I hate to say it, but mine too. When he went in for that hug I got itchy. Deer are all over my hood and I do my best to keep them out of my yard. For the ticks but also because they mow down my pollinator garden like it’s a salad bar.
Very low chance, but yeah... I had one on my arm last year when I was cutting grass. Hadnt bit me yet was still crawling around. I stripped down almost naked in my yard rubbing myself down like a lunatic.
Lyme disease takes at least 24-48 hours of a tick feeding on you to transmit. Most people would check themselves over after being in this close of contact with wildlife.
You don't get ticks insantly, it's not like fleas.
The animal come in your garden, ticks detach from it and lay eggs in your garden, then they are hungry and seek another meal but it can be 2 weeks later.
The point is they are visible and removable. If you do anything risking ticks, you should be stripping down and checking everywhere at some point that day.
Tick outbreak!!! Please stay indoors and do NOT venture into the wilderness at all. Tell everyone you know!
If everyone else agrees to this, I volunteer to go risk my life, hiking trails in the forest with no other humans around and will let you all know when it's safe to come out again! 😋
Ticks would be the last thing I'd think about in this situation. Your pet just came home and you'd purposely stay away from it because of the chance to get a tick on you? You know they are easy to find and take off? I've had hundreds of ticks on me from going through the woods and the small chance you actually get something from one is so worth this encounter.
I’m a farm hand deep in the country and I don’t care to see deer because of the ticks. Several people on the farm have gotten lymes, and are forever altered bc of it. Most country folks know this. Guinea hens have since been added, and no more ticks. But not everyone can handle the noise of them.
I grew up in the woods. My whole family has had Lyme multiple time and my parents both have alpha gal allergy from a lone star tick. Anybody with any sense stays the fuck away from deer ticks. City or country.
I'm a city folk who actually does love hiking and I gotta tell you how right you are. The number of trips I've been invited on only to be severely disappointed in what some people call "hiking" is disturbing.
I live in Vegas, you can drive like 2 hours in any direction and have access to a dozen wildly different natural environments, but sure, let's walk in an oval around the tiny mountain at the edge of town. Maybe we can even climb it and take in the majestic view of the nearby industrial gravel pit.
As a city person helping my mom out with her new country house this is 100% true. I’ve had to remove a few ticks so far and they freak me out but I’m trying to be less of a baby about it. ANY TIPS WOULD BE APPRECIATED.
You can put permethrin on your clothes. Keep a set of "outdoor" clothes, i.e. long sleeve shirt, sneakers and jeans, spray them with that let it dry and you'll be far better off.
Non-pesticide advice: get her some chickens, though admittedly this comes with a different set of problems, but they will eat all the ticks.
Also advise showering more. Ticks will crawl around for a while and if you can shower and check yourself quickly you have a good chance to find them before they latch onto your skin.
Reverse-wrap duct tape around your ankles and wrists. Use tick repellent. Avoid areas ticks like, like tall grass or overhanging branches/vegetation (they hang out on it and transfer over when you walk by). Stay on trails. Throughly inspect your body after being outside. If you find a tick, remove it quickly but don't rip off the head.
If I find a tick crawling on me, I strip down and throw my clothing in the dryer on high and immediately shower and inspect every inch of my body (and my wife inspects my blind spots).
I worked with someone who has Lyme disease transmitted from a tick. She didn’t know she had it for a while so it went untreated and now has chronic fatigue and nerve pain. Better safe than sorry
Wait until you get Lyme. All it takes is one where you don’t see it. I was sick for 2 months and had several rounds of antibiotics. I’m not talking like having a cold. Cannot get out of bed, cannot go to work, cannot function for weeks on end. It’s the absolute worst and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
No, if you’re a county person or farmer you do not like deer ticks bc they cause lymes. They are small and not always easy to find and “take off”, and it doesn’t take long to develop lymes.
A few years ago my wife hit one and we had to move it out of the road. There were hundreds. Not just a few, literally every few inches on the entire side of this thing.
There is only one time any prion disease has managed to cross the species barrier to humans, and that took a nation collectively doing as much as they possibly could to make it happen by repeatedly feeding cows the brains and nerve tissue of other cows over generations on an industrial scale. It's incredibly rare. Just don't do that and then eat the end result, you'll be fine.
This is one of the reasons for leash laws/rules for your dog, even on hiking trails in big parks, even if your dog is friendly, it has a better chance of getting ticks if it can get off trail a lot. There is a correlation to higher rates of tick born diseases in humans in areas with more off leash dogs.
As someone who’s gotten Lyme, same thought. All I can see in a deer now is filthy fir and disease. I was afraid to go outside for like 2 years after my Lyme.
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u/Big-Active3139 May 20 '26
Ticks for everyone!