“You never know where one might be, there’s lots of places that are hard to reach…” Brad Paisley, “Ticks.”

I’ve been under assault this spring. It happens every year, but for some reason the invasion seems more relentless and focused this season. The invaders have regularly breeched my outer defenses of camo clothing and DEET while making their assault, and it seems that most often their area of attack has been, how should I put this, my rear.

I think it best here to go with the British usage and say “bum.” The Brits often say things best, and frankly, so many of the words they use sound better than ours. For instance, “well-worn kit” sounds much better than “well-worn gear,” in my humble opinion.

As I was saying, being in the woods as often as possible in March and April, I’ve been removing a lot of ticks from my body, and particularly my bum.

If you think about it, turkey hunters often sit on the ground at the base of a tree when attempting to lure a “randy” (again, the British usage sounds better) longbeard into gun range. Thus, it seems logical that the derrière (the French term also sounds more pleasant) would be a prime target for these pesky parasitic arachnids.

Current data shows that around half a million Americans are treated each year for Lyme disease, the disease which takes its name from Lyme, Connecticut, where it was first discovered in the U.S. in 1975.

Fortunately, it is a rarity here at home in Mississippi. According to a 2022 article by Gary Pettus published in “UMMC Consult,” “only four cases were reported in 2019.”

However, although Lyme may not be a big concern for those spending time in the Mississippi outdoors, there are other tick-borne maladies to worry about.

In the Pettus article, Dr. April Palmer from the University of Mississippi Medical Center states, “The most worrisome tick-borne disease in Mississippi is Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.” According to the latest data at that time (2019), “Mississippi recorded 115 cases.”

On average, there are around 100 probable cases each year in the Magnolia State. I was unable to find the exact number from 2015, however, I know that there was at least one. I was diagnosed with RMSF in the fall of that year.

I remember we were in Tuscaloosa visiting our daughter Tate at the University of Alabama and I had not felt great for several days, but I pushed on through the weekend. Finally, the next week when my lethargy reached a point that I knew something was wrong, I went to visit my doctor.

The diagnosis was RMSF which was confirmed a few days later by the lab work. Fortunately, after 14 days of doxycycline, I was climbing out of “zombie” land and back toward the land of the living.

The tick that got me came from our farm in Louisville. I had come up from Meridian to mow, and the parasite must have invaded while I was trimming and clearing an overgrown section of the pond dam.

Oddly enough, my father-in-law had been diagnosed with RMSF a year earlier in April of 2014 from, you guessed it, a tick from our farm. Apparently, we grow some bad ticks here in the Betheden/Millcreek Community of Winston County.

Unfortunately, RMSF is not the only tick-borne plague we have to fear here at home. The Lone Star tick (the females have a white dot on their back) carries Southern Tick Associated Rash Illness, ehrlichiosis, and alpha-gal syndrome.

The latter of those, alpha-gal syndrome, is a mammalian meat allergy. For those with AGS, the consumption of beef, pork, lamb, venison, and other meat from mammals causes a severe and sometimes life-threatening allergic reaction.

Having already dealt with RMSF, I don’t want to contract any of these conditions. It seems that I need to up my tick repellent game. I already wear knee boots with the pants legs stuffed in and I tuck my shirt in as well. I then spray the area around the boot tops and the area around my waist with DEET.

Apparently, I need to take additional steps such as treating my clothing with permethrin or perhaps buying some of the camo outdoor clothing that exists today with built-in bug protection, such as InsectShield.

I’ve often wondered why I can’t take a pill for tick prevention like I give our dogs. Fortunately, it seems that such an option is in the works.

According to a March 2024 article in “Wired,” “Tarsus Pharmaceuticals is developing such a pill for humans…that could provide protection against tick-borne disease for several weeks at a time.”

The pill, which is currently in Phase II trials, has shown that “24 hours after taking the drug, it can kill ticks on people, with the effects lasting for up to 30 days.”

The treatment sounds promising and, if approved, I’ll certainly be giving it a try. Until then, I’ll tuck in, spray down, and hope for the best. Thankfully, I have someone that can get the tweezers to those “hard to reach” areas Brad Paisley mentions in his song, and I’m sure she would classify that activity as the “worse” portion of the “for better or worse” vows we took way back in 1994.

Until next time, here’s to seeing you out there (tick free) in our great outdoors.