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Comment by polskibus | Hacker News Reader

Google, while you're at it, please find a way to eradicate ticks. They are getting more and more irritating and dangerous in Northern Europe!

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There are even ticks now which will make you allergic to meat![1]

[1] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/tick-bite-meat-al...

In before PETA releases 20 million ticks to turn people vegetarian.

Don't give them any ideas!

I have had this exact thought.

Yes; my wife was one of the first documented cases of this. Even Mayo clinic could not figure out what was going on.

She was on death's door when we figured it out.

Wow, that's a terrible thing to have to go through. I'm so glad for you and your wife that things were figured out in time.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/science/ticks-lyme-diseas...

> Although deer help spread ticks that carry Lyme, Dr. Esvelt explained to about two dozen residents at the meeting, the disease can also be controlled earlier in the tick’s food chain. Ticks typically contract the pathogen from white-footed mice, which they often feed on while still larvae, passing it on to humans and other mice when they bite again.

> Using new genome-engineering tools, he proposes to create mice that are immune to the Lyme-causing pathogen, or to a protein in the tick’s saliva, or both, to break the cycle of transmission.

In another approach, I have recently been exploring using a Permethrin treatment for clothing to avoid ticks - apparently in use by the US military, and able to survive several washing. No results to report yet, though.

https://www.google.com/search?q=permethrin+clothing+treatmen...

Yeah Permethrin works, I use it for my kids when they go camping.

I assume it's like everything - once too many use it, it will lose its effectiveness. But not yet!

Clove is an acaricide, so dilute some clove oil with jojoba or some other carrier oil and use that. I used clove and avocado oil to get rid of scabies (which are tiny arachnids). I also supplemented with coconut oil and diatomaceous earth.

I second that, as I tend to be in the forest a lot.

And even though I love nature, I am pretty sure, eco-cycles can do without ticks ...

They are really bad here in the Midwest US this summer (it's been consistently hot and wet). I have removed like 11 from the total of myself, my wife, my dog (accounts for 7 of the total, even on tick meds), and my son. Last year it was 2.

That is irritating, but ticks can pretty much end your life if you get rougher version of boreliosis or brain damaging infection (I forgot its name).

I think you're referring to Lyme disease.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease

Fortunately they seem to be all dog ticks around here, not the Lyme-disease carrying deer ticks:

http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification/dog_tick

However, that information only helps some people feel comforted when they find a tick on their person or in their home.

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE)? Lyme also damages your nerve system, according to some newer schollary articles.

Yes that's the one.

Well at least vaccines exist against that one... It's recommended to get it in the South of Germany if you're at risk of having ticks. There are a few hundred cases every year.

Is that number attached or crawling? If attached, how many have you caught before they dug in? I live in the same area and that number would be really low. Stumble on some deer ticks and you'd be lucky if you only end up with 10x that number.

9 attached, 2 crawling. I don't stumble on many deer ticks, even though my dog and I put in some 30 miles a week running through the local singletrack parks!

Clothes moths are another which would be a good match for extinction.

It's becoming an incredibly widespread issue in the states as well.

Or cars! As a pedestrian and cyclist I feel in danger every other day!

Also pedestrians and cyclists! As a motorcyclist I find myself dodging their random and unpredictable trajectories daily!

Also motorsyclist! I constantly see them driving in imaginary lanes and randomly going from 45 to 100 and back again, in swarms!

Ah yes those imaginary lanes called lines that motorcyclists use to make your commute time and traffic lower.

The lines delimit the lanes, they are not a lane. And my drive time is not lower if they die in the middle of the freeway, that slows things way down, and then I have to look at flowers at that spot for the next several years.

Your "sense" does not match with statistics. Allowing motorcycles to filter reduces traffic for everyone, full stop.

https://www.wired.com/2015/06/yes-california-let-motorcycles...

Letting small cars squeeze between 2 other small cars that happen to currently be on opposite sides of their adjacent lanes might help too. Ignoring speed limits, lights, signs; tailgating; ramming people off the road; all great ways to reduce traffic.

Hmm, I don't think the slippery slope argument works here. There is evidence to support motorcycle filtering works, there is not evidence to support small car filtering, ignoring lights, ignoring signs, tailgating, or ramming people off the road works.

There is evidence that removing speed limits works though, so not a total loss!

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