Wednesday night, I had a terrible itch on the outer edge of my right hip. In scratching on the outside of my sweatpants, I thought I felt something there. I reached down to the skin, and definitely felt something moveable. Surely a skin tag wouldn't itch... I pulled on it, and a TICK came off in my fingertips! I squooshed it between my thumb fingernails, and ran it down the drain while washing my hands.
HOW IN THE NOT-HEAVEN DID I GET A TICK???
This question comes up every summer. I don't walk in the grass. I go from Mansion to garage, on the wooden porch and concrete garage floor. I pet the dogs. It's not like we snuggle in bed together. They stand on the porch, and I pat them on the head or shoulders. You'd think I'd notice a tick walking up my arm. Even if I didn't feel it, I would see it as I washed my hands upon entering the Mansion.
I don't pet the dogs with my hip. I don't sit in Farmer H's recliner. I don't sit on the long couch where he sometimes rests his rumpus, or eats his supper. When I took my shower at 3:00, there was nothing clinging to my hip. I put on town clothes. Then changed back into my sweatpants and button-up shirt and zippered fleece sweatshirt when I got back home.
Farmer H said he's only had ONE tick this year. So we're tied! That should not happen. He's outside all the time, walking to Shackytown Boulevard. Or riding the lawnmower to mow our extensive acreage.
I can only surmise that Farmer H somehow unleashed a tick in the bed, and it got on me when I took my nap before showering, and hid in my sweatpants until I put them back on upon return home.
That's for lack of a better scenario. Though I am open to suggestions.
4 comments:
I have no suggestions at all. I have never even seen a tick, don't know what they look like. I have seen fleas, are they similar?
River,
Sweet Gummi Mary! You are so lucky never to have seen a tick! It's a dark-brown disc with a hard outer skin, and tiny legs and a tiny head that burrows into the skin, releasing an anticoagulant that assists it with sucking the blood of its "host," causing severe itching. It is very hard to pluck them off.
The size varies, from barely visible "seed ticks," to the large bloated version you might find on a dog. They can carry Lyme Disease, or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I think the ones around here are called "deer ticks." They access their victims by waiting on blades of grass or weeds, until the person or animal brushes against them. They are basically harmless 99 percent of the time, except for the severe itch and the horror of finding one attached!
Fleas are tiny jumping critters that usually bite in a pattern of threes. Also unpleasant, very itchy, but don't attach to your body. They are free to bite again. If they get into your house, you have to set off a flea bomb of insecticide to get rid of them.
The tick you killed was Hick's highly trained trick tick! He raised the tick from a mere speck and trained it to jump on YOU!
Kathy,
The celebrated jumping tick of Hillmomba County!
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