What are you doing today?

[MattW]

If only my bows had a red LED light that came on when they were about to fail. It would save me some explosions.

Perhaps there is a business idea there for you?? I managed to fix with with a torch, a screwdriver and a magnifying glass. One of the pins was bent

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Perhaps there is a business idea there for you?? I managed to fix with with a torch, a screwdriver and a magnifying glass. One of the pins was bent

As long as you aren't getting fixed with torches and pitchforks. (Always a slight worry for me when directing a concert)

 

[anewbie]

Perhaps there is a business idea there for you?? I managed to fix with with a torch, a screwdriver and a magnifying glass. One of the pins was bent

I usually use a tweezer rather than a torch

 

[Oldspartan]

First tick of the year today. Walked through some brush in the outback. When I got home discovered a tick on my leg. It had not embedded although it had begun too. No harm but time to get the formula out this weekend.

 

[lottabubbles]

First tick of the year today. Walked through some brush in the outback. When I got home discovered a tick on my leg. It had not embedded although it had begun too. No harm but time to get the formula out this weekend.

last tick I had I got sick and the emergency room charged medicare $4,700

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I’ve heard that opossums eat ticks like candy. We don’t have any possums here. Plenty of ticks. I’ve only been bitten a couple times and have managed to avoid spotted fever and the more recent Lyme disease.

But those seemingly worthless hairs all over our legs and arms? I have come to think that they are an adaptation to help us detect ticks before they latch on. I don’t know how many times I’ve brushed one off when I felt it crawling up my leg.

Idea for a government funded study: Do ladies who shave their legs get more tick bites?

 

[Oldspartan]

I am proactive about tick rejection BUT only partially successful. One problem we are unable to lick is Buster and Precious dogs bringing them into the house. The collars they wear very effective at rejecting the ticks before doing the dogs harm, BUT, they still sometimes bring them into the house before they are repelled by the drug. This happens when we let them run free in the wooded area which they love to do. Despite heroic efforts to find ticks after these adventures we still find them on their beds or furniture. Kept in their fenced yard there is no issue due to thrice annually yard treatments.

Here is the formula I use for those interested. It is not necessarilly healthy to humans and need be applied with care. Life is a tradeoff.

One full can Ortho vegetable dust
One full gallon of Bug B Gone
two cups of Permethrin
Mix well and add water as necessary to make a liquified slurry suitable for spraying (as little as possible).
A lot of cotton
Toilet paper or paper towel cores.

for perimeter protection
----------------------------
Dip cotton into solution and stuff into the cores. Rodents will pick at the cotton and use it for bedding. The ticks they carry will be exterminated. Birds and mammals that attack the rodents will also receive a modicum of treatment, not much but everything helps.

For exterior living areas
----------------------------

Use a sprayer to treat the perimeters early in the spring and again about a month later.
I also use this to spray any area we commonly use in the spring and again in the mid summer.
The fenced dog area gets a third treatment in the early fall.

For clothing used when going into tick infested areas
------------------------------------------------------------

We add 12 ounces of Permethrin to the wash. Do not add laundry detergent, bleach, or softner.
The chemical will remain in the clothing for several weeks without additional treatment but does eventually wash away. If the clothes used are washed without detergents the effect will last much longer.

ALWAYS wear gloves and a mask when handling these chemicals.

 

[Oldspartan]

I’ve heard that opossums eat ticks like candy. We don’t have any possums here. Plenty of ticks. I’ve only been bitten a couple times and have managed to avoid spotted fever and the more recent Lyme disease.

But those seemingly worthless hairs all over our legs and arms? I have come to think that they are an adaptation to help us detect ticks before they latch on. I don’t know how many times I’ve brushed one off when I felt it crawling up my leg.

Idea for a government funded study: Do ladies who shave their legs get more tick bites?

We have lots of possums in our area. We also have plenty of ticks. Apparently far more ticks than the possums can consume. I have been told that chickens are one of the best preventatives. My sister uses them at her place on Marthas Vinyard with success. She free ranges a couple of dozen all summer and has no tick problem in her yard. It is a viable solution for those not minding the chickens running about freely. Aerial predation, (owls and hawks), and coyotes prevents us from doing so successfully. DEC tells us we do not have coyotes in our immediate area but the two I have shot in the past tell a different story.

I am sure there are natural tick predators, they apparently do not live on my land though, with the exception of Linda's bird gardens.

 

[Cisco_Ray]

Building my Acrylic Cylinder tank

 

[anewbie]

I’ve heard that opossums eat ticks like candy. We don’t have any possums here. Plenty of ticks. I’ve only been bitten a couple times and have managed to avoid spotted fever and the more recent Lyme disease.

But those seemingly worthless hairs all over our legs and arms? I have come to think that they are an adaptation to help us detect ticks before they latch on. I don’t know how many times I’ve brushed one off when I felt it crawling up my leg.

Idea for a government funded study: Do ladies who shave their legs get more tick bites?

We have a *lot* of opossums - why don't you come down here and catch a few and take some of those pesty racoons with them.

 

[Lanpenn]

First tick of the year today. Walked through some brush in the outback. When I got home discovered a tick on my leg. It had not embedded although it had begun too. No harm but time to get the formula out this weekend.

During my undergraduate, I lived in a tiny studio room (known in Portuguese as "quitinete") in a Brazilian-town-version of the suburb whose landlord (a very gentle person) had Lyme disease. This disease is extremely rare in Brazil. Fortunately, he is okay. He is also a farmer and produces coffee (Southern Minas is a large coffee producer).

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Just sent my last class home for the day, and now we're on spring break. Spring break is always wonderful (and yes, @GaryE , these breaks are a necessary component of long-term herding hordes of small people all day, every day), but do you know what's extra wonderful about this year? I don't have to be at school on April Fool's Day.

 

[connorlindeman]

Spent a good part of the afternoon polishing the new car. The plan is to flip it after fixing its few issues.

 

[Lanpenn]

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Spent a good part of the afternoon polishing the new car. The plan is to flip it after fixing its few issues.

How beautiful. I always dreamed of buying a car like this. Is the car reliable?

 

[GaryE]

Spent a good part of the afternoon polishing the new car. The plan is to flip it after fixing its few issues.

All you have to do is run it as fast and you can and take a corner while hitting the gravel shoulder with two wheels. That'll flip it. Easy peasy!

I hated April 1 when I taught. The need to act surprised by the most predictable of jokes... kind of like the one I just made.