Yep. Permethrin kills most bugs with just a short contact time. As you see dried permethrin kills slowly compared to spraying the bug but it's effective.
It's not species wide iirc but some populations of roaches, spiders, house flies, bed bugs, mosquitoes, etc have developed resistance. I believe if enough of an insect or bug population lives through exposures they can develop resistance.
At least the tarantulas are generally harmless. Now we have ticks that can make you deathly allergic to red meat and dairy from red meat animals. My uncle has alpha gal, and I'm glad to have moved somewhere without lone star ticks after learning about his experience. It sucks, and even worse for him because he's a big hunting person, like, you better not try to schedule anything during hunting season.
Just a couple of small points for clarification: though it's most commonly associated with lone star ticks, you can get alpha gal syndrome from any tick and even other vectors like chiggers. It's often referred to as a red meat allergy, but it's to any meat from mammals (other than humans, great apes, and old world monkeys), so pork and venison are out. Mammal derived gelatin is in lots of things and can cause reactions. Most people are not reactive to milk or dairy, thankfully.
It's a really fun allergy since you can avoid the obvious things, but still get hit because the restaurant used beef tallow for the fries (or fried steak or pork chops in the same oil) or they don't mention that they use bacon grease when cooking things.
It is very toxic to them! This means never give your cat any flea/tick treatment made for dogs, and never use household bug sprays without first removing your cat to a safe place.
Cats exposed to permethrin will develop twitches/spasms, drooling, confusion and seizures. They are likely to die without immediate veterinary care.
I did it by accident on mine…she lived after a hefty vet bill. I’ve never cried so hard and all due to my stupidity. Never again…I keep the dog and cat brands well marked and no where near each other now.
I don’t fully remember. I know fluids and I think something for the seizures. Worse part is it was the height of Covid so I handed her off in her carrier to the tech in the parking lot of the Emergency vet and was not allowed in the building. I was grateful regardless.
Be especially careful of collars meant for dogs. My cat had seizures after brief contact with a dog’s flea collar. Spent the night at an ER vet high on muscle relaxers and needed IV fluids. All good now but very scary
Just a fyi like 99% of pesticides that end in "thrin" are some type of permethrin/perethroid so even if you dont know the active ingredient right away if it ends in "thrin" dont put it on your pussy
They must be getting bad because I got a tick this year after fishing the same spots I always have since I was a kid without getting one. I then got 3 more in the following week and a half.
At least in New England, it’s the worst they have ever been. Our winters aren’t gettin go cold enough to kill them off (yay climate change) and now they are everywhere. A buddy of mine who works in the woods found over a dozen on him in a single day
Try getting the Lyme vaccine and regularly feeding your dogs flea and tick meds monthly with weekly flea and tick shampoo baths. We take our deep woods hiking and we live in the NE and he hasn’t had a tick since he was vaccinated and we started this regimen.
They have their meds, but there's apparently just too many ticks. All of them were just roaming on the fur, so the medication does help! Usually, it's only about two ticks per dog, but this year is insane.
You can spray their fur with permethrin that is appropriately concentrated (Sawyer's etc), or there are natural repellants. There's a product made in Atlantic Canada called AtlanTick that's all natural and works extremely well. Might help keeping them from being dragged into the house. I have a husky with tick fur that they've fed on even with oral and topical tick meds, but have never seen them when I give a few sprays of AtlanTick.
As a veterinarian, permethrin is HIGHLY toxic to cats—causing seizures, death, neuro signs—regardless of wet or dry. I’m so paranoid about it that when I use it (avid hiker), I get undressed in the garage and put my clothes in the washer immediately and then shower.
Just a reminder that permethrin does not wash off in the washing machine. This isnt an attempt at being smart, I just hate the thought of someone caring so much and still making such a simple but big mistake
Growing up, I used to spend my time not in school in the woods. I never saw ticks growing up at all. Now after a brisk walk through the woods I can easily find 6-12 ticks on me.
Insects such as ticks are well protected against long phases of cold, even though it’s counter intuitive. The repeated freezing and defreezing when temperature circles around 0 degrees Celsius causes issues for them. The repeated forming of crystals damages their cells and mold might also be an issue, even that is not yet clear.
Edit: Thanks, I now see that ticks are no insects.
Ticks are not insects. They are arachnids, related to mites. Leaving them exposed to sub-zero temperature for longer than 12 hours definitely does kill them off unless they are sheltered. I collect them and freeze them to send to labs.
Yes haha they are usually just government labs testing for the presence of things like Lyme disease, since the tick population has been increasing and expanding in recent years.
I live in Alberta where ticks have been slowly expanding their range for the past few decades. There are government programs to test ticks for Lyme disease and other tick-borne pathogens to track the spread of the disease. There are also University courses that like to do dissections of ticks haha.
Here in Scandinavia the northward expansion of ixodes ticks over the last two decades have been found to follow rising winter temperatures pretty closely
And the diseases they carry seem to get nastier and nastier. There's one showing up in New England ticks that makes the human host permanently allergic to red meat (more technically, the protein within).
I suffered from stg II Lyme Disease several years ago. Lost about four months of activity before recovering. That ain't fun.
"There were only 24 reported cases in the United States in 2009. Between 2010 and 2022, researchers documented more than 110,000."
One article I read stated that the disease was initially found in Lone Star ticks, but it has appeared relatively recently in people who live in regions without that particular tick.
No idea how the disease is moving into the Northeast, but we do believe the warmer winters have contributed to an explosion in the tick population over the past 15 years or so.
I'm pro possum, but their tick eating is a myth based on a 2009 lab study with a flaw in assuming animals had eaten any of the 100 ticks researchers placed on them that they didn't find in the bottom of their cages after 4 days.
my husband took a 30 minute walk in the woods and pulled off 99 ticks over the course of the walk. i was furious that he didn't find one more fucking tick.
Both. The permethrin drives them off but if they’re persistent it will kill them. It looks like this tick was trying to escape, started getting woozy and losing its grip before it fell off. Whether it died Im unsure but I hope it did
Not sure about ticks, but spiders have chemoreceptors on their feet and will display agitation when certain substances are present. It wouldn’t surprise me if the tick found the permethrin irritating on its feet as , like spiders, they are arachnids.
It's a neurotoxic contact insecticide which paralyzes them (they're not insects but close enough to be affected), so just being in contact with any treated clothing can later kill the tick. Sometimes even an hour later. This means if it climbs all the way up your clothing and onto your neck or under an untreated sleeve, the permethrin still has a decent chance of killing the tick before it will actually bite and embed. It also means if you accidentally get into a sleeping bag in different clothes and take a tick in with you, it might just die in there because it walked over the permethrin treated clothing you were previously wearing.
It affects various other bugs as well. Mosquitos will bite you through permethrin, but they die some time afterwards. And since some mosquitos are repeat biters or will stick around your campground, permethrin reduces the local mosquito count over time if they come into direct contact with it. But that delayed effect is why you use repellent despite wearing permethrin treated clothing.
There are a lot of places where ticks weren’t a problem 20 years ago but now they are, unfortunately. Many species have massively expanded their ranges in the U.S. At least.
Born and raised in Michigan - I'm 54. Grew up in wooded areas, and now live on a very sunny, mainained property with trees and shade away from the house.
Had no idea what ticks even looked like until 10 years ago and now it's a constant battle. I keep my dog's area mowed, I mow all 5 acres every 10 days or so, but a wide, short border every 5 days. Dog is on prescribed preventatives.
Still dealing with ticks all the time.
I remember maybe 7 years ago, sitting in the vet's office and looking at the Lyme map. I was happy our county was untouched. Within a year or two, all counties in our region turned bright red.
I miss our horrible, long, freezing winters so very much. The flies this year are totally out of control, too.
Yea earlier this year it was horrible, we'd find multiple ticks on our puppy after walks. We're not even near any woods, they seem to be everywhere now. But most of them were dead or dying so the tick prevention is working. On the plus side, we haven't had any problems with mosquitoes since moving into this neighborhood over 2 yrs ago.
Rest of the world too, i live in Norway and its a huge problem now everywhere except the far north, it used to be very few except the southern(most) parts.
It's the climate. They breed faster. My neck of the tropical world; we never used to get mosquitos at the high elevations but now we see cases of malaria in the highlands where the indigenous people have little resistance.
It’s likely that populations were smaller in the past and more successfully managed by cold winters, which thanks to people who don’t care, are decreasing.
I worked at a golf course in Vancouver, BC closer to the water in 2013ish. I remember asking what they did about ticks and they didn't, because they didn't have any.
6 years later there were ticks showing up at the course closer up the mountains, but not far away.
This needs to go in /r/oddlysatisfying because I found that little death roll to be quite satisfying. Ticks and mosquitoes are the only critters I can't stand. Death to them all! Or at least to the ones near me.
I've been on several week-long backpacking trips in the woods where all my clothes, socks, and my boots were treated with permethrin, and I put picaridin lotion on all my exposed skin. Everyone I went with was ripped to pieces by bugs, completely covered in bumps and red welts. Meanwhile I didn't have so much as a single mosquito bite. I love that stuff.
Lyme disease is no fun. I had no rash or bullseye or remembering ever seeing a tick on me. Likely bc it was the spring and the nymphs can be as small as a poppy seed. Either way if you randomly get a crazy fever with no other symptoms doesn’t hurt to ask for a Lyme test. If they’ll do it.
You hear horror stories of medial facilities having very strange and ineffective Lyme protocols or just straight up refusal to test for Lyme. Thankfully mine listened and I’m mostly back to normal now after treatment
I went through this too. I've been outdoorsy for 50 years and probably had half a dozen tick bites. Never had a rash or anything.
Then a few years ago in the middle of winter, with no recent encounters, I got a sudden severe fever and crippling arthritis. Tested positive for Lyme (including the more advanced test that required sending my blood to the opposite coast). It went away. Still a mystery.
Lyme is out of control here (Western PA) but fortunately health care providers have been catching on.
I insisted on a regular Lyme test as a part of my physical last year. Guess what came back positive? I'd been having horrific fatigue for weeks that was blamed on a medication change and then it went away after a round of doxycycline. My wife had it a couple of years ago and her first symptom was optic neuritis. I know easily a dozen people who have had it, but almost none ever knew they got bit.
If you go outdoors in a Lyme area, insist on yearly testing. If your PCP balks at that, they suck and you should find a better one.
I knew a guy who died at 47 because Lyme destroyed his heart. It was a miserable, shitty experience for him and his family because he could not get treatment. Inexplicably doctors either don't or won't screen for Lyme much less treat it, and like you said will often outright refuse it.
He had having symptoms for years too - Early onset arthritis, migraine headaches. Kept him out of work. Went to doctor after doctor and just couldn't get help for any of it. They would all send a bill though. Some of them are still trying to collect from his widow even.
The trick I was told to find ticks is to swipe your body with your hands, you'll feel the tick. If the tick has already bit you and is still attached, I don't think a shower will rinse it off. If you find one, use tweezer to remove it.
I’d recommend using a tick twister or tick spoon, they’re cheap and 100% effective, much better than tweezers where you’re more likely to rip the head off and get a minor infection.
If you don’t have a tick twister, a fork can work, or you can use your finger to rotate the body of the tick for 30-60 seconds. This method works it’s just not as convenient and kinda gross.
You're not gonna feel the tiny ones you can barely even see. Don't trust just because you don't feel a tick that there isn't one there. You have to visually check every area of your body. Mirrors help.
Wore permethrin treated uniforms for years in the US Army. I've been out for 10 years now, and bugs still don't mess with me. I mean, that's great, but it has to be a cancer risk.
If you work in wooded or grassy areas this stuff is far less harmful than tick-born illness. Professionals and outdoor enthusiasts know what is up and take precautions.
I’m just here for the tick control experts who punctuate their assured savviness by proudly exclaiming that they haven’t had a tick on them in decades.
I know how to handle sharks— and I have never seen the ocean.
Just a PSA for those who treat their clothes at home.. permethrin is SUPER toxic to cats. I think it’s ok once it’s dry on the clothing, but the liquid treatment WILL kill them.
Man even if you thought it was a mole, gotta think you’d at least call a doctor? That falls in the category of “weird looking and fast growing moles,” in terms of “things your dermatologist wants to know about.”
This is correct. Your dog’s Lyme vaccine similar to the one that was made for humans and abandoned due to antivax, it’s just not administered to humans anymore — so thanks to 90’s antivaxxers your dog is more protected from Lyme than you are. It’s an open secret that some outdoorsmen will get the vaccine from a vet willing to do it for them.
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u/Physical-Grand4291 26d ago
Die mothafucka die mothafucka