Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Hitchhikers
As I was meditating last night and this morning, I kept feeling itches on my legs and hips. I thought they might be some kind of bug, like fleas. However, when I looked closely, I didn't see anything. Just a few minutes ago, I happened to look down and see a very tiny critter crawling along the surface of my leg. It looked like some kind of mite. That's strange, I thought. What on earth is it? As I stared at it, eventually recognition dawned. It's a tick! A deer tick, famous for being about the size of a period at the end of a sentence. I immediately investigated the site of a particularly intense itch that I had momentarily experienced earlier. What do you know? There were about 15 of the little guys all attached, kind of like particles of pepper. I pulled as many as I could find off using tweezers. Without hyperbole I can say there were around 50 total attached mostly to my legs. (Some made there way to my torso and arms.) What an interesting price to pay for visiting such a remote trail yesterday! Seeing these little guys, I realized I could easily have been bitten countless times in the past and never noticed. Apparently most people who've been bitten by a deer tick never realize it. Unfortunately, deer ticks are the lyme disease bearers, so I'm going to go see a doctor tomorrow, in case they want to dose me up with antibiotics. I live in a low risk area, but I was bitten 50 times. Gadzooks!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
UPDATE: I did some research, and it turns out that these ticks were deer tick larvae! That is exciting because this stage doesn't transmit disease. Basically, I am the first meal these little guys ever got, so they haven't had a chance to become infected with anything yet. After they sucked my blood for a few days, they were planning on chilling for the winter and then molting into nymphs and then into adults. These latter two stages are when they transmit disease.
You sound far too exuberant for someone who has just been feasted on by deer tick larvae. Thank goodness you interrupted the blood-sucking life trajectories of some of them -- the world is spared that many deer ticks.
Does this mean you aren't going to the doctor? I think you still should.
The hike sounded great though. Nature is capricious, and with her beauties come ugliness and suffering.
I'm sorry, that should be "comes ugliness and suffering."
I would be lying if I said that the incident didn't creep me out to some extent. But it's also pretty fascinating. Nature's pretty adept at doing things like that. All I have to do is go for a walk in the woods, and suddenly I'm part of the life cycle of the deer tick.
My wife pulled a few off my back that I wasn't able to get to, and one of them managed to avoid being totally smooshed. I got out my jeweller's loupe, and I looked at it under high magnification. It was definitely a larva, because it only had six legs. Once they become nymphs, they get 8 legs. Also, the size was pretty much exactly right. If you look at the capital M on a dime, it fit in the notch between the two peaks.
I'm very happy you're concerned about my health, by the way. Since the larvae are not known to transmit disease, I think I'll just keep my eyes open for symptoms.
I was reading a primer on Buddhist meditation that includes the admonition against taking of life -- becaus even small lifeforms don't like being killed.
Yet, it seems imperative that we kill various lifeforms, such as the deer tick larvae and the microbes targeted by antibiotics.
Obviously, Buddhists aren't opposed to death of plant life, otherwise they wouldn't eat. But what kind of life do they regard as sacred enough to preserve? What about a fly?
Post a Comment