Ticks are really bad this year here in the Midwest. Already! Two months early!

And I have two animals, a small dog and an indoor/outdoor cat, who sleep with me.

(Am about to put the tick/flea collar on puppy Scampi, but dread what its side effects must do to him. Hoping Tiger kitty can take care of himself.)

Plus, today I recognized a tick bite on the back of one leg with the tick still embedded. I had ignored it for the first couple of days, not realizing that’s what it was. Looking back now, I realized I was delusional, thinking the Turkey Vulture drama was a blessing, when it may have been a warning! Especially the insect trying to get in my ear! A warning from Nature, about another insect in Nature? Instructing me to pay attention?)

See Monday and Tuesday posts, this week.

I have been making sure I took a shower every evening, and washed hair each time, just in case. But clearly, that wasn’t enough.

This morning, increasing discomfort instructed me to look at the sore spot directly. Oops. Dug out a tiny tick from the center of the very red swollen area (about an inch wide). Checked grok ai for any recent info, and got out a bunch of my old remedies (some from decades ago, unfortunately), and am applying them. Will go to store for more recent remedies later this afternoon. Plus taking a homeopathic. And have ordered a six-months supply of an immune formula specific for ticks to prevent disease (assuming the tiny ones will bite me over and over again this year.)

It’s strange. I’ve long poo-pooed internal “bugs” that “cause” dis-ease, figuring if I support my immune system I’ll be fine. And I have been. The covid era left me entirely unscathed.

But, here in the Midwest, for the last 23 years I have been utterly freaked out about external bugs! Back in Jackson Hole Wyoming, we did have one large tick species; but mostly went on alert when out hiking to possible presence of large animals (bears, wolves, bison, moose, etc.). Respected all of them; gave them all a wide birth.

But how can we give a wide birth to something we may not even see, it’s so tiny! And it may lodge somewhere on the back of our body, where, when we live alone, we can’t see it!

Clearly, I need to upgrade some of my present protocols.