Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Them Ticks
 Login/Join
 
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
posted
I really don't know why I never made the connection before because the circumstantial evidence is strong and largely irrefutable.

Ticks carry diseases and that's not in doubt. What is in doubt is how they came to be so many different diseases, not to mention the exponential population explosion of these pests. There is a trail of crumbs leading inexorably, if possibly confusingly, to a very rational explanation.

When I was a kid, ticks were not overly common. But as the 1950s became the 1960s and on and on, a trend developed. There were more ticks AND more afflictions carried by them. In remembering some things I read and heard about, this is what I believe may have occurred.

Beginning in the 1950s there were at least a couple of secretive labs here in the US and the focus was on diseases that could be weaponized. One such lab was on Plum Island off the NY coast. Several illnesses were documented to have escaped requiring the slaughter of animals. Another abandoned site showed remnant Ebola virus still present in the deserted labs.

By the 1950s experiments began with breeding ticks as carriers of diseases for use in warfare. Maybe around this time, possibly later, Lyme disease appeared - very mysterious for many years - and acquired it's name from the North East US city where it first appeared; close to Plum Island, I might add. Now, Lyme and other tick born organisms are endemic throughout most of the US. Coincidence? I don't think so; just our benevolent government at work. I think we may have uncovered a smoking gun.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
Picture of Fincastle
posted Hide Post
Hanshi, I'm intrigued by this, will have to investigate further. We have a now mysteriously empty Dow Chemical animal testing facility about 30 miles from our farm. Back in the early 90's when I was still on road patrol with my County Sheriff Dept.

I would frequently respond to alarm calls at the lab. I've seen some pretty creepy, thought provoking "animals" and such running around inside, and once a "monkey" like creature that got loose, and never was recovered.

I always wondered what really went on in there, and what the potential was for the accidental release of all manner of nasties. The animals and personnel are all gone now, but the compound with it's attendant razor wire fence perimeter and buildings are still eerily just sitting out there.

Chris


A nod's as good as a blink to a blind horse
 
Posts: 143 | Location: Indiana Territory | Registered: 22 September 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
posted Hide Post
Actually the name of the disease is from the place it was first identified by modern medicine, NOT where it first appeared. Exactly similar symptoms were recorded as early as 1764 in Scotland, and it was also noted that that the tick (not exclusive to North America btw) was probably the vector. Further, a preserved specimen of a tick, stored in Germany in 1884 was tested and found to contain the DNA of the bacteria that causes Lyme, and Ötzi the "iceman" mummy that is 5300 years old was found to have it. In fact it may have travelled with Europeans to the New World on the livestock, especially sheep.

In addition there has been no "explosion" of the tick population. A journal containing observations made in 1663 noted that the forests of New England had an infinite number of ticks, and noted that men going into the woods would end up with stockings covered with them. In 1749 Kalm noted the forests of New York were also infested with them.

Not to mention as an actual bio weapon..., lyme sucks. Too slow and too difficult to transmit.


LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
posted Hide Post
According to the "Mosquito Control Association" mosquitos carry more diseases that are harmful to man and animals than any other single organism. They are worse than ticks.

Among these diseases are:
Malaria
Dog Heartworm
Dengue
Yellow Fever
Eastern Equine Encephalitis
St. Louis Encephalitis
LaCrosse Encephalitis
Western Equine Encephalitis
West Nile Virus

It seems odd to me that down here in East Tennessee I seem to run into "pockets" of tick infestation. Most areas are not too bad. During my wanderings I might pick up a tick or two, but occasionally I bumble into an area with a heavy infestation where the nasty little bloodsuckers seem to be swarming.
I encountered that same phenomonon out in Arizona one year back in the '80's when I was living in Yuma. I never expected ticks in the desert, but that one time I saw them swarming like ants down the brick wall around my back yard. I had to run my dog through a sheep dip and then keep him in the house for a couple of weeks until the ticks disappeared again.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
Picture of 1720Todd
posted Hide Post
We have a lot of ticks and mosquitoes here in Delaware. Large areas of marsh and swamp make the perfect environment.

We have Mosquito Control Dept. that does it's best, but I still have to pay someone to spray the treeline of my property. The MCD will crop dust areas by plane and road spray, but it only does so much. I am not lying when I say that they swarm by the thousands. If you pull into the driveway the exhaust from your car will cause a huge cloud of skeeters to envelop the vehicle. In the morning they will lay in sun covered areas by the thousands. You cannot go outside. The Dept of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) puts sentinel chickens out in the woods, in cages, and they draw blood about everyday to test for diseases. Several cases of EEEV have been noted this year among other nasty diseases.

The ticks, (deer, dog and lone star) are crazy too. I will find many crawling up my legs.
Now, the chiggers are the worst. Those little buggers will drive you mad.

It's not 18th century, but most of my clothes get a spray of Permethrin and then dried in the sun. I have 3 family members with Lyme disease. Not good.

I was covered with Seed ticks in Alabama once. I wanted to scream!!!
 
Posts: 88 | Location: Delaware | Registered: 07 January 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
posted Hide Post
Tick populations vary with weather conditions. Some years they are awful, other years not so bad. Between raising cattle, hunting, etc. I have had many thousands of tick bites. Never once contracted an illness. Actually contracting Lyme's is fairly unusual. I just pull off ticks that get on me. The ticks must burrow fairly deeply to infect a person and usually they are pulled off before that. Nevertheless, after I pull a tick I keep watch on the spot for signs of infection. They are a huge irritant but not as dangerous as many make out. You have a better chance of dying from tripping and falling in the woods than from a tick bite.
 
Posts: 1487 | Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas | Registered: 08 October 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
posted Hide Post
During WWII the Nazi were experimenting with ticks as disease vectors for use in war. Along with physicists the bio scientists were also brought into the US. These experiments started in the late 1940s and bio escapes occurred more than a few times. Poison gas "escapes" are documented in the west.

As a trained forester I spent a great deal of time in the woods and the tick population explosion in the areas I worked did not go unnoticed. They've always been around, I know. Back in the 1960s I did a lot of work in and around the Okefenokee swamp and South Ga in general. The huge gopher tortoises were often (but not always) covered with ticks the size of my thumb; they didn't seem to like humans. Mosquitoes in the swampy areas were sometimes so thick it was not possible to even go there. Frequently one's mouth had to be covered in order to breath. It's difficult to see how any ANDN's could possible live there.

Bio-hazard escapes have been and are still not uncommon; not to mention the direct exposure of soldiers and civilians to atomic bombs and toxins. Many of the things we face are simply nature's creation but too often man has made these afflictions into weapons the same as he did with sticks and stones.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of SCLoyalist
posted Hide Post


Fortunately, I live and hunt in areas where the risk of Lyme disease is low. I've read if you detach a tick within 36 hrs (sooner if possible) you greatly lower the risk of disease transmission even from an infected tick, so I've equipped myself with a couple of those little tick removing gadgets that BassPro sells that are supposed to keep the critter intact as he pulls loose. (For the first 12 or more hours the beast is attached, he's sucking blood so it's not likely he can transmit anything to you. Sometime after the 12 hours he regurgitates and any
germ he's carrying can enter your bloodstream.)

BTW, the Wikipedia article on Lyme disease says they found DNA of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease in the mummy of Otzi the Iceman, making him, at 5300 years old, the record holder for earliest known Lyme patient.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SCLoyalist,


Here's a health to the King and a lasting Peace. May Faction end and Wealth increase....Old Loyalist Ballad
 
Posts: 767 | Location: Panhandle Florida | Registered: 02 February 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
posted Hide Post
I, too as a working forester have noticed a much larger problem with ticks the last couple years. Actually only had the first ones on me this year from cutting in thick brush.

I also butcher deer for hunter's in the area, and the deer ticks have grown pout of control. These are the little buggers that carry lyme disease. The woods tick just seem to be an crawly bother. A colleague, who is the Moose biologist in NH, has had lyme disease since the late 90's, first one to come down with it that I know. Not sure but think that the warmer tham usual open winter,s have had an effect on the population explosion here in the North Country....Need freezing weather to kill over-wintering eggs, and that hasn't happened in the last 2-3 years. As a side note, somrthing else that I heard was that the deer tick had to imbedded in your skin for 24 hours or more to transmit the disease. Careful scrutiny when showering, should help eliminate the pest, I also scrub the bite with alcohol after removing tick....Hope that sheds some light.....Gary


" You do with your scalp as you wish and don't be telling us what to with ours."
 
Posts: 158 | Location: lake champlain, vt | Registered: 03 January 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
posted Hide Post
I keep an eye out for ticks when I shower. My wife has nails perfect for lifting the little buggers off.

Do ticks have any natural enemies? Bats eat skeeters but I know of nothing that eats ticks; and I lived in fire ant territory for 60 years. I'm glad fire ants avoid Va; they are a very dangerous pest.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Hanshi:
Do ticks have any natural enemies? ... and I lived in fire ant territory for 60 years. I'm glad fire ants avoid Va; they are a very dangerous pest.


Chickens and ducks will eat ticks when they see them. I would guess that frogs and lizards would too.

Last week I was driving down the highway when the load in the back of my pickup shifted. I pulled over to retie things. My wife stepped out of the passenger side and directly onto a fire ant hill. It took her about half a minute to realize what the burning sensation was on her foot and lower leg. She then danced around for a while! They got her good.

Do armadillos eat fire ants? spicy??


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
posted Hide Post
Part of the big increase in Lyme's is from the explosion of whitetail deer, especially suburban areas where most of the people live. Main vector of Lyme's is the deer tick, and they need deer and field mice as alternate hosts in their life cycle.

It does take awhile for a feeding tick to transmit Lyme's, so if you get 'em off quick that really helps. I've been treated for it twice, but if you catch and treat it early a few weeks of antibiotics normally takes care of it. If it goes undiagnosed for a long time, however, it can be a bear and cause very serious problems.

There are worse things from ticks. Both I and one of my dogs have had Rocky Mt Spotted Fever from tick bites. Unlike Lyme's, there is immediate transmission when a tick bites you if they carry it, fatalities up to 20% of cases. Put me in the hospital for a week and nearly killed my black lab. Between hunting, living in the country and working for our MD mosquito control agency I'm always in tick territory.

If you have the yard space the best weapon for ticks is a small flock of guinea hens. Tick vacuums!
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
Picture of 1720Todd
posted Hide Post
My chickens do a lot around the yard, but they can't get them all. Plus the Coopers hawks are always out so I keep an eye on the birds if they are free ranging. I've had Guinea hens, but honestly their sound drives me nuts.
I was out yesterday and found about 10 ticks on me. I haven't seen any in a couple weeks. Not sure what the cause for them to re-appear was.

I am out in the woods a lot and work with horses, so I am in contact with many types of animals everyday. I make sure I check myself every night and wear some type of spray. Several of my clients don't offer the best care of their barn dogs and cats, which is unfortunate, and I have seen what Lyme's and RMSTF can do. Not pretty.
Guess that's why I like the cooler months. Gets rid of a lot of these little nastys.
 
Posts: 88 | Location: Delaware | Registered: 07 January 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 


2014 Historical Enterprises, LLC