Woodsball and ticks -- roll call

[mercpb]

My homefield is in north central IL (90min west of Chicago) and is heavily wooded lowlands adjacent to a river. It checks all the environmental boxes for ticks -- yet I've never had or even heard about tick issues in 10+yrs nor have the longtime refs I chat with. Counting my blessings I suppose.

How bout you fellas, where are you at and are they a problem for recball (or general)

https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/about/where-ticks-live.html

[Jackson]

Yes, ticks are everywhere here. Treating clothes with permethrin is key.

[The Hobbit]

I’ve been lucky at TRP with not having to many after a day. I have seen a few though.

[Jackson]

Growing up, we never even had second thoughts about ticks. We would play in the woods and crawl through the underbrush all day, all summer, and I never saw a single tick. Now, I have to have my suburban lawn treated or my kids pick up ticks playing in the backyard grass. I got Lyme disease a few years ago from a tick I picked up in my yard. Luckily I got the bullseye rash and got on antibiotics right away.

[Fossilhead]

Keep cats away from treated gear until completely dry.
Permethrin is highly toxic to cats and aquatic life.

[NONOBLITUS]

Connecticut is famous for Lyme disease and as I work outdoors as a Land Surveyor I’m covered with them daily. They are a huge pain in the ass.

[flyweightnate]

I grew up in upstate NY. One summer in college I got pretty sick, had so many paintball welts there was no way to spot a bullseye rash even if I had one... I was working at a camp in the woods, short staffed with long days, and my boss told me one morning to take the day off and see a doctor. Evidently I looked pretty bad.

Doc put me on doxycycline and I felt better quickly. A few months later, I was back on campus in Atlanta when it came back and the doctors refused to even test for Lyme, let alone diagnose... I literally had to sign a waiver for another round of dox, but felt better by the next morning once I got it. Years later I did a PCR test (insurance wanted to know if it was truly Lyme), came up negative. Probably anaplasmosis, given similar symptoms and treatment response. Lyme is hard enough to catch, and it's only the most common of several options.

So, long story short, permethrin on your clothes (unless you're pregnant), DEET on your socks and wrists and neck, and check thoroughly when you get home. And get drugs ASAP if something feels "off" within a week of a tick bite (or potential tick bite). A lot of tick-borne illnesses are very hard to test for and can get out of hand quickly if not nipped in the bud.

[Ecapnation]

Its all about base layers.

I wear full leg and arm nike or under armour sport gear. Wear socks over the ankles and a bit of bug repellent and I have no tick issues forever.

https://www.nike.com/t/pro-mens-dri-...Vn9/FB7952-010

[Glovebox Operator]

I love the desert for it's lack of nasty little bitey bugs like those.

[JohnB]

I grew up in Pa , so dealt with tics. Now in AZ, don’t have to deal with those. We usually just walk the field for snakes early. Then monitor for heat exhaustion.

[boomersruckus]

Good buddy was a ref at a local field near Baltimore, picked up a few ticks and got Alpha Gal. Its been years and he is still suffering. We love him to death and eat all kinds of red meat in front of him....often.... and really relish in it.

[flyweightnate]

If that happened to me, I might just write my will then go out for barbecue

[Olsson]

Between paintball and my service in the Swedish Armed Forces, I have spent my fair share of time crawling around in the bush, quite literally. To this day I have had two ticks;

The first when I was six years old, after playing with friends in an apartment block in a minor city.

The second a couple of years ago. It was wintertime, I was living in the center of Gothenburg and hadn't even stepped off the pavement for months. Imagine my surprise when I out of the blue find a tick firmly stuck dead center at my sternum...


As for actually getting a tick while being outdoors in a wooded area - nah, it seems rather unlikely. Quite obviously the sneaky buggers prefer to wait until you have been indoors for a prolonged period of time and let your guard down.

[uv_halo]

Tics are all over my region, and high humidity in the summer so you could feel pretty nasty in a short amount of time. In around 2005, I discovered Under Armour heat compression gear (long sleeve top, leggins, and a skull cap). It was amazing for wicking the sweat off me so that even on the highest humidity hot days, I would feel alright. I realized that a Tick might be able to bite through the clothing so, I asked UAs customer service about it and they never responded. Then I discovered Permethrin and I immediately thought- treat the Under Armour (and my boot socks). That just leaves a few bits unprotected, which I treat with picaridin. I've been doing it that way ever since and, I've never found a tic on me.

[DBrazXeno]

I don’t know what part of VA you live in, but my area has a ton of cases of Alpha Gal. Where you develop an allergy to red meat. It is so bad our local hospital has meals free of any red meat derived products for patients.

[The Hobbit]

Shit, I hadn’t realized alpha gal had crept that far north. Thought it was still primarily Deep South and southwest states. Guess I’ll start hearing about it in PA within a year or two.

[uv_halo]

Yeah, I suspect a fair number of folks aren't paying as much attention ash they should.

[Heavy_D]

I'll try to remember the ticks dying when its just shy of -40c here in winter... there are some moose ticks here in spring/summer/fall and in the grasslands in the very south, but I have thankfully never encountered one in my 38 years so far 🤞

[Kit352]

I've had 3 stuck on me good this year alone. One was and is a worry weeks later. But I have lyme anyway so I'm not how much more harm it can do

[homerj]

Central Mississippi. While the field i play at is mostly a “woodsbsll” field, it mostly consists of bunkers, buildings, etc set up among trees & ravines. Most of the undergrowth has been cleared away. I’ve only ever found 1 or 2 ticks on me in the 20+ years I’ve played at the various incarnations of the field.

[Daltech]

I’ve seen ticks 3 times. Once when I was 11 bush whacking off trail around water reservoirs, bit back of head in my hair. Second time when I was 30 hiking in Sonoma wine country, forget where on my body, on 1 hour, but I could see it and promptly removed with a credit card V cut. 3rd time I took dogs on a fire road near horses and holy hell, these 10 pound dogs had 10-20 horse ticks smothered all over them. The joke was on the ticks though. We called the vet and vet just just pull them off as they die from the tick medicine. Muahahahaha. They all fell off dead. Some in my bed, some on the couch.

[Brandon]

Ticks are really bad this year, every time I bring my Pup in from a walk, she's got at last one, usually more. Hopefully as it gets warmer out and I start cutting the grass they will stay out of the yard. They don't like hot ground so keeping the grass to between 3 and 4 inches is ideal. But in the woods their unavoidable. My wife sprays our hiking/outdoor cloths and shoes with Sawyer Permethrin Insect Repellent for Clothing and Gear and that seems to keep the little bastards at bay.

I live in Upstate NY, on 21 acres with a ton of wildlife coming though, dragging the ticks with them.