My husband and I own a little piece of land in Iowa which used to have a house on it. It is mostly timber, although a great deal was cleared for a home. We recently tore down the home and have been burning it little by little, however yesterday when we arrived we found that my sister-in-law brought her couch out to be burned. We started the fire and I sat down on the couch for a minute to eat my McDonald's when I looked on the arm of the couch and saw that there were three ticks. I absolutely hate ticks so I jumped off the couch and told my husband about my discovery. He came over and noticed that there were more ticks crawling out of a hole in the back of the couch! He tore back a piece of fabric and we found at least one hundred ticks in about a 10 inch space of the couch. I have never seen so many ticks in one space before!
We immediately decided that that couch had to be burned along with all those ticks. We threw the couch on the fire and it was engulfed in flames in a matter of seconds. We destroyed around five hundred ticks, if not more, in one sitting! However the number of ticks this year is alarmingly high. My husband is very big on the outdoor stuff and loves to go hunting, he hunts everything from deer to quail, even mushrooms. He recently went mushroom hunting for about three hours and had his first deer tick ever on him when he came out. For those of you who are not aware, deer ticks are the small red ones that carry lime disease. He also walked down to the creek and was only there for about an hour and came back with two ticks on him.
There are ways that you can avoid ticks, however. The biggest way is to just stay out of the woods. You are not likely to get a tick on you in town! I know that there are some of us out there that just can't stay away though. Therefore here are some other ideas.
Dress properly
I know that it is going to be getting very warm, but if you can stand it try to wear pants and long sleeves. This makes it harder for the ticks to get to your skin, and also gives you a better chance of finding them before they attach themselves to your blood stream.Wear a hat
Hat's will do basically the same thing as pants and long sleeves will do.Bug Spray
This does not always work, however it is a very good precaution. To ensure that the bug spray does not wear off you should reapply around every 45 minutes or according to the back of your bug spray bottle.Try to stay cool
For some unknown reason ticks are more apt to get on you if you are sweaty. I know that in the heat it is kind of difficult to not get sweaty though.Rubberband It
You could put a rubberband around your pants to hold them closer to your ankles, as well as on your arms, this helps to block the ticks from making contact with your skin!
Remember ticks do not attach themselves for 24 hours, first they look for the perfect spot. They usually try to stay hidden in a patch of hair. The best way to make sure that you don't share your blood with an unwanted parasite is to always check yourself after being in the woods. Take a shower as soon as you get home and if at all possible, throw your clothes in the wash. This helps to ensure that the ticks will not infest your home!
These are the precautions that I take, they seem to help me. I hope that they will help you. I have to say that I haven't had one tick on me yet this year! Not even when I was sitting on that couch!
In the Philippines, we do experience similar situations sometimes.Thanks, you're article provides me a different glimpse of the U.S.;all I think about the U.S. are the skycrapers racing to the sky. I dream of reaching the U.S. someday.