I never thought anything about ticks until I was well into adulthood with kids in college et al. I didn’t see one until the day when Radical Betty returned from a hike out at Naomikong and found a strange insect (or arachnid) crawling around on her body. She thought it was a tick. What? We actually put the tick into a plastic container and drove into town to the county health department to get them to identify it. It was a tick but it was a dog tick, which meant (at that time, anyway) that it was unlikely to transmit Lyme Disease. Not to mention that ticks in general can transmit all kinds of other awful stuff.

NPR repeated a story about ticks a few times today. We have encountered a lot more ticks here in the Great Lake State than I ever remember at any time of my life. I am taaaared of the news media telling us all how to avoid ticks. It is almost impossible to avoid ticks. You can slather yourself with [arguably poisonous] insect repellent but I don’t think that necessarily deters ticks and I *hate* being slathered with insect repellent (not to mention sunscreen). You can also cover your entire body with clothing of one sort or another but man oh man it gets got when you are hiking in high temperatures with all of those clothes on.

Whatever the media folks blather on about ticks, I think the best “tick check” is to take a shower after you have been in the woods. And a bath for your children and maybe dogs, although I think dogs need a more thorough check because of fur.

That’s about it. G’night.

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