Have you ever had a tick embed into your skin?
Yuck.
I haven't ever found a tick in me, but sometimes I worry that maybe that is a BAD thing. What if I missed it? What if it's there and was so fast that it already embedded and I am going to get Lyme disease!?!?
I know this may seem rather odd, since it's not like we have a dog or have to hike through a tallgrass prairie to get to school, but I am taking a Field Botany class where we run around in the woods & tall grasses looking for flowers. And we get ticks. The only two that I've found haven't been in me, but rather were trekking up my leg. I've found both in my Anthropology class, since it occurs right after I've returned from the field.
I'm sitting in class and I've asked a question when the teacher is answering me and I feel something on my leg. Quick to squeeze it through my pants so that it doesn't escape, I listened distractedly to the answer and then jet out of the room when she's finished - heading toward the bathroom. I pull that tick out from between my fingers and toss it in the toilet, mocking a little as it struggles before I flush it down the tubes in a torrent of toilet water.
Did you know that ticks don't drown? They become dormant.
But a tick can't survive being boiled.
Not that I've tried...
Watching that tick get washed down the toilet is an interesting feeling. I just killed something - albeit indirectly. I mean, I didn't actually KILL it per se, but I did facilitate its death...
It makes one feel powerful. But a little bad. Poor tick.
Just watch - they'll get me as I sleep now.
Anyway, Nathan and I are off to "Northern Illinois" to go camping with my Botany class this weekend and so I'll probably have some cool tick stories when we return.
But I won't share them with you. That's icky.
Have a good weekend.
love,
~liz
Posted by lizington at July 22, 2004 02:50 PMI have a really gross tick story for you- but I won't post it. Eeeww! is right.
Posted by: bahiyyih at August 5, 2004 10:12 PMYeah man...just squish those suckers between your finger nails and they're done for! I pull an average of 10 ticks off the dogs in SD every time I make an attempt to rid the pups of the blood suckers.....eeewww.
Posted by: Jessica at July 30, 2004 03:34 PMCan't you just pinch a tick in half with your fingernails to ensure it's death? Or is that for a flea?
And don't worry. It's fairly obvious when you 'start' to get Lyme's disease. I remember Rachael started having the whole "mark that looks like a bullseye" on her foot when she was about 7. It was pretty apparent. We took her to the doctor, got her some antibiotics, and 15 years later or so she's still alive and kickin'. :-)
Posted by: Mara at July 26, 2004 09:49 AM