Bristol County Daily News

When I first moved to the country I had visions of running through the fields dancing and laughing. But now I am to afraid to dance in the field. I look at the fields and I think Lyme disease. Everyday, not just in the summer, everyday I make sure that I check for ticks. We live with these small creatures so I have come to terms with it. I use a sticky lint roller on clothes when we come in and arms and legs if they are bare. I treat our dogs year round for fleas and ticks. I launder all the clothing at the end of the day to be sure there are no ticks left behind.

Then I read an article in Organic Gardening that 90 percent of ticks survived the laundry cycle. I was shocked! But if laundry is put in the dryer on high heat for 60 minutes it puts and end to the ticks http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071006083356.htm

I think what do I do now??? I hang dry all my laundry as I believe I have an obligation to reduce my carbon foot print. I do three loads of laundry every day and to run the dryer would cost about $30 a month on top of my increased carbon foot print.

The effects of lyme disease are awful. Check out http://www.lyme.org/ but at the same time using large amounts of pesticides and increasing my carbon foot print is awful too. Permethrin which is used to kill ticks is good or bad depending on where you get your information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin or http://www.safe2use.com/poisons-pesticides/pesticides/permethrin/cox-report/cox.htm
There is no cure for Lyme Disease only prevention and maintenance.

• Check out these links for more information.
  Where did it all start? http://www.lyme.org/otherdis/ld_history.html
  What are we doing about lyme disease. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/Lymedisease.html
  How did it get so wide spread. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/ld_transmission.htm
  Will global warming increase its spread? http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090426182944.htm

Labels: Green living, lyme