confused!

can't you just pray them away?

Chuck Naill

What the ticks, bacteria, spirochetes, or people who post unkind things on BF? Which is it?

hartlean

Excellent question. Saddlesores! I’m responding via private message.

All others: If you’re interested in my response, you can private message me & we’ll discuss.