Ticks are abundant in New England. The risk of Lyme Disease is real.

This is not stopping any of us from attending our beloved Firefly.

So how can we most effectively stem the risk and protect ourselves?

1) Wear long clothing
The less ticks on your skin, the less likely you are to be bitten.

There is much talk in our community about saturating a set of clothes in permethrin to repel ticks. This may be a viable option for you.

You may also consider avoiding fields of tall grass, where ticks like to hang out and wait for you to brush by.

2) Check for ticks daily
It takes approximately 24 hours for a tick to transmit Lyme Disease to you. If you check for and remove ticks daily, you greatly lessen your chances of contracting the disease. Choose a time when you are sober and when the woods are well lit.

The Deer Tick, which is known to carry Lyme, can be small, sized anywhere from a poppy seed to a sesame seed.

3) Removing Ticks

Do not follow your misguided folk remedies.
-Burning a tick does not work frequently nor consistently.
-Suffocating a tick takes too long and, as such, does not necessarily decrease the chances of contracting Lyme.
-Digging a tick out with your dirty camping knife and leaving a giant open wound in your skin while you are unclean in the woods can lead to infection.
-Using tweezers inappropriately can cause the tick to regurgitate its stomach contents into you. (Mmmm! Tick vomit under your flesh - yummy!)

So how the fuck are we supposed to remove a disease-infested tick from transmitting plague?
Follow this method - the CDC knows what's up - http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/removing_a_tick.html

4) Watch for signs and symptoms.

It is unlikely that you will develop symptoms of Lyme while at Firefly.

It takes 3-30 days for a bull's eye rash to appear.
The bull's eye rash is rarely as delineated as it appears in internet pictures, but this is a good example.

Other early symptoms to look out for are fever, chills, and body aches. If you have a fever in the middle of July and were just in the woods, something is wrong - go see your doctor.

Lyme is better treated sooner than later, with less likelihood of complications. Be vigilant.

Later symptoms include joint pain and swelling, later followed by weakness, numbness, and other neurological symptoms.

5) If you or your camp mates do not feel comfortable removing ticks, the Blue Dots will happily do it for you. Come visit us!
However, we DO NOT distribute prophylactic antibiotic treatment. Not only do we not dispense prescription medications, pre-treating disease risk with antibiotics is a risk in itself and is made on a case-by-case basis by your primary care doctor, who knows you well and has the resources to follow up with you.

This message sent with the blood-lusting love of a thousand eight-legged parasites by Firefly's medical team, the Blue Dots.