Garage Sale Blog - Part 1

With the coming of spring and summer months, the bugs aren’t the only things stirring. Home owners everywhere gear up for the garage sale season. Every Saturday it seems impossible to drive through a neighborhood without seeing the signs.While wheeling and dealing for those great prices on used furniture and clothing, make sure your not taking home more than you paid for. The saying Caveat emptor, “Buyer Beware” holds especially true when buying anything that was once in someone else’s home, (whether from a garage sale, thrift store or an Internet purchase). Couches, chairs, desks, dressers and even clothes can be harborage areas for all sorts of insects including brown recluse spiders and even bed bugs. Before you hand over that hard earned cash for anything, make sure you do a full inspection of what you’re buying. Check all cracks and crevices underneath and behind every drawer or door. Anything that looks questionable should be seriously reconsidered as a purchase, no matter how cheap it is. Preemptive examination of used goods is one of the small steps you can take to save yourself a potentially big problem. Once these pesky invaders get in, you may be paying for more than you bargained for to get them out. Stay tuned to Swat Pest for more tips and tricks on buying 2ND hand.

Ticks Part 3 - Lyme Disease

The first stage of Lyme disease is considered the "primary" or early stage. Not everyone infected with the Lyme disease bacteria gets ill. Among those who do become ill, the first symptoms resemble the flu and include:

• Chills
• Fever
• Headache
• Lethargy
• Muscle pain

There may be a "bulls eye" rash -- a flat or slightly raised red spot at the site of the tick bite often with a clear area in the center. This spot can be larger than 1 - 3 inches wide.

Symptoms in people with the later stages of the disease include:

• Body-wide itching
• Joint inflammation
• Stiff neck
• Unusual or strange behavior

Note: Deer ticks can be so small that they are almost impossible to see. Many people with Lyme disease never even saw a tick.

Treatment
Everyone who has been bitten by a tick should be watched closely for at least 30 days. Most people who are bitten by a tick do NOT get Lyme disease. A single dose of antibiotics may be offered to someone soon after being bitten by a tick, if all of the following are true:

• The person has a tick that can carry Lyme disease attached to their body. This usually means that a nurse or physician has looked at and identified the tick.
• The tick is thought to have been attached to the person for at least 36 hours.
• The person can begin taking the antibiotics within 72 hours of removing the tick.
• The person is over 8 years old and is not pregnant or breastfeeding.

A full course of antibiotics is used to treat people who are proven to have Lyme disease. The specific antibiotic used depends on the stage of the disease and the symptoms.

Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi (B. burgdorferi). Certain ticks carry these bacteria. The ticks pick up the bacteria when they bite mice or deer that are infected with Lyme disease. You can get the disease if you are bitten by an infected tick. Lyme disease was first reported in the United States in the town of Old Lyme, Connecticut, in 1975. Cases have now been reported in most parts of the United States. Most of the cases occur in the Northeast, upper Midwest, and along the Pacific coast. Lyme disease is usually seen during the late spring, summer, and early fall.
There are three stages of Lyme disease. Stage 1 is called primary Lyme disease. Stage 2 is called secondary Lyme disease. Stage 3 is called tertiary Lyme disease. Risk factors for Lyme disease include:

• Having a pet that may carry ticks home
• Doing activities that increase tick exposure (for example, gardening, hunting, or hiking)
• Walking in high grasses

If diagnosed in the early stages, Lyme disease can be cured with antibiotics. Without treatment, complications involving the joints, heart, and nervous system can occur. Rarely, a person will continue having symptoms that can interfere with daily life. Some people call this post-Lyme disease syndrome. There is no effective treatment yet for this syndrome.

When your out walking in the woods or hiking be sure to wear light colored clothing to make it easier to spot ticks, try to avoid walking through tall grasses, use an insect repellent over your skin and all clothing, if possible wear long sleeves and pants and tuck your pant legs into your socks or boots. When you return home remove all clothing and thoroughly inspect all skin area including your scalp.

If you have more questions or concerns regarding Lyme disease, please give us a call at 812-476-9708 or visit us at http://www.swatpest.com/.