I've been following this thread with great interest. It's great to see
this discussion on this list.
I work for the Montgomery County Parks as project leader for the deer
program and virtually every complaint phone call about deer eventually
comes to me. Lyme disease has become the biggest concern of many
callers in the past few years and I have heard a lot of horror stories
from Montgomery County residents similar to what has been shared on this
thread.
I wanted to add two things.
1) The bottom line on treatment is - don't expect your doctor to be up
to date on Lymes disease questions. Some certainly some are, but from
the stories I hear the vast majority are not. If you spend a lot of
time in the field you need to learn the symptoms and be on the look out
for them. If you believe that you have Lymes, insist on treatment for
it. If your doctor will not treat you, find another doctor.
2) Before you trade off your binoculars and take up stamp collecting
you need to know about keeping ticks off of you. Maybe most birders
know about this already but if you don't you should. Deet will work to
repell ticks, but only for an hour or two (despite what the can says) so
it must be re-applied often to be effective. The best repellent for
ticks is permethrin based products. These can only be applied to
clothing while you are not wearing it and it must dry for at least two
hours before you wear the clothes. But once applied it will last from 2
to 6 weeks and through a couple of machine washings. The chemical bonds
to the fabric and it kills ticks. I have found ticks that crawled up
my leg and attached to my skin but when I found them several hours later
they were stone dead.
You can get these at most outdoor stores. Walmart carries a brand called
REPEL permanone - though it does not last as long as some of the others.
So read up on Lymes to suppliment your doctors knowledge, treat those
clothes, and keep on birding!!!!!
Rob Gibbs
Damascus, MD
Helen Horrocks wrote:
>--- Maurice Barnhill <> wrote:
>
>
>>I don't think I'll go that far, but I doubt I'll
>>complain about the cold
>>during the winter any more.
>>
>>
>>
>Don't count on the cold weather. A deer tick attached
>to me several years ago at Vaughn WMA in the month of
>February.
>
>Helen Horrocks
>Ijamsville, Fred. Co., MD
>hlh_37~at~yahoo.com
>
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