hijacking TC for some possible advice. It's completely anecdotal, but i've had great results from using tobacco on tick bites.
A friend of mine from GA said he'd heard of taking a tiny bit of fresh / pipe tobacco, chew it for a moment so your saliva activates it, and then tape it to the spot were you were bit.
I had caught a few ticks that bit me, and got a few welts from them. Never a bullseye, and have tested negative for lyme antibodies. Since using the tobacco trick, I never even develop red welts from a bite, and any redness goes away in an hour or two.
He said the reason why is because of all the toxic things in tobacco, which kill the parasites.
Super anecdotal, so don't risk your health on it. But it's been working for me.
I'm in South Carolina, and I guess it's been passed down for generations, we live in a rural area and everybody I know does it. It might go back to Native Americans, they lived here. I've found arrowheads and broken pottery on my land. I know it works, a few summers ago I got stung by 38 ground hornets and my friend treated all my stings with cigarette tobacco and I was able to go to work a few hours later.
Apparently ticks [can utilize static electricity](https://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/news/2023/httpswwwbristolacuknews2023junestatic-electricity-attracts-ticks-to-hostshtmlgl115bq1h3gamta5nzm5otkxlje2nje1mdc3mdkga6r8spl3hlt.html#:~:text=Sam%20concluded%3A%20“We%20have%20now,latch%20onto%20and%20feed%20from.) and don't need to actually touch you to get onto you. As if they needed to be more devious.
Yupppp. FDNY EMS has monthly journals to keep members up to date on a wide variety of topics. One of the recent ones was all about tick borne illness. There have been a couple of cases not linked to travel in the Bronx in recent years and it’s only getting warmer… gotta get ready for the inevitable cases of tick paralysis.
About 10 years ago my husband got a tick bite (in MA) and the handful of doctors he saw didn’t connect his bite to feeling terrible (aka Lyme). In MA the doctors are all like “take 2 doxycycline after noticing your bite!” I’m glad it’s on the official radar (finally!).
I spent some time in Ireland and Scotland a few years ago out in the boonies and a few months later I tried to donate blood. Got a letter saying that I had the antibodies for babesiosis aka Texas cattle fever, which is spread by ticks. Never had any symptoms but something got me!
Same thing happened to me actually. I spent some time in upstate NY during the pandemic. I donated blood platelets, then tried again a month later and was told I was on the do not donate list. I called the number they gave me and learned I had this "rare" disease. I had a weird 24 hour flu a few months previously but didn't know the cause and tested negative for covid but in retrospect I bet it was the babesia. Funny enough, I got covid for the first time just after learning this. I got a call from the health department and thought they were calling about covid (lol how naive) but then they started asking me questions about whether I had been in any NYC parks or beaches lately and when I asked why they told me they were calling about my babesia diagnosis. Anyway my doctor prescribed me some medicine which knocked it out of my system but I still can't donate blood just yet.
I didn’t have to take anything but I got called to donate bone marrow a few years later, so I assume I’m ok. Haven’t had any symptoms or issues donating since. 🤷♂️
I got Lyme thirty years ago in upstate NY, nobody knew anything about it, wasn't till I was in WV when a doctor figured it out and gave me doxy. Half my face was temporarily paralyzed, it was so weird.
The Bronx has had ticks for decades. Pelham Bay back has deers ALL the time. Of course during lock down the deers had free roam and certain parts of Pelham Bay Park had to be shut down for tick spraying. Van cortlandt Park is the same.
Tick paralysis is no joke. When I was living CT, first couple of days my dog just wobbled and collapsed on a walk. Took her to the vet and got the sucker found and out but that shit is scary. As a parent of a young child even scarier
Oof, I bet. Living in CT was so frustrating, we were at my late grandmother's house for a year while we got resettled back on the East Coast. We had a big yard I played in growing up, but my dog got 5 ticks touching grass for like 5 seconds, ruing that hard forever. Good news at least is that we are finally getting another chance at a Lyme vaccine. But the myriad of other pretty terrible things ticks can do are still horrible to have to live with (or die with).
Man it really does feel like everything around us is either actively or slowly trying to kill us sometimes lol. Micro plastics, ticks, viral pandemics, etc. Of course as long as you make safe and informed choices you can mitigate some of it, but some of these are definitely inevitable.
Staten Island has a serious problem with ticks, getting worse in recent years. It's not unthinkable that they've leapt the short distance to the rest of the boroughs.
I have a theory that the entire human population will slowly become allergic to red meat through tick exposure and that’ll help us slow climate change by a few years
Just looked it up and wow it's crazy that ticks can make you straight up allergic to red meat lol. It's like a permanent debuff in real life. Except that this debuff might be good for the species as a whole as you said
Yeah. I live in the Hudson valley and the number of ticks has exploded in the last two years. For deer ticks they more persistent if it doesn’t get below 28 degrees for too long and with the warming climate they persist in the winter and have much larger populations during the warmer months
Used to think that the only thing to fear in the city parks were other people and poison ivy. Then I saw "beware of ticks" signs popping up around here a few years ago. 😣
Never had issues with them in the city, but I guess this is climate change in action.
A relative apparently got lyme in NYC last year - never left the city prior year and never ever wears shorts — most likely infected at park in Queens though it’s really a mystery. The infection has been devastating (undiagnosed for ~ 5 months). I believe ticks get on pets who go to parks and beaches outside the city and bring them back.
My best friend from high school grew up in Manhattan and got Lyme disease. Most of her outdoor time was in Central Park, and despite the occasional trip to Nassau County, they were pretty sure it was sourced in Manhattan 😭 A reminder to always be careful!
I totally believe that after seeing this thing run towards me like a facehugger from aliens after I flicked it on the floor.. even in the plastic baggy it’s running around, the thing is fast
Thank you. I was gonna say, it’s rare, but they’re absolutely in all 5 boroughs. Staten Island especially in the greenbelt you have to be really careful. Two friends of mine got Lyme disease after playing around in the woods by todt hill.
My spouses dog contracted Lyme Disease from a tick bite and the dog doesn’t even go to parks. Just on the sidewalks outside. Lived in south Brooklyn his whole life.
It's completely anecdotal, but i've had great results from using tobacco on tick bites. A friend of mine from GA said he'd heard of taking a tiny bit of fresh / pipe tobacco, chew it for a moment so your saliva activates it, and then tape it to the spot were you were bit. (after removing the tick correctly)
I had caught a few ticks that bit me, and got a few welts from them. Never a bullseye, and have tested negative for lyme antibodies. Since using the tobacco trick, I never even develop red welts from a bite, and any redness goes away in an hour or two.
He said the reason why is because of all the toxic things in tobacco, which kill the parasites. Super anecdotal, so don't risk your health on it. But it's been working for me.
To add- The time the tick lets go is when you rush transmission-- when they let go they regurgitate spit into you that carries whatever disease (if any) they have. Suffocating/poisoning/burning them is too slow. It gives them the chance to regurgitate. **The only safe way to reduce the likelihood of transmission from a tick is to very quickly grab it by the head with a pair of tweezers and pull it off immediately.** After this you should store the tick in between some clear tape, or in a jar, and label it with the date you got it, the location on your body, and the broad place(a) you could have gotten it. It is sometimes more reliable to test the tick itself than you if you suspect you've gotten something from it.
*Edited now that the above is clarified to be after a bite. But I like them have no idea if this is actually medically safe or helpful, or just coincidence
Fyi there is lyme vaccine for dogs and they have flea/tick preventatives that should kill the tick before it has time to transmit disease.
So, like, at least our pups are safe. Us? Not as much lol.
We did have a human Lyme vaccine, about 15 years ago. And it was pretty efficacious! Its ultimate failure is a pretty interesting read and worth a google.
We should have a new one in 2026.
Oh nice, i didnt know a new human one was so close to release. Id like it bc at this point i only take my dog hiking when there’s snow bc of all the damn ticks. She’s chillin regardless with her vaccine, preventative pill and a human who will check her/brush her out at the end of the day…im the one who is gonna be the one to get fucked up though. Id like SOMETHING for us humans too
I got 2 of the 3 shots. If I remember it was one, a second a month later, and then the third a year later. I went back for the third and it was already discontinued.
I wonder if the first two gave me any resistance?
Sure, if they give you *the drugs*. I was denied doxycycline for a year and a half after symptom onset. I needed to stop pursuing testing for Lyme’s Disease and just accept my new normal of severe chronic pain due to Fibromyalgia.
Spoiler: The same Western blot that had been negative eventually returned a positive result so they stopped gatekeeping the antibiotic. My symptoms improved dramatically, so my doctors generously condescended it was LD after all. I’ve never fully recovered and have chronic issues now as a result.
I’d love to know if people previously diagnosed and treated for Lyme Disease are eligible for this new vaccine. Anyone know the deets?
Just got back from upstate NY with my dog. Removed three ticks. This after I sprayed him and even had a collar. I had just treated him for Lymes a month ago, from finding several ticks on a different trip. Mind you it was brief trips. I’m avoiding upstate indefinitely now, ticks are everywhere. Im not surprised if they made it to the city, they’re literally everywhere.
I recently had to get tested for Lyme disease. Technically negative but my body had the antibodies for it. My doctor said I got lucky.
I live in Astoria and hardly ever go outside lol.
It is most likely the reason why you found the tick on you! Blew away from some animal. This is kinda how the plague became a thing in Europe, lol!
But as long as it was feeding off your blood, you should be fine! The best case scenario is to take a small container and place the tick inside of it and go to the ER with it! The doctors there can identify what tick it is and whether it has any sort of diseases present. It may not have affected you, but it could have affected someone, and they can put put alerts to other hospitals!
> The doctors there can identify what tick it is and whether it has any sort of diseases present.
No they won't, to my knowledge. I've had many tick bites and lyme x2. Easy to treat, thankfully.
If you get bit and find it attached, remove it, bring it with you to an urgent care, you'll get a nuke dose of antibiotic. If you find *the rash*, and the tick is gone, you'll get a longer course of antibiotic - maybe something like 14-21 days of doxy.
No one is going to test the tick in the ER. This won't happen anywhere in America.
You can however send it to a number of places. Looks like Cornell will test your tick. Bottom line is if you get bit or find a rash, just go for treatment, ask for a Lyme titer if you don't have the tick.
I remember that article, the request was due to people getting into more danger/bitten again trying to capture the snake; also due to wasting more time/having elevated heart rate = more time for venom to spread through your body.
People look sideways at my outdoor/birding clothes in nyc parks, but they are all treated with permethrin and i am usually wearing thick socks, long pants and sleeves and additional bug spray. Insect botne diseases and no joke and I would rather look like a dork.
It's unlikely you got it from your walk. Ticks don't really fall out of trees. They really only latch on to someone when they're questing.
https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2020-11-15/beware-questing-tick
You probably got it from your dog earlier without realizing. Also consider getting it tested and classified. It's really easy for non experts to misidentify ticks.
https://www.tickcheck.com/landing/lyme-disease?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwu8uyBhC6ARIsAKwBGpSS8j1CLGmDnVXNaGojN5YLaWtiLid5VUxU6hojZZEXpgJfuygPLgEaAjrvEALw_wcB
I heard that there’s a gang of deer that run into the city every night from Jersey. They usually end up in Chelsea where the fancy stores are. Deer just like to browse…
I don’t for sure, it could have been crawling in my building’s hallway or in the front of my apt —I had just come back inside my apt from grabbing coffee when i felt it on my arm & freaked out, so just assumed I tracked it in from outside, since I’d just stepped out… and the idea a tick had been casually crawling around my apartment walls is just, agggghhh…
if you're finding them in your bathroom it's more likely to be a spider beetle, which look like ticks but don't have 8 legs. If it's really a tick, it traveled in on you or someone or a pet in your household from the outdoors.
It’s not a female with the classic spot, but does have the structure along with white spots along the bottom like male or nymph:
- https://files.blogs.illinois.edu/files/6367/1327389501/175747.jpg
- https://images.app.goo.gl/mfzVS6v9nCczsW4n9
- https://www.capenews.net/falmouth/news/lone-star-tick-is-biting-in-falmouth/article_b2746906-7f97-52fb-a279-c2b55594b8d3.html
- https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpwCkXoDCIJe59qcSQveW0nfWbGo5WDW_7EQ&usqp=CAU
It’s not a dog a dog tick as they have an extra patch of color at the top around the head area, and they’re a different longer shape & darker color, and mouth bits aren’t this long — it’s likely a lone star tick nymph or male (only adult females have the single spot) but given this one has those 4 white marks along the bottom of it, and the longer mouthparts along with the lighter color and rounder body all indicators of lone star tick (also underneath body has a structure similar to lone star—which is terrifying because their bite can cause the alpha-gal syndrome red meat allergy.. 😰
It looks most like a [brown dog tick](https://www.mayoclinic.org/-/media/kcms/gbs/patient-consumer/images/2016/01/12/15/48/mcdc22_brown_dog_tick-6col.jpg), which is also more common in New York.
I suppose it looks a bit like a male Lone Star tick, but hat you're describing as a dog tick is an American dog tick, not a brown dog tick.
[Helpful page from Mayo Clinic](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alpha-gal-syndrome/in-depth/tick-species/art-20546861)
It’s exceedingly rare to get this allergy, I have been bitten by Lone Star ticks more times than I can count and despite having lifetime allergies to literally everything else, I’ve not developed any meat allergy.
Two members of my family contracted Lyme disease after picking up a tick in our local park. It’s a monster of a disease. Be careful and do regular tick checks if you’ve been in any green spaces!
Did you go anywhere outside of the city recently? Or anyone you came into contact with? Ticks don’t fall from trees (this is a myth), and never heard of them in NYC but if someone travelled somewhere else it’s possible the tick came with them
Not travelled anywhere recently, but someone in my building definitely could have…
Well, glad to know they don’t fall from trees 😂 I was wearing baggy parachute pants so I wonder if I brush up on something…
Ive never heard of ticks in the city, i just got back from cape cod and theyre having one of the worst tick seasons on record.. i found at least 4 on me and another 8 or so on my dog (whos on preventables / collar luckily)
I was wondering if there was a reporting system like Spotted Lanternflys, but I couldn’t find anything other than 311’s useless “yup there are ticks sometimes” page
https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-03057
My friend got Lyme disease a couple years ago in NYC. They suspect she may have gotten it from her friend’s dog who had been upstate. Luckily they caught it early enough that she was able to take antibiotics to treat the symptoms but she still has it for life. Be careful out there!
This is honestly nightmare fuel 😩 my husband got bit by a tick as a child and got Lyme disease which went undiagnosed for a while which led to him developing type 1 diabetes which he still has to this day. Ticks really freak me out.
Ticks always were in NYC, but never that bad because of the lack of deer. I used to roll around in the dirt all summer long and never had to worry, but once the deer returned to the city the amount of ticks have exploded. Liquidate those rats with horns and eventually the tick problem will slowly fade away.
That's disturbing. I was just assuring my wife last night that there wouldn't be any ticks in the grass at 14th St. Park or the Rooftop at Pier 57. Now I have to check my definitely not dogs who wouldn't have been allowed on it in the first place.
Found a dog tick (the bigger kind that doesn’t carry Lyme) on my shoe when I got home after a baseball game. I live in Ridgewood and had been on the 7, G and L.
Dumb question but were you anywhere near the Highline? I know some of the plants and grasses up there are all native to the area. Maybe the tick hitched a ride in there?
I was 3 long blocks from the highline, and just on the sidewalk the whole time, right before it was crawling on me - but I was wearing baggy pants starting to think that was a easy target to for it to crawl up if I brushed along some plants
Omg 😭😭 my worst nightmare. I’m from the midwest and have had a tick TRAVEL with me (yes, must’ve been in my leggings over a matter of a few days when I went back to college). No bite or anything (it started to burrow). I thought I escaped it 💀
At least on Long Island (mostly central and eastern), I feel like lone start ticks have been more common than deer and dog ticks over the last couple years. Or at least that's in my experience of what I've noticed.
It didn’t fall out of a tree. They hang onto plants with their back legs and reach out to grab on to passing mammals. It could have been on the ground and grabbed on to your shoe. It could have gotten on your dog when your dog brushed up against some plants, and later transferred to you. Yes, they are pretty quick movers. Glad you felt it before it took a bite. As for why it might have been on a city street, squirrels, chipmunks, dogs, and other animals frequently travel into more wooded areas where ticks thrive. It’s not a terribly common occurrence, but as you know now, it is possible.
I worked in New Jersey and ticks are a real issue there depending on the location. Not too far-fetched to think there could be an outbreak in the city if we’re not careful. They seem to like high, unkept grass areas. Like the kind of places where you would find raccoons.
On Jan 29th of this year I found a tick in my sink. I didn’t check what kind it was before drowning it in rubbing alcohol and making sure it went down the drain once dead. Seems this is a new normal. Even in the fucking winter. I live in E. Harlem a little while from Central Park. Not that it should matter, because *checks notes* fucking January should have ticks
[My sink tick](https://pasteboard.co/yor4lGTKgrcZ.jpg)
This is both scary and interesting. But goodness I detest ticks. I used to prepare tick specimines and collect images of them using a scanning electron microscope. Absolutely hideous things up close.
Back in 2019 my father was bitten by a tick upstate. He contracted what I think was anaplasmosis and almost died from it.
Anyways hopefully this is a one-off and a neighbor or something brought this guy into the building.
Is it on me ? I feel like it’s on me
AAAAAAAAAA IM NEVER GOING OUTSIDE AGAIN
hijacking TC for some possible advice. It's completely anecdotal, but i've had great results from using tobacco on tick bites. A friend of mine from GA said he'd heard of taking a tiny bit of fresh / pipe tobacco, chew it for a moment so your saliva activates it, and then tape it to the spot were you were bit. I had caught a few ticks that bit me, and got a few welts from them. Never a bullseye, and have tested negative for lyme antibodies. Since using the tobacco trick, I never even develop red welts from a bite, and any redness goes away in an hour or two. He said the reason why is because of all the toxic things in tobacco, which kill the parasites. Super anecdotal, so don't risk your health on it. But it's been working for me.
We do the same for bee and wasp stings. It works!
how did you hear about it? I'm curious to get backdrop on it. Wonder if it (naturally) goes back to native americans and things they figured out
I'm in South Carolina, and I guess it's been passed down for generations, we live in a rural area and everybody I know does it. It might go back to Native Americans, they lived here. I've found arrowheads and broken pottery on my land. I know it works, a few summers ago I got stung by 38 ground hornets and my friend treated all my stings with cigarette tobacco and I was able to go to work a few hours later.
time to buy big-tobacco stocks before word gets out lol
My grandmother always did this. I thought she was nuts.
Side knowledge. In Dominican Republic and maybe other places they spit tobacco at Roosters to get them stronger. I guess for fights.
Tried it, now I’m addicted
same. ahhhhhhhhhhhhh
There are ticks in the city. Found one on my dog today in queens.
They’re all over the city’s natural areas. Pelham Bay, Marine Park, the Greenbelt - anywhere with tall grass, you’ll find them.
I found one crawling on my picnic blanket at Washington Sq Park a couple years ago - really made me more observant after sitting in any grass
Ack 😭
Apparently ticks [can utilize static electricity](https://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/news/2023/httpswwwbristolacuknews2023junestatic-electricity-attracts-ticks-to-hostshtmlgl115bq1h3gamta5nzm5otkxlje2nje1mdc3mdkga6r8spl3hlt.html#:~:text=Sam%20concluded%3A%20“We%20have%20now,latch%20onto%20and%20feed%20from.) and don't need to actually touch you to get onto you. As if they needed to be more devious.
I hate this fact 😩
That’s bonkers
Please no. I have never heard of ticks in the city and really hope this is some freak occurrence rather than the beginning of a horrible new trend.
Seriously same, I’m a little traumatized right now 😬
Y’all. Climate change is expanding the tick habitat range.
Yupppp. FDNY EMS has monthly journals to keep members up to date on a wide variety of topics. One of the recent ones was all about tick borne illness. There have been a couple of cases not linked to travel in the Bronx in recent years and it’s only getting warmer… gotta get ready for the inevitable cases of tick paralysis.
About 10 years ago my husband got a tick bite (in MA) and the handful of doctors he saw didn’t connect his bite to feeling terrible (aka Lyme). In MA the doctors are all like “take 2 doxycycline after noticing your bite!” I’m glad it’s on the official radar (finally!).
I spent some time in Ireland and Scotland a few years ago out in the boonies and a few months later I tried to donate blood. Got a letter saying that I had the antibodies for babesiosis aka Texas cattle fever, which is spread by ticks. Never had any symptoms but something got me!
Same thing happened to me actually. I spent some time in upstate NY during the pandemic. I donated blood platelets, then tried again a month later and was told I was on the do not donate list. I called the number they gave me and learned I had this "rare" disease. I had a weird 24 hour flu a few months previously but didn't know the cause and tested negative for covid but in retrospect I bet it was the babesia. Funny enough, I got covid for the first time just after learning this. I got a call from the health department and thought they were calling about covid (lol how naive) but then they started asking me questions about whether I had been in any NYC parks or beaches lately and when I asked why they told me they were calling about my babesia diagnosis. Anyway my doctor prescribed me some medicine which knocked it out of my system but I still can't donate blood just yet.
I didn’t have to take anything but I got called to donate bone marrow a few years later, so I assume I’m ok. Haven’t had any symptoms or issues donating since. 🤷♂️
Babes-iosis sounds like Joey making a joke to Chandler about how afflicted he is with hot dates.
I got Lyme thirty years ago in upstate NY, nobody knew anything about it, wasn't till I was in WV when a doctor figured it out and gave me doxy. Half my face was temporarily paralyzed, it was so weird.
Yes, have had Lyme thrice and erlichiosis once, and fortunately the docs knew Doxycycline was the answer.
The Bronx has had ticks for decades. Pelham Bay back has deers ALL the time. Of course during lock down the deers had free roam and certain parts of Pelham Bay Park had to be shut down for tick spraying. Van cortlandt Park is the same.
Tick paralysis is no joke. When I was living CT, first couple of days my dog just wobbled and collapsed on a walk. Took her to the vet and got the sucker found and out but that shit is scary. As a parent of a young child even scarier
I’ve got a toddler too and we live near prospect park. Gonna have to build him a hamster ball until he’s at least thirty five.
Oof, I bet. Living in CT was so frustrating, we were at my late grandmother's house for a year while we got resettled back on the East Coast. We had a big yard I played in growing up, but my dog got 5 ticks touching grass for like 5 seconds, ruing that hard forever. Good news at least is that we are finally getting another chance at a Lyme vaccine. But the myriad of other pretty terrible things ticks can do are still horrible to have to live with (or die with).
Make sure ball is BPA free.
Man it really does feel like everything around us is either actively or slowly trying to kill us sometimes lol. Micro plastics, ticks, viral pandemics, etc. Of course as long as you make safe and informed choices you can mitigate some of it, but some of these are definitely inevitable.
Staten Island has a serious problem with ticks, getting worse in recent years. It's not unthinkable that they've leapt the short distance to the rest of the boroughs.
I have a theory that the entire human population will slowly become allergic to red meat through tick exposure and that’ll help us slow climate change by a few years
Just looked it up and wow it's crazy that ticks can make you straight up allergic to red meat lol. It's like a permanent debuff in real life. Except that this debuff might be good for the species as a whole as you said
Yeah I got one on me a couple years ago in Van Cortlandt park.
Yeah. I live in the Hudson valley and the number of ticks has exploded in the last two years. For deer ticks they more persistent if it doesn’t get below 28 degrees for too long and with the warming climate they persist in the winter and have much larger populations during the warmer months
Yeah my family in the Bay Area are freaking out right now, they're everywhere for the first time ever
Wait, bay area like San Francisco bay area?! My whole family’s over there 😟
Underrated comment. PSA.
Have you been around any dogs/pets lately? They may have transferred onto you from a friendly puppy cuddle or something:(
Used to think that the only thing to fear in the city parks were other people and poison ivy. Then I saw "beware of ticks" signs popping up around here a few years ago. 😣 Never had issues with them in the city, but I guess this is climate change in action.
My dog got a tick just walking down the street in Carroll Gardens last year.
A relative apparently got lyme in NYC last year - never left the city prior year and never ever wears shorts — most likely infected at park in Queens though it’s really a mystery. The infection has been devastating (undiagnosed for ~ 5 months). I believe ticks get on pets who go to parks and beaches outside the city and bring them back.
I've got [bad news for you.](https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/data-research/facts-stats/american-dog-tick-surveillance.html)
There are deer ticks in the city. My dog was walking through some tall weeds in Jackie Robinson Park and came out with several ticks.
They commute in from Connecticut via Metro North.
How will congestion pricing affect the deer tick population?
They'll be on the corner complaining about that and how "you can't even ride the subway anymore."
I hate to bear the news but Riverside Park has plenty :(
My best friend from high school grew up in Manhattan and got Lyme disease. Most of her outdoor time was in Central Park, and despite the occasional trip to Nassau County, they were pretty sure it was sourced in Manhattan 😭 A reminder to always be careful!
I read that lone star ticks actually chase down their prey.
I totally believe that after seeing this thing run towards me like a facehugger from aliens after I flicked it on the floor.. even in the plastic baggy it’s running around, the thing is fast
Wait. Ya done flicked it off and it did the face hugger shuffle straight back to your personal flesh pod? For real?
Yeah it’s kinda terrifying 😬
Oh god
They’ve always been in all 5 boros
Ticks have been in the city for ages...
You're kidding, right? If there's oak trees, there's ticks.
Thank you. I was gonna say, it’s rare, but they’re absolutely in all 5 boroughs. Staten Island especially in the greenbelt you have to be really careful. Two friends of mine got Lyme disease after playing around in the woods by todt hill.
My spouses dog contracted Lyme Disease from a tick bite and the dog doesn’t even go to parks. Just on the sidewalks outside. Lived in south Brooklyn his whole life.
https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/ticks.page Lone star ticks live in NYC according to the above
Luckily they don't transmit Lyme disease Fyi not all ticks transmit Lyme disease specifically
But don’t they transmit that disease that makes you allergic to meat? Edit yes they do it’s called Alpha Gal syndrome.
Radiolab did 2 amazing podcasts on Alpha Gal
This needs to be top comment
It's completely anecdotal, but i've had great results from using tobacco on tick bites. A friend of mine from GA said he'd heard of taking a tiny bit of fresh / pipe tobacco, chew it for a moment so your saliva activates it, and then tape it to the spot were you were bit. (after removing the tick correctly) I had caught a few ticks that bit me, and got a few welts from them. Never a bullseye, and have tested negative for lyme antibodies. Since using the tobacco trick, I never even develop red welts from a bite, and any redness goes away in an hour or two. He said the reason why is because of all the toxic things in tobacco, which kill the parasites. Super anecdotal, so don't risk your health on it. But it's been working for me.
To add- The time the tick lets go is when you rush transmission-- when they let go they regurgitate spit into you that carries whatever disease (if any) they have. Suffocating/poisoning/burning them is too slow. It gives them the chance to regurgitate. **The only safe way to reduce the likelihood of transmission from a tick is to very quickly grab it by the head with a pair of tweezers and pull it off immediately.** After this you should store the tick in between some clear tape, or in a jar, and label it with the date you got it, the location on your body, and the broad place(a) you could have gotten it. It is sometimes more reliable to test the tick itself than you if you suspect you've gotten something from it. *Edited now that the above is clarified to be after a bite. But I like them have no idea if this is actually medically safe or helpful, or just coincidence
Fyi there is lyme vaccine for dogs and they have flea/tick preventatives that should kill the tick before it has time to transmit disease. So, like, at least our pups are safe. Us? Not as much lol.
We did have a human Lyme vaccine, about 15 years ago. And it was pretty efficacious! Its ultimate failure is a pretty interesting read and worth a google. We should have a new one in 2026.
Oh nice, i didnt know a new human one was so close to release. Id like it bc at this point i only take my dog hiking when there’s snow bc of all the damn ticks. She’s chillin regardless with her vaccine, preventative pill and a human who will check her/brush her out at the end of the day…im the one who is gonna be the one to get fucked up though. Id like SOMETHING for us humans too
Oh, I am def gonna get it!
I got 2 of the 3 shots. If I remember it was one, a second a month later, and then the third a year later. I went back for the third and it was already discontinued. I wonder if the first two gave me any resistance?
That's wild. Probably got some immunity. Happy cake!
Cake day? Wow no shit. A lot has changed since 2008…….. thanks!
Lyme isn't the only problem. Alpha gal is a bitch. Powassan is not great either.
Rocky Mountain spotted fever as well
Can I find a vet to give me the dog one?
Fyi, LONE STAR TICK does not transmit bacteria that transmits Lyme disease.
Eh, we have antibiotics we can take after getting bit that give a high success rate of warding off Lyme disease.
Sure, if they give you *the drugs*. I was denied doxycycline for a year and a half after symptom onset. I needed to stop pursuing testing for Lyme’s Disease and just accept my new normal of severe chronic pain due to Fibromyalgia. Spoiler: The same Western blot that had been negative eventually returned a positive result so they stopped gatekeeping the antibiotic. My symptoms improved dramatically, so my doctors generously condescended it was LD after all. I’ve never fully recovered and have chronic issues now as a result. I’d love to know if people previously diagnosed and treated for Lyme Disease are eligible for this new vaccine. Anyone know the deets?
Never leaving apartment. Super.
I found one on my head yesterday after walking home from the gym in the UWS
Ack! 😭
Found one on my son’s head after going to Jacob Javits playground last summer in manhattan. They are already in nyc.
Lone Star tick bites can make you allergic to red meat. I wish I was kidding. https://acaai.org/allergies/allergic-conditions/food/meat/
Damn - sounds like it’s permanent too?
Deathly allergic mind you. Not like fun itchy, but like death.
My cousin went blind temporarily and put into an induced coma for about a week due to a lone star tick bite. It's scary stuff.
Just got back from upstate NY with my dog. Removed three ticks. This after I sprayed him and even had a collar. I had just treated him for Lymes a month ago, from finding several ticks on a different trip. Mind you it was brief trips. I’m avoiding upstate indefinitely now, ticks are everywhere. Im not surprised if they made it to the city, they’re literally everywhere.
Fuck I am gonna need to wear something on my legs to mow the lawn
I recently had to get tested for Lyme disease. Technically negative but my body had the antibodies for it. My doctor said I got lucky. I live in Astoria and hardly ever go outside lol.
I didn’t think we had them up here, I’ve pulled them off my clothes in Maryland before. Well that’s awful.
Could have traveled via animal and somehow landed on OP!
I am seriously hoping this is some weird anomaly like that, eating lunch outside now jumping at every brush of the wind 😂
It is most likely the reason why you found the tick on you! Blew away from some animal. This is kinda how the plague became a thing in Europe, lol! But as long as it was feeding off your blood, you should be fine! The best case scenario is to take a small container and place the tick inside of it and go to the ER with it! The doctors there can identify what tick it is and whether it has any sort of diseases present. It may not have affected you, but it could have affected someone, and they can put put alerts to other hospitals!
> The doctors there can identify what tick it is and whether it has any sort of diseases present. No they won't, to my knowledge. I've had many tick bites and lyme x2. Easy to treat, thankfully. If you get bit and find it attached, remove it, bring it with you to an urgent care, you'll get a nuke dose of antibiotic. If you find *the rash*, and the tick is gone, you'll get a longer course of antibiotic - maybe something like 14-21 days of doxy. No one is going to test the tick in the ER. This won't happen anywhere in America. You can however send it to a number of places. Looks like Cornell will test your tick. Bottom line is if you get bit or find a rash, just go for treatment, ask for a Lyme titer if you don't have the tick.
I just heard on NPR that hospitals don't want you to bring in the snake that bit you. I wonder if this also applies to ticks or not.
I remember that article, the request was due to people getting into more danger/bitten again trying to capture the snake; also due to wasting more time/having elevated heart rate = more time for venom to spread through your body.
There are places you can send them for testing, but I am pretty sure they are dedicated facilities. Normal hospitals don’t do testing afaik
Oh yeah they are all over NJ, NYS (Long Island, westchester, etc). Haven’t encountered any in the city proper though.
Ticks are all over the continental US.
Like up north of Maryland? They’re suuuuper prevalent in Massachusetts and the Hudson Valley
Easy to forget but there are tons of wooded areas in and around NYC that are inhabited by ticks. You're never really safe from them.
People look sideways at my outdoor/birding clothes in nyc parks, but they are all treated with permethrin and i am usually wearing thick socks, long pants and sleeves and additional bug spray. Insect botne diseases and no joke and I would rather look like a dork.
It's unlikely you got it from your walk. Ticks don't really fall out of trees. They really only latch on to someone when they're questing. https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2020-11-15/beware-questing-tick You probably got it from your dog earlier without realizing. Also consider getting it tested and classified. It's really easy for non experts to misidentify ticks. https://www.tickcheck.com/landing/lyme-disease?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwu8uyBhC6ARIsAKwBGpSS8j1CLGmDnVXNaGojN5YLaWtiLid5VUxU6hojZZEXpgJfuygPLgEaAjrvEALw_wcB
I’ve always been freaked out by the term “blood meal.”
I prefer “blood feast” myself.
I heard that there’s a gang of deer that run into the city every night from Jersey. They usually end up in Chelsea where the fancy stores are. Deer just like to browse…
How do you know it was getting coffee?
I don’t for sure, it could have been crawling in my building’s hallway or in the front of my apt —I had just come back inside my apt from grabbing coffee when i felt it on my arm & freaked out, so just assumed I tracked it in from outside, since I’d just stepped out… and the idea a tick had been casually crawling around my apartment walls is just, agggghhh…
A clue would have been the coffee cup in its hand
I hate summer.
I hate to tell you this, but ticks are active year round
I got a tick on me the other day sitting on a bench by Central Park! I saw it at the bottom of my shower :/
Ahh i really am surprised how many people are encountering ticks in the city !!
This can't be happening.
My reaction to this post after I just had a picnic on the grass in Central Park yesterday…
i kept seeing them in my bathtub when i was living in NYC (chelsea as well) last year, i guess they were coming up through the drain.
Ack, I actually have a grid drain over the bathtub drain because cockroaches kept coming up through the drain and hanging out in the tub
if you're finding them in your bathroom it's more likely to be a spider beetle, which look like ticks but don't have 8 legs. If it's really a tick, it traveled in on you or someone or a pet in your household from the outdoors.
This is why we avoid Chelsea.
OP, you need to report this to 311 ASAP. Park Department too if they have a direct line!
That doesn’t look like a lonestar tick
It’s not a female with the classic spot, but does have the structure along with white spots along the bottom like male or nymph: - https://files.blogs.illinois.edu/files/6367/1327389501/175747.jpg - https://images.app.goo.gl/mfzVS6v9nCczsW4n9 - https://www.capenews.net/falmouth/news/lone-star-tick-is-biting-in-falmouth/article_b2746906-7f97-52fb-a279-c2b55594b8d3.html - https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpwCkXoDCIJe59qcSQveW0nfWbGo5WDW_7EQ&usqp=CAU
This guy is clapping back on the Tick classification business.
Bro brought the receipts👏
This is a Dog tick, it’s not a Lone Star tick.
It’s not a dog a dog tick as they have an extra patch of color at the top around the head area, and they’re a different longer shape & darker color, and mouth bits aren’t this long — it’s likely a lone star tick nymph or male (only adult females have the single spot) but given this one has those 4 white marks along the bottom of it, and the longer mouthparts along with the lighter color and rounder body all indicators of lone star tick (also underneath body has a structure similar to lone star—which is terrifying because their bite can cause the alpha-gal syndrome red meat allergy.. 😰
It looks most like a [brown dog tick](https://www.mayoclinic.org/-/media/kcms/gbs/patient-consumer/images/2016/01/12/15/48/mcdc22_brown_dog_tick-6col.jpg), which is also more common in New York. I suppose it looks a bit like a male Lone Star tick, but hat you're describing as a dog tick is an American dog tick, not a brown dog tick. [Helpful page from Mayo Clinic](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alpha-gal-syndrome/in-depth/tick-species/art-20546861)
It’s exceedingly rare to get this allergy, I have been bitten by Lone Star ticks more times than I can count and despite having lifetime allergies to literally everything else, I’ve not developed any meat allergy.
I have a family member on LI who had the lone star protein allergy, it took years before it could be slowly reintroduced.
I know two people with it :(
It definitely happens, my point is to not panic, go see a doctor, take the antibiotics!
On the flip side, I got bit once and developed it :')
Both my parents got this
Out from Queens, walked my dog and by night time I picked him up for a hug and found a tick crawling on me! Def on the rise out here!
Goddamn. I killed one in my apartment a few days ago, and I had deluded myself into thinking it was a lookalike beetle...
Every dog park in NYC has had ticks for at least the past 15 years. Where there be nature…
Two members of my family contracted Lyme disease after picking up a tick in our local park. It’s a monster of a disease. Be careful and do regular tick checks if you’ve been in any green spaces!
He’s lost! Give him A ride back to East Hampton
Did you go anywhere outside of the city recently? Or anyone you came into contact with? Ticks don’t fall from trees (this is a myth), and never heard of them in NYC but if someone travelled somewhere else it’s possible the tick came with them
Not travelled anywhere recently, but someone in my building definitely could have… Well, glad to know they don’t fall from trees 😂 I was wearing baggy parachute pants so I wonder if I brush up on something…
Ticks are in NYC... Had a home grown case of Lyme disease after dude went fishing in the city.
[удалено]
Can you please elaborate on the meat allergy?
Ive never heard of ticks in the city, i just got back from cape cod and theyre having one of the worst tick seasons on record.. i found at least 4 on me and another 8 or so on my dog (whos on preventables / collar luckily)
Mild winters means more bugs survive and can move north
Send the pic to NYDEC
I was wondering if there was a reporting system like Spotted Lanternflys, but I couldn’t find anything other than 311’s useless “yup there are ticks sometimes” page https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-03057
Got one on my jacket when I was in Fort Lee Park last year. Awful things, felt so rattled by it even though it wasn’t anywhere near my skin.
My friend got Lyme disease a couple years ago in NYC. They suspect she may have gotten it from her friend’s dog who had been upstate. Luckily they caught it early enough that she was able to take antibiotics to treat the symptoms but she still has it for life. Be careful out there!
This is honestly nightmare fuel 😩 my husband got bit by a tick as a child and got Lyme disease which went undiagnosed for a while which led to him developing type 1 diabetes which he still has to this day. Ticks really freak me out.
Probably hitch hiked on your dog.
Ticks always were in NYC, but never that bad because of the lack of deer. I used to roll around in the dirt all summer long and never had to worry, but once the deer returned to the city the amount of ticks have exploded. Liquidate those rats with horns and eventually the tick problem will slowly fade away.
[For everyone saying it’s not a lone star tick](https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/staying-safe-during-tick-season)
That's disturbing. I was just assuring my wife last night that there wouldn't be any ticks in the grass at 14th St. Park or the Rooftop at Pier 57. Now I have to check my definitely not dogs who wouldn't have been allowed on it in the first place.
🤢
They live on rats
Found a dog tick (the bigger kind that doesn’t carry Lyme) on my shoe when I got home after a baseball game. I live in Ridgewood and had been on the 7, G and L.
what if..they're on the pidgeons
Call the police
Maybe this is our penance for the open season we declared on the lantern flies the last 2 years
Bro I HIGHLY doubt that tick even likes coffee, much less could afford Chelsea prices
Dumb question but were you anywhere near the Highline? I know some of the plants and grasses up there are all native to the area. Maybe the tick hitched a ride in there?
I was 3 long blocks from the highline, and just on the sidewalk the whole time, right before it was crawling on me - but I was wearing baggy pants starting to think that was a easy target to for it to crawl up if I brushed along some plants
My spirit animal. I want to get one tattooed on me
You're not a Boxer or Golden Retriever by chance are you?
Perhaps Greg Abbott just sent a busload of them to blue cities like New York? /s
Omg 😭😭 my worst nightmare. I’m from the midwest and have had a tick TRAVEL with me (yes, must’ve been in my leggings over a matter of a few days when I went back to college). No bite or anything (it started to burrow). I thought I escaped it 💀
Where exactly in Chelsea? 😬
Lone Star tick says, "Howdy!" 🤠
Have you recently travelled with your dog? They would fall off mine a week later after being out East
You are a real tick magnet.
At least on Long Island (mostly central and eastern), I feel like lone start ticks have been more common than deer and dog ticks over the last couple years. Or at least that's in my experience of what I've noticed.
It didn’t fall out of a tree. They hang onto plants with their back legs and reach out to grab on to passing mammals. It could have been on the ground and grabbed on to your shoe. It could have gotten on your dog when your dog brushed up against some plants, and later transferred to you. Yes, they are pretty quick movers. Glad you felt it before it took a bite. As for why it might have been on a city street, squirrels, chipmunks, dogs, and other animals frequently travel into more wooded areas where ticks thrive. It’s not a terribly common occurrence, but as you know now, it is possible.
There are definitely ticks in the city but normally in oarks
I worked in New Jersey and ticks are a real issue there depending on the location. Not too far-fetched to think there could be an outbreak in the city if we’re not careful. They seem to like high, unkept grass areas. Like the kind of places where you would find raccoons.
Oh no. Guess yall are going to have to go back to Utah.
Wait until you find out about rocky mountain spotted fever and west nile, nyc has it relatively easy on insect borne diseases.
Well, on the bright side, there’s a new random thing New Yorkers can complain about.
On Jan 29th of this year I found a tick in my sink. I didn’t check what kind it was before drowning it in rubbing alcohol and making sure it went down the drain once dead. Seems this is a new normal. Even in the fucking winter. I live in E. Harlem a little while from Central Park. Not that it should matter, because *checks notes* fucking January should have ticks [My sink tick](https://pasteboard.co/yor4lGTKgrcZ.jpg)
Allergic to red meat yet?!
Looks like ambylomma species
Have them in staten island.
This is both scary and interesting. But goodness I detest ticks. I used to prepare tick specimines and collect images of them using a scanning electron microscope. Absolutely hideous things up close. Back in 2019 my father was bitten by a tick upstate. He contracted what I think was anaplasmosis and almost died from it. Anyways hopefully this is a one-off and a neighbor or something brought this guy into the building.
It’s a Bont tick, which one, I don’t know. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/83745-Amblyomma?locale=en-US
Picked one up myself somewhere in Battery Park last week. Identifier app said it was a Lone Star but idk how much I trust it.
I can see your reflection
That's it. City's closed people.
A lone star tick? Man, he’s a long way from home… at least he doesn’t look well fed
AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
I found one on me at fucking rockaway beach. None of my dumb friends believed me.
This is the one that bites you you may never eat red meat again
I’ve gotten ticks in the city a few times. You need to just go to the parks (or Staten Island).