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Ticks, Lyme disease and Bioweapons?

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Meshewszon

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Time of past OR future Camino
Portuguese
I came across this article and apropos nothing thought it might make interesting reading....

No, Conspiracy Theorists, Lyme Disease Is Not an Escaped Military Bioweapon

The idea that Lyme disease is due to bioweapons research gone wrong is easily disproven. Our legislators could better spend their time fighting for efforts to prevent disease, instead of investigating a far-fetched story that’s based on misinterpretation and innuendo.
acsh.us5.list-manage.com

Facinating stuff but not really that relevant to this site unless you are concerned about picking up something really exotic on your travels.
 
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That is very interesting, and anyone walking where there are ticks should consider adding the tick key to their pack. I had it with me this year and had to use it, it was on the Vasco. Many thanks to @Rick of Rick and Peg for the tip.

But more responsive to your post, I have found that facts are 100% irrelevant to conspiracy theorists. I was totally blown away one night in the albergue in Arres, where two of the people sitting outside watching the gorgeous sunset started in on chemtrails. It was like we left the real world and entered fantasy land. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory
 
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peregrina2000 said:
This is the one Rick recommended and I bought. It weighs nothing and is very easy to use. I would recommend it highly.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XSGSK7P/?tag=casaivar02-20
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In the spring I noticed that a local REI shop was selling individual tick-keys.

Once you remove a tick watch the spot for a long time. I got bit this summer and the infection took two weeks to show up. I was seeing a doctor within two hours. I was lucky; the cure was worse than bite because I had to stay out of the sun.
 
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Is there Lyme in Spain, and if so, how prevalent? I just returned from a trip visiting my son in New Haven, Connecticut (Lyme Central) where I was bitten by a tick. Although I have no symptoms of Lyme disease, I still took a one dose course of Doxycycline as the recommended preventative. I've been bitten here in California where I live, and not done the preventative because it is much less prevalent here.
 
Lisa HS said:
I've been bitten here in California where I live, and not done the preventative because it is much less prevalent here.
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I got Lyme in Santa Cruz in the mid-'90s. So please take care, Lisa - that may not be a safe assumption, depending on where you live.
 
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VNwalking said:
I got Lyme in Santa Cruz in the mid-'90s. So please take care, Lisa - that may not be a safe assumption, depending on where you live.
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You are, of course correct VNWalking. I Live in San Jose and often hike in the Santa Cruz mountains. I am careful about ticks and treat my dog with Frontline+. In fact, I've only been bitten by a tick once since I always check myself carefully. That one time, I had the tick checked out and it was a dog tick. not the kind that carries Lyme disease.
 

https://canlyme.com/2017/12/25/spai...eas-for-contracting-lyme-disease-borreliosis/


LB is Lyme Borreliosis. The chance that you are bitten by a tick that is not infected with Borrelia is still bigger, but the chance that the tick actually is a carrier is considerable. FYI not every bite from a tick that is a carrier leads to Lyme disease.
 
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Jean Ti said:
Would wearing gaters be a basic protection on the camino agains Lyme?
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In the absence of anyone else responding, I will make a couple of observations. My experience with ticks is quite dated, and involved kangaroo ticks, not the species responsible for carrying Lyme disease but nevertheless their bites can become badly infected and in the extreme can result in hospitalisation if not attended too. That said, the basics won't have changed much over time.

Gaiters could be part of any regime of preventing tick bites, provided they are complemented by other measures. The approach we used was:

a. prevent the ticks getting onto one's skin - wear long sleeved pants and shirts and treat the openings (cuffs, waistbands, collars) with an insect repellant. DEET and picardin are the classics, but you might prefer to use a 'natural' product that are generally less effective.
b. buddy check clothing when having a break
c. buddy check each other in the morning and evening - have a friend you are comfortable being naked in front of - they will need to check otherwise private places.
d. remove ticks with tweezers or a tick removal tool - do not leave any of the mouth parts behind. If you do, seek medical care to get these removed.

I am aware that there are drug treatments that can be used should you get bitten. Someone else may be able to address these with more authority than I can.

Other practices that will help prevent tick bites:

a. avoid contact with trackside vegetation - easier said than done in many places! Walk in the centre of a bushy track and avoid contact with long grass.
b. if you need to urinate / defecate 'on the track', choose as clear an area as possible where exposed skin won't come into contact with shrubs, grass, etc. For women, that might include carrying a device that allows them to urinate standing.
 
dougfitz said:
c. buddy check each other in the morning and evening - have a friend you are comfortable being naked in front of - they will need to check otherwise private places.
Click to expand...

The very comprehensive answer from @dougfitz points out the limitations of gaiters as a preventative measure. The little buggers get everywhere. My most recent encounter was a couple of months ago on the Shikoku 88 temple circuit. Delicacy prevents me from saying where precisely I found it but if you try words which rhyme with "tick" you will probably find the answer quite quickly....
 
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Do a search on ebay.com for tick removal - quite a bit cheaper than amazon and that price usually includes postage, which is extra on amazon.

We have a lot of tics where I live - I usually remove at least one from my dog every day. And Lyme's is not the only thing they carry - stuff like tick borne encephalitis (TBE) is on the rise.

(grin) some of those conspiracy theories out there are positively, head-shakingly delightful.

Sadly, a few of them make sense (where's me tin-foil hat?), and some have even been proven - Watergate, the Lockheed bribes and some of the stuff CIA has been exposed doing through time.
 
Bravecto is my friend. It's a large-ish chewable lozenge the dog eats. (A few years back my area had an enormous flood-level outbreak of ticks. It was traumatic.) The Bravecto lasts 3 months, it kills both fleas and ticks, and it has made life for us and our pups a lot better. It'$ expensive, but I'm not sure if anything else is as effective on ticks. Consistent use seems to have even gotten rid of the ticks that come onto the property from passing-through cats and suchlike.
 
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