Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Tick Update
Only a few hours after writing the previous entry, while standing in a wine shop, a sudden violet itching started behind my knee. Another tick, and in line with what I have read, it attached itself to me for about 24 hours before starting the regurgitation and swallowing of new blood that makes it such an effective transport for disease, and causes skin reactions.
As I drove up to Kazaki on Monday morning there was a great noise from my left. The house originally had two ponds side-by-side, one for fish and one for soaking flax. The flax pond has long since dried up but has left a piece of damp land that we allow to grow wild. Out of the middle of the swamp, struggling to throw off sleep, climbed a no doubt tick-infested female roe deer. As she found her footing in the soft ground, she looked over her head at me, decided I was no real threat, and ambled off into the forest.
It was lovely to see her, but even more satisfying to know that my suspicions about the role of deer in our tick situation were probably correct.
As I drove up to Kazaki on Monday morning there was a great noise from my left. The house originally had two ponds side-by-side, one for fish and one for soaking flax. The flax pond has long since dried up but has left a piece of damp land that we allow to grow wild. Out of the middle of the swamp, struggling to throw off sleep, climbed a no doubt tick-infested female roe deer. As she found her footing in the soft ground, she looked over her head at me, decided I was no real threat, and ambled off into the forest.
It was lovely to see her, but even more satisfying to know that my suspicions about the role of deer in our tick situation were probably correct.
