Whoa. Totally cool way to find them all.

They've discovered a tick-borne illness that causes death, Heartland virus. Not just Rocky Mountain spotted fever or Lyme's disease. So it has become paramount to get them all now. As if it wasn't before, it was, but now, more than ever!

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"Heartland Virus–Associated Death in Tennessee

Atis Muehlenbachs,1 Cynthia R. Fata,2 Amy J. Lambert,4 Christopher D. Paddock,1 Jason O. Velez,4 Dianna M. Blau,1

J. Erin Staples,4 Mohana B. Karlekar,3 Julu Bhatnagar,1 Roger S. Nasci,4 and Sherif R. Zaki1

1Infectious Diseases Pathology Branch, Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; Departments of 2Pathology and 3Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee; and 4Arbovirus Diseases Branch, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado

Background. Heartland virus (HRTV) is a tick-borne phlebovirus recently described in Missouri that is associated with fever, leukopenia, and thrombocytopenia. The virus has also been detected in Ambylomma americanum ticks.

Methods. Here we report the first fatal case of HRTV disease in an 80-year-old Tennessee resident. He was hospitalized with fever, confusion, leukopenia, and thrombocytopenia and developed multiorgan failure and hemorrhage.

A tick-borne illness was suspected and testing for ehrlichiosis was negative. He died on hospital day 15, and autopsy specimens were tested for various pathogens as part of an unexplained death evaluation.

Results. HRTV antigens were detected in postmortem spleen and lymph nodes by immunohistochemistry, and HRTV was detected in premortem blood by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and by isolation in cell culture.

Conclusions. This case demonstrates that HRTV infection can cause severe disease and death and expands the geographic range of HRTV within the United States.

Keywords. autopsy; Heartland virus; pathology; tick-borne illness; unexplained death."

I wonder if this is another name for a relatively new virus carried by some ticks in New England, NY, NJ, and PA. It's been responsible for some deaths, and brain damage in those who have survived.

I agree--ticks are serious, serious issue.

PS: The lint roller must be effective on clothing--the first line of defense--but I can't imagine it would remove a tick embedded in skin. We need to keep a sharp eye out.

I just saw that idea with the lint roller too, and shared it with a friend that has a tick problem right off the back patio.

Moni

What do you do, roll the bottoms of your pants? We don't have ticks much here.

Other than Guinea hens, do the general populace of birds eat ticks?

I've never seen one, but DH found a baby deer, it's mother parked it in front of our garage doors, we had to move it....and it's belly was covered in ticks!

I appreciate your tick updates and general knowledge which I'm lacking...

I haven't noticed any here where I am but last night a couple stopped to get some rhubarb and the dad noticed the daughter had one between her cheek and ear so he pulled it out. It had a tiny piece of flesh in its mouth! They had found some on their dog the day before. Will have to let them know about using a lint roller and use one myself as well.

A friend of mine uses the lint roller on her dog. They may get ticks that are on the surface, but they won't if a tick has gone into hair or wherever. I use a flea-and-tick comb, which gets them down to the skin.

I have also found I don't seem to pick up ticks when I wear wool socks.

No expert here, but I saw this on local TV . Pour a little alcohol onto the tick . I just assumed the speaker meant booze since she didn't say rubbing alcohol.

Wearing loose white cotton pants tucked into white cotton socks topped with rubber boots has helped me a lot. It makes for some uncomfortably hot lawn mowing, but it's worth it. I should probably add long-sleeved shirts, but haven't been able to bring myself to do that. Wool socks would put me over the edge. :-)

Pam, the practice of putting alcohol on an embedded tick is controversial. Some say before it kills the tick, the irritation of the alcohol results in more spirochetes being ejected from the tick into the host (person or animal). But all agree that swabbing the skin after the tick is removed is a good idea.

I've had good experiences removing ticks with this little tool:

Tick Twister

Although it wasn't as easy on the very soft chest of a 3-year-old.

The price of the Tick Twister, at $11.99 per two, a small and a large (with free shipping on orders over $35.00) ... nearly made my hair stand on end.
I was lucky, I guess, for someone gave one to me, free, a year or so ago ... and it works. But ya gotta catch 'em right away! I'd like to remember the circumstances where some of this stuff happens, as I'm getting really forgetful.
I've found either two or three, while they were tickling during travel (theirs - not mine). The trouble is, you have to drop them on a hard surface, and hit 'em hard with a thumbnail ... or they just walk away, laughing at you.
I wonder whether there was one dug in on my back the other day ... or was it just a funny feeling nigh to a small mole? Meant to ask son to investigate when we were together ... but forgot.
I felt that I was more or less graduated from rubber boots to shoes, one with a flapping sole/soul, repaired with duct tape - that "sole" that is ... though sometimes I wonder whether my soul may do a bit of flapping, as well. Darn duct tape wears through, and last night the whole cap on the front of one shoe dropped off ... so I was doing more seeding with the flapping sole digging in the dirt (or, hanging down, threatening to trip me while walking over strings strung high over low spots part way through their 40 paces' length). Will have to check through the old shoes to see whether I can find a replacement.
Oh, but - I figure that I'd better return to using the rubber boots: yeah, that's the tick-et, uncomfortable though that is.
I'd like to find a means of tying my coveralls tight around my ankles, but have been wearing pressure socks, same three pairs for about 5 years, and wear a pair of regular socks over them, but have resisted tucking the long johns into the top pair, as I want to avoid further constriction. The rubber boots'll help alleviate that problem.
But when I'm travelling on hands and knees along the ground, with hands in the dirt while digging holes, seeding and covering, plus in some cases building a mounded ring of dirt around the site to retain the water ... it's happy day for ticks! A couple of elastic arm bands should deter them from crawling up into the inside of the sleeves.
Don't want to add more load to my body, that has a fight on its hands as it is.
Hope you're all having a great day.
ole joyfuelled ... who has a lot of ground yet to seed ... and a lot of seeds yearning to enter it ... and about to buy more today

I came down with Lyme disease two years ago and I'm sure I came into contact with the tick in my garden. I just couldn't face going into the garden last year. When I did, it was white pants (Goodwill buy), tucked into white socks, long sleeves, garden gloves, hat, scarf. Then strip completely in the laundry room and put clothes in a bucket of hot water while I took an immediate shower. Needless to say, not fun. Now, because we are thinking of selling our house, I have to go out there and do a lot of garden maintenance. I am dressing the same, although sometimes just a short sleeve shirt if it is very hot. I know I'm taking my chances!
Marcia (in PA where we have lots of ticks & Lyme disease)

A homeowner's temporary exposure to insecticide is probably completely safe, especially with the products now available and applied by a professional. The health consequences of a single tick bite could negatively change one's life forever.

We have ticks in the undeveloped areas in my region and not so much near houses. If I had the issue in my yard, I'd vote for the insecticide option without hesitation.

I hope I never have to consider widespread pesticide spraying, not only because of possible toxicity (to my family, to our well water) but because of what I can only imagine the expense might be. I have acreage on both sides of the road, and my son's family and I are all over it.

Still, it's a thought, and I should learn more about it, including the cost. I have the feeling it's something that would have to be done on a regular basis.

Marcia, I have the same routine as you, with the exception of the bucket of hot water. In my case the clothes go directly into the washing machine, which then gets turned on. Like you say, no fun. Ticks--which we never had on our property until the past five years or so--have taken away a lot of my enjoyment of the outdoors. The garden used to call to me, but no more.

I ways used a piece of Scotch tape to remove a tick, then fold it over. trapping it and preventing any movement. If a tick is pulled off, same process of using a piece of tape. When my dog got tiny seed ticks on her paws, I covered the ticks with Vaseline then scraped them off with a toothpick. I could easily use the tip of the toothpick to pick individual ticks, if need be. Areas like that would have been impossible to reach with a lint roller. She was so happy to lie still while I worked on each paw.

My mom always kept a supply of Sulphur powder on hand for flea and tick control. I always complained about the faint odor but it sure worked. Even today, many years later, I wouldn't hesitate to use it if necessary. A common method of use is to dust clothing or limbs before going outside.

Wear light-colored clothing outdoors, avoid tall weeds. I haven't found ticks on myself, children or pets. But I do know two women who have contracted tick-borne diseases (Lime/or Lyme/ Limes? Disease).

A friend passed on some helpful information regarding removing a tick (from person or dog) with DAWN dishwashing liquid. Apparently she was told (and tried -- and it worked) that if you put Dawn on a cotton ball and hold it over the tick, the tick releases (not sure if it can't breathe or what). She said she noticed it started to come out after about 15 seconds, then did another 15 seconds, and it came off.

My vet goes to the "root" (head) and gets close to the skin and grabs (I follow suit with disposable gloves), but still it's sometimes hard to get the whole tick, esp'lly on a dog that you can't get into the area because of all the hair.

Hope this is helpful to some of you!

Alisande, if I were getting that many ticks on one walk--I would not be walking there. I too was wondering if other birds eat ticks. We have three acres of oaks..never picked up a tick but others around here have..

Arcy, my "walks" consist of mowing grass and weeding the garden. I've cut down substantially on my flower gardening, sad to say, but the mowing is non-negotiable.