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Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

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Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#141

Post by macintux »

WarmWash wrote: post #133
Y-bar wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it really more complicated in the laundry? Most of my linen can do 60C washing cycle (”hot” I think it is called in USA) which is pretty much ”throw it in there with similar colours and forget about it” territory. The wrinkles are a bit of the charm I think, might be easier to accept if you make it part of the fashion instead of fighting it.

Just a tip, most modern laundry detergents are formulated to handle washing with cold water to save you from having to use (expensive) hot water in a wash. I have been washing for years now with tap cold water since learning that and it seems to work fine, even in winter.

I joked on Twitter 10-15 years ago that my dream use case for AR would be to easily identify wash temperature for my clothes as I prepare for laundry.

A friend replied with the news that cold would work for just about everything, and I haven’t used warm or hot water since then (maybe once with some really dirty jeans and towels). Such a great hack.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#142

Post by Y-bar »

WarmWash wrote: post #133
Y-bar wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it really more complicated in the laundry? Most of my linen can do 60C washing cycle (”hot” I think it is called in USA) which is pretty much ”throw it in there with similar colours and forget about it” territory. The wrinkles are a bit of the charm I think, might be easier to accept if you make it part of the fashion instead of fighting it.

Just a tip, most modern laundry detergents are formulated to handle washing with cold water to save you from having to use (expensive) hot water in a wash. I have been washing for years now with tap cold water since learning that and it seems to work fine, even in winter.

I mostly wash in 35C (expect underwear), so yes I do that. The high temp was to illustrate that linen is one of the easiest garments to wash because you never have to worry about accidentally throwing it into a batch of very dirty clothes and having it come out changed.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#143

Post by e40 »

goda90 wrote: post #136
danubis wrote: post #120

Really the best is to check for ticks and weird bruises with a partner every so often. Got Lyme disease from a tick years ago and it was very visible -> a spreading red bruise with a white middle (it get bigger and looks like it's not healing) When spotted some antibiotics did their jobs in two weeks if I remember correctly. I should check the other diseases' visual clues too.

Not every case of Lyme disease has said bruise, and there's other tick borne diseases that ticks pass to you faster post-bite and are harder to treat than early onset Lyme disease is. The best is to never get bitten at all.

I’ve know people that took a very long time to beat Lyme, through multiple rounds of antibiotics. Avoidance is very much the best path.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#144

Post by DANmode »

bregma wrote: post #127
DANmode wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Lyme” colloquially covers half a dozen to a dozen different bacterial infections.

"Lymne" refers to an infection by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacteria closely related to syphillis. There are plenty of other tick-borne diseases (including localized staph infections at bite sites that can lead to necrotizing fasciitis) Just like with syphillis, there is a cheap and simple cure that is more effective than any known vaccine. If it's caught in time. Prevention is even cheaper. The standard…

> Lymne" refers to an infection by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi

There are also common coinfections which are grouped under the same name, despite being unique.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#145

Post by WhompingWindows »

ravetcofx wrote: post #102
gcanyon wrote: post #80

Seems likely that ticks should go in the same category as mosquitoes -- how long until we use gene-drive tech to completely eradicate them?

At what cost to the larger ecosystem. They are the base of a larger food web. Many creatures rely on eating them

Do you eat meat? Do you use a car and create carbon emissions? That's destroying ecosystems all around the world, and yet here we are doing nothing about it. Ticks aren't even the base of the pyramid, as others have stated, they're one of many choices for those creatures. Can you name a single creature who relies solely on disease-carrying ticks for food?

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#146

Post by sojournerc »

estearum wrote: post #81
sojournerc wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have dog ticks at 8000 feet in Colorado, not sure how much altitude affects them.

I think temperature is the relevant variable

It still gets cold in the winter (negative 15-20 degrees F) where I am, and even though we had a relatively mild winter, ticks are about the same.

There's a tendency today to attribute everything to climate change, but it should be backed by actual data. It's a sort of attribution bias that to me just feels lazy.

There could be a lot of reasons why ticks might spread. I have lived here 10 years, and haven't noticed an increase or decrease in ticks year over year. Just my anecdata.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#147

Post by goopthink »

xattt wrote: post #89
topgrain2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linen clothes are awesome. Long trousers and long sleeves and almost as cool as short sleeves and shorts in shade, and cooler in direct sun.

Tell me your linen ironing tricks. I have a linen shirt that I dread wearing because of the effort that goes into getting it wrinkle free after every wash.

Steam, not iron.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#148

Post by estearum »

sojournerc wrote: post #146
estearum wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think temperature is the relevant variable

It still gets cold in the winter (negative 15-20 degrees F) where I am, and even though we had a relatively mild winter, ticks are about the same. There's a tendency today to attribute everything to climate change, but it should be backed by actual data. It's a sort of attribution bias that to me just feels lazy. There could be a lot of reasons why ticks might spread. I have lived here 10 years, and haven't noticed a…

... is this a serious comment?

> explanations should be backed by data, it's lazy otherwise

> I personally haven't noticed an increase

The relationship between temperature, wetness/humidity, and tick range is extremely well-understood. Altitude is not a relevant variable compared to and controlling for temperature and humidity.

We know under what conditions different tick specie thrive versus die, and we know that as the years go on, there are far more areas under "tick-thriving" conditions for far longer periods, at least for the disease-carrying tick specie that we tend to care about.

No one mentioned anything about climate change except you, reflexively and defensively, for some odd reason.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#149

Post by DannyBee »

DivingForGold wrote: post #60

Don't know which is worse - - contracting Lyme disease, or Parkinson's disease from Permethrin and other pesticide exposure: https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2009/09/occupatio... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27756609/

That's easy - lyme disease. If you read the studies you linked, it even shows this very clearly.

The first study is talking about constant occupational exposure. By people not wearing basic PPE, over the course of many many years. It's like taking a shower in permethrin every day for 30 minutes. You can pretty much substitute lots of every day things that get absorbed by skin for "permethrin" here and it would cause some very serious symptoms.

The second study used 34mg/kg of permethrin. That is an insane amount, and one that you could not even likely get without intentional ingestion of concentrated powder form.

If you weight 150lbs, that is 2300mg. So a huge horse sized pill of permethrin, every day, will cause issues.

Shocking.

2300mg a day of most substances will cause issues.

Hell, 2300mg a day of most things will cause serious issues faster than permethrin

2300mg of vitamin b3 would destroy your liver very quickly (weeks/months).

2300mg of vitamin b6 would cause permanent nerve damage very quickly (weeks/months)

etc

The reason we don't classify all pesticides as equally dangerous is because they are not all equally dangerous.

Lumping them all together and painting them with a single brush is as unhelpful here as it is when it is done in any other context.

Permethrin is just a synthetic version of pyrethrin, which is extracted from chrysanthemums.

It is probably one of the least harmful substances you will ever be around.

Lyme disease is easily a much greater threat to people than exposure to permethrin and derivatives while hiking.

The exposure to wood dust and other small particles from disturbing the wood chips is probably a greater threat than the permethrin.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#150

Post by mbac32768 »

ravetcofx wrote: post #102
gcanyon wrote: post #80

Seems likely that ticks should go in the same category as mosquitoes -- how long until we use gene-drive tech to completely eradicate them?

At what cost to the larger ecosystem. They are the base of a larger food web. Many creatures rely on eating them

My child almost died from a tick. Other children do die.

I would gladly kill every tick on Earth and whatever relies on eating them so no human has to lose a kid to this again.

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