The best way to keep yourself and your family from getting Lyme disease is to avoid being bitten by deer ticks, also known as black-legged ticks. Insect repellants containing Deet, long-sleeved shirts and long pants tucked into your socks or boots all help with this.
The second best way to prevent Lyme disease is to find and remove deer ticks before they've been attached for 36 hours. These ticks are tiny, so finding them is tough, and removing them is not much easier.
I found this interesting tick removal tip on Kevin Paulson's HuntingLife.com. Looks like it might be worth a try; but remember, before you can remove the tick you've got to find it. That's the hardest part!
great info thanks
Posted by: Reel | June 22, 2009 at 03:09 PM
According to the VA dept. of health, using petroleum jelly, alcohol, or nail polish(hadn't heard about that last one) is not advised. I would put liquid soap in that same category, therefore making it a bad plan. Apparently the chemical aggravates the tick into "regurgitating" or putting more bacteria into the bite area.
I'm now wishing I knew this about two hours ago, when I used this method to succesfully remove a tick.
Now I'm worried.
Posted by: Rambler | June 23, 2009 at 12:20 PM
You might want to pass this on to Kevin Paulson.
http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/epidemiology/DEE/Vectorborne/documents/Tick%20Brochure_8%205x11.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/Lyme/ld_tickremoval.htm
http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/tick.asp
The last link has his quote exactly & some more links
Posted by: Rambler | June 23, 2009 at 12:37 PM