I hate ticks

When you live in the deer capital of Wisconsin, you are probably living in the tick capital of Wisconsin. We have dealt with ticks from the beginning, and there truly comes a point where they get under my skin, with no pun intended.

There are not too many things that give me the heeby-jeebies, but ticks do. Mice do also. Beyond that, not too much bothers me. Ticks and mice, however, are just disease-carrying scum. I guess if rats were around, they would be on my list also.

So, I am constantly in tick-prevention mode, meaning I dress and spray appropriately to reduce the chances of getting a tick on me. I believe, but do not know for certain, that I obtained Lyme Disease back in 2013 when I traveled up with Lance. A week later, when I went up with Josh, I had a high fever and other issues that did not make a lot of sense when compared to prior illnesses I had experienced. Josh had to drive back with an early departure as I became too sick with fever to stay or even drive. The day after involved a trip to the emergency room where they prescribed antibiotics that seemed to take care of things. As time passes, and the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that it was a tick bite. It wasn't fun, but if that is what it was, then the good thing is that they hit it early.

John obtained Lyme Disease on our trip at the beginning of July. Fortunately, they were able to diagnose this so he could begin treatment, but he had to suffer for nearly three weeks before they could find out what was going on. It wasn't John's fault that we went traipsing through some long grass at the County Road E bridge to take out kayaks, but he also could have picked it up just in our camping area, down by the water, or even on the kayak trip.

While I do not want to lecture anyone about tick prevention, there are some things that I do to reduce the chances of ticks attaching themselves to me. I get ticks on me at times but am able to pull them off, most times before they have taken a bite. A few have attached, but my understanding is that if you can remove them in the first twenty-four hours, they have not yet regurgitated their garbage into your bloodstream and the odds of catching Lyme Disease are reduced.

The thing is, there are the adult ticks you can see and feel on you, and then there are the ones in their nymph cycle, and they are as small as the period at the end of this sentence. These are the ones that are probably the most dangerous because they are harder to see and harder to feel.

So, we'll have a page dedicated to ticks because education on this topic allows us not to be in fear of the challenges that ticks bring to our adventure. I would like to tell you that nature is nice and tidy and clean. But it is not; there are ticks and mosquitoes and snakes and lizards and frogs and all sorts of things out here. Unfortunately, you get a few bad things with the many good things, and whitewashing it kind of takes something away, does it not?

I still hate ticks.