This is an emergency. We need to eradicate this tick from the earth immediately.
My boy has a friend who was bitten....causes complete meat allergy, really sucks.
I’m one of those 5000 American that are affected. Several years ago in FL, I started waking up with hives at around 1-2:00 am. Didn’t know what was going on, Tried new laundry detergent, no help. This would happen every two weeks or so. Started thinking about food allergies but those usually take affect in minutes, not hours. Scoured the internet and finally found something called delayed anaphylaxis. It was one of the first articles on this condition. Sure enough, our ribeye night was when it was happening. (back when we could afford them occasionally) A few months prior, I had been cleaning up my mo-in-law’s 5 acres of woods that she was planning to put a house on and I got tore up by ticks.
I’m one of the lucky ones. Some people have a bad reaction just by eating a piece of chicken or fish that’s cooked on the same grill mammalian meat has been cooked on. I’ve always still been able to eat a small amount of lean beef/pork. I had baby backs set me off once. A hamburger for lunch and beef sausage at night once.
After a while, a person can build up their immunity and I was pretty far along until we bought 8 acres of woods in MO. Got tick bites and got hives from a burger. The worst time was when I ate some ham of all things. I had eaten plenty of that without any problem but this was home raised heritage breed hog. Got the hives, took some Benadryl(even though it’s not fast acting enough by that time), felt weird, went to stand up and everything went dark. My wife slowed/directed my fall so I didn’t slam my head on a Dutch Oven at least. She said I seized for a few seconds. Regained consciousness, had to pee so I headed for the bathroom, woke up on the floor of the hallway. This time when I passed out, I lost control of my bladder. Glad I didn’t have to go #2.
I have an Epi-Pen now. We eat a lot of chicken. Plan on getting some goats as the meat is very lean. I can eat chuck burgers at the moment. I’ve gotten the woods a lot more tamed. I burn the property every spring and use Sevin granules a few times a year. Tick bites are pretty rare here now and it’s mostly seed ticks which don’t seem to be an issue. It’s the Lone Star and Dog ticks that do it and dog ticks are pretty rare here.
The doctors from Virginia they mention had just discovered this 2-3 months before I got hit with it. A couple of doctors in Australia discovered it around the same time. They have it over there too. Makes you wonder how many people have been affected prior to that and never knew what it was. Also makes you wonder if it’s always been that way or did something change with the ticks.
“University of Virginia’s researchers have also linked the alpha-gal allergies with a higher risk of heart disease. “
Hadn’t heard that one before. Wonderful. Slight irony. My dad’s first name was Alpha and I have 5 sisters. I joke with them that I’m allergic to Alpha’s gals.