ticks

I spent lots of time outside yesterday, including some time in the woods, both at my cabin, and in clearing a new path to the bottom of one of our "hollers". The hillside is steep, I got tired, and I sat down to work on the brambles and brush.

When I got back to the house, I felt something crawling on my arm... it was a tick! At least he was crawling, rather than buried into my skin. But this was a warning to me to check for others.

Two years ago, I was bitten by a deer tick, and developed "bulls-eye rash" that is characteristic of Lyme Disease around the bite, as you can see by the above picture; the red area was six to eight inches across. The doctor gave me a round of antibiotics (testing for Lyme really doesn't work immediately following a tick bite).

This morning before getting dressed, I had Cliff look my backside over (a job he never seems to mind, for some reason). Sure enough, there was one on my upper back in about the same spot the above rash was found, feasting on my blood. I examined it closely and found it to be a female "wood tick" or "dog tick" (Click HERE to see what different varieties look like). Whew. I simply have to start wearing insect repellent.