Caddis, found good info on freezing ticks on an Aus site where they have problems with softer paralysis ticks and tweezing
Even up here, if tweezed incorrectly, toxins can be sent into the wound
Never say whoa in the middle of a mud hole
I use perithium as well in a bottle and spray on my shoes, pants etc and get a larger bottle and spray around the cabin too! The freezing thing sounds easy actually, it's that over the counter wart stuff, I remember my daughter had a wart on her foot, easy to use, about 30 bucks or so.
I like drinking beer and whiskey, shooting guns, jetboating, love a nice rack and a tight line, I am simply a sophisticated redneck...
I've heard that tea tree oil will deter ticks as well, I'll put some on my hands and rub it on the outside of my boots and along the bottom of my pants, and hat before I head out. This thread spurred some paranoia as I was out ATVing on Sunday and had to straddle a lot of trees for the winch.
I still haven't heard a story that topped my brothers, he was out hunting and decided to nap under a tree mid-day, he woke up and pulled about 80 ticks off of himself. Don't sleep on their nests!
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This thread creeps me out. And makes me itchy.
I just wonder if the shock of freezing might cause it to regurgitate. I think it would have to be instant (which it looked to be from the video I saw on netflix) I checked at the pharmacy and those wart freezing gadgets are around $30 and they last for (I think it was 7 or 9) "treatments" and each "treatment" involves spraying it 3 times. On the netflix show, the tick was engorged and they did one spray... not only did it freeze the tick, but the tick popped out and went flying around inside the nozzle with the pressure from the gas. It was quite impressive... if this method is reasonably safe, it would be worth every penny.... you could remove 20-30 ticks with one wart freezing gadget.
Everything is a carcinogen these days, especially to commifornia... Anyways, supposedly it isn't easily absorbed by the skin and our body does get rid of it easily, so having it on your clothes in low concentrations (.5% to 1%) and not directly on your skin, I don't imagine will be a huge risk. I guess at the end of the day whats worse and a which has a higher chance, Lymes or Cancer (specifically from the permethrin use)?
FYI, most military, including Canadian and US forces use this to treat all their overseas clothing (which they wear basically 365 days a year) and it is recommended by both the Canadian CDC and travel advisories when traveling outside of Canada.