tick, tick, tick ...

May 20, 2003 3:33 PM

They're ugly. I mean small and really ugly! And they don't do us any favors at all. We can hold each other's hands, and share support. Our fight against them may lead to knowledge in other battles, but I think its time to go on the offensive. Its time to defang the beastie. (Maybe I should have posted this at Warfilter instead?)
posted by Wulfgar! (20 comments total)

There's a coupla New York Times links in there. I hope by now that you know the drill.
posted by Wulfgar! at 3:35 PM on May 20, 2003

TickFilter.
posted by SpaceCadet at 3:37 PM on May 20, 2003

When I was a child I had a huge tick removed from the back of my neck by a doctor wielding a can of Freon, or something like that. One shpritz was all it took.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:41 PM on May 20, 2003

Candle wax. Been there, done that. Nothin' erotic about it.
posted by Wulfgar! at 3:47 PM on May 20, 2003

As a non sequitur: spooooooooooooon!!!!!!
posted by Katemonkey at 3:50 PM on May 20, 2003

We are a hedge.
Move along.
Nothing to see here.
posted by linux at 4:15 PM on May 20, 2003

I grew up in Missouri where these things run amok. There's nothing like the feeling of terror of seeing hundreds of deer ticks making their way up your leg. No matter how furiously you scrape them off, a few slip by and burrow in, usually in the darkest, warmest, softest place they can find.

I'll leave the rest as an exercise to the reader.
posted by zsazsa at 4:17 PM on May 20, 2003

I *heart* Katemonkey.
posted by Salmonberry at 4:34 PM on May 20, 2003

They are ugly. [self link]
posted by Nothing at 5:11 PM on May 20, 2003

Ticks suck.
posted by stbalbach at 5:29 PM on May 20, 2003

posted by scarabic at 5:45 PM on May 20, 2003

Damn you Nothing! I want a digital microscope!
posted by thebabelfish at 5:53 PM on May 20, 2003

i feel a tick in my head
and he's sucking on my head
in the morning i'll be dead
if he doesn't leave my head
why can't he go away
why does he have to stay
maybe he wanna play
but i can only say:

i'll get you
i'll burn you
i'll crush you
i'll flush you, down down
the toilet where you'll spiral, round round:

awwwwwww tick!
mmmmmm, tick, tick, tick!
posted by kjh at 5:53 PM on May 20, 2003

Eww, a sore (or rather paranoid-itchy) subject with me, as only a week ago my wife and I hiked around Yellowwood Lake and brought home 5 deer ticks, & we each had one feasting on us. Given our inclination to go off the beaten path, I'm a little worried about our upcoming move to the wilds of New Hampshire. Do the evil Lyme-infested ones really only range north as far as Brody says ("the Northeast from Maryland to Massachusetts")?
posted by Zurishaddai at 8:45 PM on May 20, 2003

My wife and I were privately engaged...

"honey!...you've got a tick!!" There it was.

A few weeks earlier, I found one burrowed into my inner thigh. It was a dumb tick: it hurt!! The tick had almost excavated a hole deep enough to fit it's little tick body into.

Yick.

Usually I just throw them in the toilet.
posted by troutfishing at 9:11 PM on May 20, 2003

Nice thing about smoking a pipe:

I've been outside, I notice a tick on my calf, I just stick the blade of my pipe tamper in my pipe's bowl of burning tobacco, let it get nice and hot, touch it to the tick. Tick disengages frantically. Put tick in trash, wash hands. Problem solved.
posted by alumshubby at 6:06 AM on May 21, 2003

alumshubby - Nice method. Too bad I can't use it to get ticks off my dog - hey, maybe I could! Hmmm...pipe smoking...
posted by troutfishing at 6:15 AM on May 21, 2003

Of course you can, troutfishing. A la ye olde joke:

How do you make a cat bark?

Pour gasoline on it and light a match --- Woof!

(How do you make a dog meow? Toss it in the freezer, then run it through the bandsaw.... meeeerooooww!)
posted by five fresh fish at 9:45 AM on May 21, 2003

troutfishing, if you can get your dog to smoke a pipe, let me know. (My Siamese cat really likes Latakia tobacco in a carved meerschaum, by the way.)
posted by alumshubby at 11:32 AM on May 21, 2003

insert obligatory image of chipmunk smoking a joint here.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:45 AM on May 21, 2003