I will give this a read when I have a little more time. Who knew a few years ago that there are so many diseases such a tiny being can transfer to humans!

Thanks for sharing!

This is nothing to fool around with. Protect yourself outdoors. Also type O blood supposedly smells better to these horrid critters, so if you're an O be double wary.

Kitty, I didn't know about the appetizing scent of type O blood (which I have), but I learned this summer that ticks are strongly attracted to the scent of ammonia/urine. It makes sense, since they need animals (including us) for blood meals. Of course, we don't think we smell like ammonia/urine, but a tick's very sensitive scent gland can detect odors humans can't pick up.

I also read that the essential oil Rose Geranium confuses this scent gland, so I tried using it. I usually get at least six tick bites per year despite precautions, but in 2017 I got only one. I'll definitely use the oil again.

As we live in an area with lots of deer ticks, and pick many off us each year, I've grown fond of them -- I mean fond of reading about them. I do a lot of thinking about them and experimenting. I have taken lots of photos and some videos as well. Ever watch to see how a fully engorge deer tick rights itself from being turn on its back, it's little black legs kicking far off the desk surface? I experimented and took videos. I was going to put it on YouTube, but I found someone has already uploaded a good one.

What deer ticks like and what they are attracted to:

Damp, shade. They can detect very low levels of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and will move toward it. One method researcher use to collect deer ticks is with some dry ice (CO2) inside a polystyrene cooler with perforations. And, as Alisande stated, they are attracted to ammonia and the breakdown products of urine. If you have your dog do his business in a particular area, deer ticks will be attracted to that area, even if only grass is there.

Ticks are also attracted to motion (and perhaps warmth.

Ticks can be found on many rodents, birds and mammals.

What deer ticks don't like:

Hot dry weather, bright light.

Deer ticks do are not deterred by cold weather. I've been bitten by a deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) in January when there was no snow cover (Zone5a).

Our favorite tool for removing the embedded ticks: A fine pointed set of tweezers (Tweezerman sells one used for removing thorns and splinters). Be sure to position tip of tweezers just behind the head. Pull gently but steadily -- allowing the tick to disengage. I usually start pulling gently just a bit, pause and wait.

I put the tick into a bottle of hardware store alcohol (?90%). I have a large collection.

I have had more deer ticks embedded in me than I care to think about. I've tested positive for Lyme Disease ANTIBODIES several times and have taken the prescribed dose of doxycycline. I have not developed Lyme Disease.

Note1: doxycycline has gotten pretty pricy in the past few years. I had some "saved," but learned that doxycycline is one drug that you definitely don't want to use past its expiration date. It doesn't ha e a long shelf life and breaks down into some nasty products. The treatment protocol these days is two (? mg) doxycycline pills.

Note2: there is an enormous amount of "junk information" on the Internut. Lyme disease is a very contentious subject.

Thanks for the link, Alisande.

I noticed 2 things about that article. 1) Kelly Osbourne says she found a CURE in Germany. Then doesn't say what it was....? 2) Trump believes in Climate Change....he does NOT believe in Global Warming. (the article misquoted him).

I watch the Oak Island shows. One of the brothers was suddenly very ill. Turns out it's Lyme disease.

Petalique, thank you for sharing that information. Yes, doctors are fond of prescribing two doxycycline pills to patients who report a tick bite and/or symptoms. This is often a big mistake. It certainly was in the case of the tick bite on the back of my neck that resulted in a long-term problem. My doctor was on vacation, and his substitute, whom I'd never met, wouldn't give me more than two pills even thought I told her I had symptoms and had been through this before. I'm partly to blame too, because I know now all I had to do was go to an urgent care center. In my experience, they love to give out antibiotic prescriptions, and would have surely have given me enough to tide me over until my doctor returned.

Yes, the treatment protocol for pt. with an embedded tick (24 -36? Hours) is two orange (? Or blue) (don't have container, so don't know dosage) doxycycline capsules only. I think taken together (not sure). Prior to that (perhaps 10 years ago) the regimen was (?what) 2 weeks of one orange (blue?) doxycycline capsules (one per day).

The doctors are following guidelines. Somewhere we could probably find the journal articles supporting the change to just two X mg pulse of doxycycline.

Are you okay now?

I'm still dealing with neurological symptoms from Lyme, and probably always will. The tick that caused this was clearly the one my daughter removed from my neck three years ago. Two years before that I was diagnosed with Lyme and the co-infection babesiosis, which has also become chronic.

I've had many tick bites over the years, and I've taken a lot of doxycycline. Two years ago I sent almost all of my ticks to AZ to be tested for free. The university was swamped with tick submissions, and they ended up reporting on only four of the seven I sent. Of the four, three were not infected, which I thought was encouraging.

And here's something very recent from the journal of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. I was going to say I wish I'd read it before I had surgery recently, but it's probably just as well I didn't. I had both an epidural and general. And even without this information, I had a conflict with the anesthesiologist.

Lyme Disease and Anesthesia: Five Facts

Has anyone ever heard of Morgellons Disease? It's highly controversial. Some ppl believe it to be a "delusional parasitosis", some ppl believe it is closely related to Lymes, some ppl think it's a fungal infection. All I know is that I had Lyme's about 8 yrs ago and for the past month or so I have been saying I think I might have it again, all the symptoms are there. Long story short... I think I have morgellons. I'm embarrassed to say it bc ppl will just think I'm nuts but the signs and symptoms I've been reading online match.

I haven't read about morgellons in years, but the one symptom I remember was mysterious threads emerging from the person's skin. Back then I knew someone who was convinced she had it. She was a brilliant woman, and made a good case for it. But it turned out she was experiencing delusions related to heavy cocaine use. I am NOT saying this is the case with you, Chrissy! I'm just answering your question.

Lyme often reoccurs, BTW. It can flare up when your resistance is low. Chronic Lyme is very real, although that, too, is often in dispute.

I recently watched a documentary about Lyme Disease called Under Our Skin. It presents several patients who had Lyme disease for quite some time before a doctor diagnosed them with Lyme and started treating them. Some of them could no longer walk or exhibited symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease or ALS or were told them constellation of symptoms they were experiencing was all in their head. After receiving lengthy treatment for Lyme, several of the patients displayed remarkable recoveries.

The movie also delved into the controversy around chronic Lyme, where a smallish group of doctors have done studies funded by insurance companies, then wrote papers about those studies, then that group of doctors writes the treatment guidelines for Lyme disease citing their own papers in support of the guidelines, then insurance companies treat the guidelines as hard and fast rules to deny covering treatments that don't follow those guidelines, and also file complaints with the state's medical against the doctors administering those treatments to have their medical licenses suspended or revoked.

Yeah that's correct, most ppl with morgellons say there are foreign fibers under their skin. I don't see foreign fibers under my skin, nor do I have open wounds that won't heal- but everything else they complain of seems to be happening to me. I had posted a couple things on here and other gardening forums asking what kind of house plant pest I might have. None of the plants seem to be suffering but I started seeing strange things when we brought the plants in. I had heard of Morgellons before but since I didn't think these things were coming from me I never thought that could be it. Turns out it's what ppl with morgellons see too. It started with (what I can best describe as) small brown eyelash size and shape hairs(first dismissed as some kind of soil, then thought maybe something to do with fleas), then small white fibers the same size and shape(assumed they were some kind of larvae so I've been googling like crazy to no avail) and clear ones in and around sinks(tho they were drain fly larvae), white dots that are fluffy like lint or translucent and stick to everything (figured it was lint or mealy or wooly aphid or insect eggs). I have been seeing these things all over the house. From the ceiling to the basement, in the corners of drawers. And now these dark specks, especially in the shower and my shoes, that I was sure must be dead mites. I never see any of these things move, I never see them come off of me and none of them are insects or insect excrement that I can id. Apparently nobody else on here can id them either. When they first showed up I just felt uneasy about them bc their too uniform to be dust or dirt or potting soil if you ask me... and at that same time i felt itchy- I thought I had allergies, my guinea pig died, and my dog got sick.( I treated her for worms and gave her expensive flea and tick stuff and she went back to normal. )

I live in one of the most deer tick infested counties in the country, Hunterdon County NJ. I had Lyme's before but I may have been infected again and never treated. In fact, recently I've been thinking I might have Lyme's again bc Ive been having some common symptoms but then are are other things that just seem off and unexplainable.

Once in a great while I feel like I get bit or stung but don't see a bug and don't see a mark left behind. And just the past couple of days I've been feeling swarmed and stung or bit. I thought fleas we're swarming my ankles but I've dealt with them before and there are no fleas in this house or on my dog. No mealybugs, no mites, no scale, no carpet beetles, no clothes moths, no bed bugs... I can't figure it out! I would love for someone to prove me wrong! I would love for someone to make sense of this.

I have been feeling like hair is running off my fingers under water, in the sink or over my whole body in the shower but I never see anything. It's such a creepy strange sensation.

Again, I never see anything move, nothing seems to have antenna or legs to Id it as an insect, just "lint" and small hair like fibers of different colors that are appearing out of nowhere and ending up all over the place. And when I'm seeing them my dog looks hyper-vigilant and worried.

WT heck is going on!!!!!

I wish I had an answer for you, Chrissy, but I haven't a clue. Do you live alone? Has anyone else seen these things? I can't imagine what kind of illness would result in the patient seeing things. Although the physical sensations you describe could come from a physical ailment, I suppose.

One thought: A person with Lyme spirochetes in their central nervous system is super-sensitive to stimulation of any kind. Normal light is too bright, normal sounds are too loud, the startle reflex is over the top. Any itch is ITCHY. That sort of thing. You might check in with the people at LymeNet.org and see if anyone is reporting the sorts of things you're experiencing. In fact, I just went there and searched the Medical Questions forum for mention of Morgellans. Here are the search results. I haven't looked at them yet.

LymeNet discussions re Morgellans

U live with my bf. When I thought there was some kind of house plant pest in the house he didn't want to hear anything about it. (True story- a yr ago there were a dozen baby spiders on the living room ceiling directly above us and he couldn't care less. He thought I was a nut bc I had to kill them and see where they were coming from in case there was a nest to elimimate... there was and I did, btw!... And I think he's a freak bc he can see a bunch of spiders hatching about him and go back to watching TV. ) So.... Point of that story is that I have been too scared to say anything. I've pointed out the strange dirt before and he says it's just dirt, stop over thinking everything....

Anyway from my research it looks to me like morgellons is cotton nematodes. Which would explain these nematode looking things I see all over, it would explain why my dog was sick and de wormers cured her. But my research also shows apparently America won't diagnose ppl with cotton nematodes (im assuming it's all a corporate money thing). They diagnose ppl with threadworm. Idk .. I don't care as long as the treatment takes care of it for good.

Ugh it's so gross tho. I feel like I get it semi under control and then it seems like they lay eggs so all of the sudden every 2 wks or so there's all these sticky globs all over the place. It looks like someone was flinging around lotion or coconut oil or something. Ugh gross

Chrissy, I hope you're getting the medical care you need.

I can't help but note that your comment about your boyfriend, "I have been too scared to say anything.", is also alarming. It sounds like this relationship needs more than a little work, if indeed it's fixable. Having fear of a partner isn't a normal or safe way to live.

Good luck.