Boy was my mama scared when she saw this on my face so close to my tear duct. She tried to remove it but it wouldn't budge! She and Dad were not certain it was a tick until they took me to the vet. As soon as the vet removed it you could clearly identify it as a disgusting tick. Yuck! Now I am getting extra cheese (which makes me happy) to hide the antibiotic pills that I have to swallow for two weeks. The vet was glad to hear that Mama started my K9 Advantix in April and I am up-to-date with my vaccines.
Mamma has to investigate bug repellent because this is a serious tick season due to the warm winter and wet spring last year (according to researchers at Rutgers). Thank goodness the vet said we should continue to go on our hikes, we just have to spend extra time protecting ourselves.
It is a jungle out there...be extra careful canines and humans. Enjoy Spring!
Woof, woof, till later,
Zoey
Mild winter, wet 2018 may cause surge in ticks in NJ, Northeast
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https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2019/03/14/nj-weather-warm-winter-may-prompt-more-ticks-spring/3131637002/
Tips on avoiding a tick bite
1. Keep grass short and underbrush thinned at your home.
2. Apply EPA-registered insect repellent on your skin, clothing, boots and camping gear when outdoors to prevent ticks from getting on your body.
3. Wear light-colored clothes to help you spot ticks easily.
4. Tuck pants into socks to keep ticks from getting under your clothes.
5. Check your body for ticks and shower within two hours of being outdoors.
6. If you find a tick, carefully remove it with fine-pointed tweezers. Grasp it by the mouth parts closest to the skin and pull it steadily outward. Do not use petroleum jelly, noxious chemicals or hot objects. The sooner the tick is removed, the less likely it is to transmit disease.
Below is some information about human repellent reprinted from Consumer Reports. Please click on the link if you are interested in reading the entire article by Jeneen Interlandi, last updated on April 24, 2019.
https://www.consumerreports.org/insect-repellent/how-safe-is-deet-insect-repellent-safety/
How Safe Is Deet?
Despite assurances about the chemical, consumer concerns persist. Is there a reason to worry?
Deet is the most widely used insect repellent in the U.S. It has been around longer than any other active ingredient, and many scientists say it’s the gold standard for all repellents.
Consumer Reports' testing has consistently ranked deet-based products among the top performers, and our experts agree with the broad scientific consensus that the chemical is safe and effective when used as directed.
If you’re worried—or just wondering about—the potential downsides of choosing a deet-based repellent, you're not alone. A 2018 Consumer Reports nationally representative survey of 2,052 adults found that 25 percent of Americans said they avoid using insect repellents with deet. And about a third said they thought repellents containing deet are not as safe as those that don't have the chemical.
What Exactly Is Deet?
Deet (known to chemists as N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide) is a yellowish liquid that, when applied to skin or clothing, repels a number of biting insects, including mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas. The chemical was created by USDA chemists in the 1940s for use by the U.S. military. It has been commercially available since 1957 and has since become commonplace.
One long-held theory is that deet blocks an insect’s ability to smell human sweat and breath. More recent research suggests a different, simpler explanation: The compound just smells incredibly bad to most bugs, so much so that they avoid all contact with it.
The balance of evidence indicates that deet is safe when used as directed. There are a few things to keep in mind when considering reports to the contrary:
1. The overall incidence of deet poisoning is very low. In 1998 the Environmental Protection Agency conducted a definitive assessment of the chemical. The agency turned up 46 seizures and four deaths that were potentially linked to deet exposure. It estimated that since 1960, the incidence of seizures with a potential link to deet exposure was one per 100 million uses.
2. Most of those reported cases involved a misuse of deet products.Ingestion or “dermal application not consistent with label instructions” was the most common source of potential deet toxicity, according to the EPA report. The agency concluded that when consumers followed product-label instructions and took reasonable precautions, the health risks of deet essentially vanished.
3. A vast majority of cases of deet toxicity are mild. In another seminal analysis, researchers looked at more than 9,000 calls made to poison control centers between 1985 and 1989. They found that nearly 90 percent of the injuries were treated at home, and that of those people referred to health centers, 80 percent were discharged after an examination. A second analysis of more than 20,000 calls made between 1993 and 1997 found similar results.
4. There is no reliable evidence that deet causes cancer. Neither the Department of Health and Human Services nor the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs has classified deet as a carcinogen. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, animal studies have not found an increase in tumors in research subjects who were given oral deet tablets or who had liquid deet applied to their skin. A Swedish study did find that men who used insect repellent for 115 days or longer faced an increased risk of developing testicular cancer. (A majority of repellents contained deet at the time of the study.) But the CDC says that the study was flawed and that the results were not conclusive.
4. There is no reliable evidence that deet causes cancer. Neither the Department of Health and Human Services nor the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs has classified deet as a carcinogen. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, animal studies have not found an increase in tumors in research subjects who were given oral deet tablets or who had liquid deet applied to their skin. A Swedish study did find that men who used insect repellent for 115 days or longer faced an increased risk of developing testicular cancer. (A majority of repellents contained deet at the time of the study.) But the CDC says that the study was flawed and that the results were not conclusive.
Find more information regarding risk for the environment, children, and pregnant women. Also tips for safe use by clicking on the link above.
Alternatives to Deet
If you still can’t bear to put deet on your skin (some people say it smells terrible, others that they will never trust the chemical no matter what anyone tells them), there are other effective repellents to consider:
Picaridin--Picaridin is a repellent that was modeled after a molecule found in pepper plants. It has been on the U.S. market since 2005 and has done well in Consumer Reports’ tests. Specifically, spray products with at least 20 percent picaridin have worked as well or better than some deet-based ones. Not as much research has been done on picaridin as on deet. But the data that does exist indicate that the chemical is safe, and the World Health Organization and the CDC recommend picaridin.
Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus (OLE)--Oil of lemon eucalyptus is another active ingredient that’s done well in CR's tests (especially at concentrations of 30 percent). OLE is registered with the EPA as a biopesticide, meaning that products containing this ingredient are subject to at least some testing for safety and efficacy. To be sure, the requirements for biopesticides are more lax than they are for synthetic products like deet and picaridin: OLE is not recommended for children younger than 3. But for everyone else, when used as directed, our experts agree with the CDC and EPA that it's safe and works well.
