Is this a tick bite?

[[DHT]Osiris]

From my experience, if you end up with a tick you aren't likely to get rid of it accidentally, and you usually find the little fucker when you're in the shower (you are bathing after traipsing through the brush right?). Bonus when you're clean after aforementioned traipsing, only for one to end up on you that night when you're asleep because you put your work pants on the bed for a second when you got home.

They don't detach easily, you'll probably mangle their head removing them, and have an infected tongue/clingy bit stuck in you for ~3mo until your skin pushes it out. Lots of Neosporin. Watch for a ring. Stay out of brush that's knee-high, that's where they hang out. Get chickens (they love ticks).

And yes if they get on a dog/cat, they'll get the size of a quarter and be absolutely disgusting.

To OP, that looks more like either a horse/biting fly bite (large, round), extreme reaction to a midge/noseeum, or something dumber like a large stick poked you.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Can they seriously get that big? We don't have a whole of ticks here where I live and I try to keep my weeds and stuff down for our dogs. That's f'n disgusting...

Keep in mind that background is probably a blade of grass, so they are still very small. I have freckles, will make it even harder for me to spot one even if I did get one on me.


And oh yes if I buy bush property I'm getting chickens. Hens to lay eggs and even when they stop laying eggs I'll keep them around to make sure there's no ticks around. Couple roosters for good measure.

Wonder if partrige eat ticks. They're native, so could just mass breed them and release them.

 

[Muse]

I've never AFAIK seen a tick much less been bitten by one. But I hear they are around here and on my home golf course (and that you can get lyme from them) and I haven't been there since before the pandemic. I heard the course has been overrun by newbie golfers who are ruining the place for us non-newbies. When I play there (played ATM) I tried to be aware that there were ticks around. I don't wear those low cut sox that have become popular, I wear socks that run 1/2 way up my calf! Rarely don shorts.

What I've heard about Lyme Disease makes me think it's something I absolutely don't want to get.

 

[Red Squirrel]

So yeah I think it's probably black fly. Was working outside again and the black flies really came out and I got these spots all over now. I probably should have put bug spray but was in middle of working and was almost done so said F it. These are pretty serious bites compared to mosquito though, don't think I've seen them this aggressive before, they normally don't bother me.

 

[Captante]

I see a bit of a bump inside but I don't think there's a tick, but don't they fall off once they got enough blood anyway?

They do but it takes awhile and in that spot I'd think you would have noticed it? Were you wearing something with long sleeves that might have hidden it?

My father was an avid gardener and was diagnosed with Lyme several times. Each time he got the very distinct "bullseye" rash and the outer ring was substantially larger than yours.

So yeah I think it's probably black fly

Looking at it, a biting fly was my first guess... but far as I recall black fly bites freaking hurt! (also the only time I've seen a tick bite bleed was when I had to pull it out)

You didn't notice a biting fly laying into your arm?




EDIT: My little brother was allergic... he would routinely get bitten on the eyelid and it would swell up huge!

 

[Muse]

I don't often get bitten, I think, especially since locally mosquitos have been pretty dang well controlled for upwards of 5 years now. Used to be they were a constant menace in the summery months. I don't know what to attribute it to, the drought conditions that are becoming normal around here or mosquito abatement. Maybe both.

I think something bit me around 2 years ago, though. It was my lower left leg, around 6" below the knee and it got really red, scary looking. I was out of town and I contacted my doctor online and he Rxed me antibiotic pills. The scar is still very visible and weird looking.

 

[Captante]

I don't often get bitten, I think, especially since locally mosquitos have been pretty dang well controlled for upwards of 5 years now. Used to be they were a constant menace in the summery months. I don't know what to attribute it to, the drought conditions that are becoming normal around here or mosquito abatement. Maybe both.

I think something bit me around 2 years ago, though. It was my lower leg, around 6" below the knee and it got really red, scary looking. I was out of town and I contacted my doctor online and he Rxed me antibiotic pills. The scar is still very visible and weird looking.
View attachment 44894View attachment 44895

You know 99% of the time when folks think they have a spider-bite they are mistaken and it's something else.

THAT looks like a spider bite!

Example:

 

[Muse]

You know 99% of the time when folks think they have a spider-bite they are mistaken and it's something else.

THAT looks like a spider bite!

That was my guess.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I don't often get bitten, I think, especially since locally mosquitos have been pretty dang well controlled for upwards of 5 years now. Used to be they were a constant menace in the summery months. I don't know what to attribute it to, the drought conditions that are becoming normal around here or mosquito abatement. Maybe both.

I think something bit me around 2 years ago, though. It was my lower leg, around 6" below the knee and it got really red, scary looking. I was out of town and I contacted my doctor online and he Rxed me antibiotic pills. The scar is still very visible and weird looking.
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Dude clean that shit up and for gods sake put some neosporin on it

 

[Spacehead]

My father was an avid gardener and was diagnosed with Lyme several times. Each time he got the very distinct "bullseye" rash and the outer ring was substantially larger than yours.

Can you get Lyme more than once? I thought once you had it, you had it.

You know 99% of the time when folks think they have a spider-bite they are mistaken and it's something else.

MRSA? Or something like that. I remember reading an article about spiders & they expert said similar about being mistaken for something else. I thought he said MRSA but it could of been something else.

 

[Muse]

Dude clean that shit up and for gods sake put some neosporin on it

It was two years ago (July 2019). I happened to notice it earlier today, noticed how raw and weird the scar looks.

 

[Captante]

Can you get Lyme more than once? I thought once you had it, you had it.


MRSA? Or something like that. I remember reading an article about spiders & they expert said similar about being mistaken for something else. I thought he said MRSA but it could of been something else.

Sadly yes ... you can get Lyme as many times as your exposed.

And "Necrotizing Fasciitis" is the symptom ... it can be caused by any number of things including MSRA really but what gets the most press is the bite of the Brown Recluse spider.

Reality is that ANY serious harm from a spider bite is extremely rare and being bitten by any spider ever at all isn't much more common.

 

[Red Squirrel]

What happens when you get lyme twice, your existing lyme just gets worse? From what I understand once you have it, you have it for life and you basically slowly die from it. Loss of brain, nervous functions etc. You also go allergic to red meat and other stuff. Basically knocks a couple decades off your life easily, and the remaining decades you wish you were dead.

As for how I didn't feel those bites, I was just in the zone and also occasionally getting branches scrape against me etc so I was just ignoring any pain I was getting lol.

I do hope there's a vaccine that comes out for it, will be one less thing to worry about when in the bush.

 

[Scarpozzi]

What happens when you get lyme twice, your existing lyme just gets worse? From what I understand once you have it, you have it for life and you basically slowly die from it. Loss of brain, nervous functions etc. You also go allergic to red meat and other stuff. Basically knocks a couple decades off your life easily, and the remaining decades you wish you were dead.

As for how I didn't feel those bites, I was just in the zone and also occasionally getting branches scrape against me etc so I was just ignoring any pain I was getting lol.

I do hope there's a vaccine that comes out for it, will be one less thing to worry about when in the bush.

First of all, not all ticks have Lyme disease.

In my Southern US experience growing up, ticks like to climb on your clothes and then work their way up until they find a good place to feed. Normally, they won't stop on an arm or leg....they'll move under your clothes and into areas where it's darker and there's more hair.... That's why dogs collect them in their ear canals and sometimes around their eyes or mouths. They say in the woods, you should pull your socks up over your pant legs, so when they crawl, they're on the outside of your clothes and have a higher likliehood to be detected.

Black flies are pretty common where you are, so that sounds like a likely culprit. My mother's from Maine and visiting family, we always dealt with the black flies from May-June and July-September were the mosquitos....I camped out growing up around Portland/Bangor and Baxter State Park. I assume Canada is the same.

8 years ago, I went to the coast of North Carolina on an island...the wind was blowing over the marsh and pushing all of the black flies out onto the beach. You had to be standing in the ocean to avoid getting bit... Sun bathing wasn't an option. 4 days into the trip, the wind changed direction and a Low Pressure system to the South was pulling the air back in from the Ocean....saved the last few days of the trip. Biting flies are nasty and have no place on this planet.

Muse, that definitely looks like a Spider bite. I've been bit by a few spiders...the venom kills the tissue around the bite radius and can take a long while for your body to replace the bad tissue. Spiders tend to bite wherever they are.

 

[Spacehead]

What happens when you get lyme twice, your existing lyme just gets worse? From what I understand once you have it, you have it for life and you basically slowly die from it. Loss of brain, nervous functions etc. You also go allergic to red meat and other stuff. Basically knocks a couple decades off your life easily, and the remaining decades you wish you were dead.

The people i know that have Lyme aren't affected anywhere near that extent. I assume like a lot of diseases, it effects different people differently.

I do hope there's a vaccine that comes out for it, will be one less thing to worry about when in the bush.

Yeah, there was one out but the antivax crowd got it shut down. There are ongoing trials of new vaccines though.
https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/prev/vaccine.html

 

[lxskllr]

I've had it, and no lingering problems I'm aware of.