Daily Survival Guide

[macdobhran]

How to Avoid Lyme Disease
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• Tuck your pants into your socks.
  Ticks do not drop from high vegetation or trees; they climb up your body, generally seeking the highest point. However, if the tick meets resistance, it will stop and feed at that point.


• Stay out of tall grass.
  Ticks often inhabit tall grasses and shrubs.


• Know the active tick seasons.
  Ticks are more active in the spring and early summer, though they may be present at other times of the year. They are also found in virtually all climates and geographic regions, from the Antarctic to the Sahara. They will often be most abundant in areas with wildlife, whose blood provides the ticks' food supply.

Comments

[netsearcher.livejournal.com]

they climb up your body

They climb up the outside of your *clothes* too. Not a minor point.

If you get a suspicious rash, even if you don't know if you've been bitten by a tick, run, don't walk to a dr and get antibiotics. You do NOT want the secondary symptoms; I know several people who have landed in the hospital from them.

Read the antibiotic directions *carefully*; doxycycline (which I've taken two rounds of for Lyme rash) is basically inactivated by even small amounts of dietary iron. Even a piece of bread can have iron fortified flour in it, so consider taking the meds on an empty stomach, even if it makes you queasy.

Don't worry about being tested, the test is known to be *wildly* inaccurate in both directions (false negatives and positives).