tick alert...

... as a result of getting infested when I was working in the yard earlier this week. It happened on the day that was so productive planting the blueberry bushes. Which means the 'by-product' of having a successful day of hole digging and yard working is suffering the possibly frightful results of finding a tick embedded in my skin. Reminding us of the fact that everything has some potentially scary side-effect. You just have to make a judgment call: is it worth it?

Actually the second one in recent weeks. I found the first one, aimlessly walking along on my arm, and calmly pinched it off and deposited it in the toilet, gave a vigorous flush and waved goodbye. Some years ago, I found one firmly attached to my person, and had to pull it out. Saved for posterity all this time. Of course, you do not know how long you have been an unwitting 'host', as well as what deadly diseases it might have transmitted while hitching a ride.

I saved the extracted bug, put in a small container to preserve the evidence. With instructions to keep indefinitely, and to deliver to medical personnel if I should begin acting strange(r than usual). I have a cousin who has had several serious encounters with debilitating disease, including: Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, as transmitted by tick bite (or maybe Lime Disease?) Which makes me super cautious about deadly illnesses spread through insects.

I've been faithfully cleaning the bite site, applying antibiotic and covering with a band aid. So concerned about 'proper hygiene', being a good medic, I went to a considerable extreme: bought a fresh tube of Triple-Antibiotic. Discarding the old tube that probably expired in 1999, and using the new stuff after cleaning the bite with hydrogen peroxide every day. Pretty serious, huh?

Though I know that having an assortment of bug bites is routine hazard of enjoying the world outside, as well as a fact of life when you live in the south, I will never deliberately co-habitate. Often finding on the floor, usually in the kitchen, a random roach corpse, thankful it is deceased. I know with recent rains it's about time for mosquitoes to get awful, so will break out the Avon Skin-so-soft when I next get outdoors to putter about...