Ticks - Policy

[madmike]

you'll find a fuller account of hepatitis B in Swedish orienteers in
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... 3-0009.pdf
a few pages in.

fascinating article - thanks for sharing that

[AndyC]

I now challenge madmike to spend some time in the local zoo's crocodile enclosure wearing only long trousers (OK he can have a shirt and shoes as well).
Now that does sound like an opportunity for some charity fund raising doesn't it?

So I went down to the zoo (now a bioparc) on the way home from work and saw the crocodiles.

And I would just like to say to AndyC........ are you stark raving bonkers, those crocodiles have got a vicious streak a mile wide; they are killers.. they've got huge, sharp....Not even with Brother Maynard and the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

No way O trousers will keep them off, I was so scared I went down to the whistle shop and bought 6 anti-crocodile safety whistles......At least we know they work

I think someone with the name "madmike" has extreme gall calling me "bonkers" I wasn't the one claiming long trousers as protection against crocodles was I?
How do you feel about alligators? or are meerkats more your level of threat?

[madmike]

I now challenge madmike to spend some time in the local zoo's crocodile enclosure wearing only long trousers (OK he can have a shirt and shoes as well).
Now that does sound like an opportunity for some charity fund raising doesn't it?

So I went down to the zoo (now a bioparc) on the way home from work and saw the crocodiles.

And I would just like to say to AndyC........ are you stark raving bonkers, those crocodiles have got a vicious streak a mile wide; they are killers.. they've got huge, sharp....Not even with Brother Maynard and the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

No way O trousers will keep them off, I was so scared I went down to the whistle shop and bought 6 anti-crocodile safety whistles......At least we know they work

I think someone with the name "madmike" has extreme gall calling me "bonkers" I wasn't the one claiming long trousers as protection against crocodles was I?
How do you feel about alligators? or are meerkats more your level of threat?

have hand fed meerkats they are ok alligators - I'll think about it

PS I said statistically speaking not impirically

PPS I have swum in a river with Morelet Crocs in it with shorts on and that was OK

[graeme]

I found some crocodile while down at BOC and jolly nice it was too.
Since you ask, it tastes a bit like alligator

[Copepod]

Not as off topic (crocodiles) as it might at first appear, to bear with me: https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/river-mon ... m-assassin

Neither my Mum nor I are at all interested in fishing, but she phoned me last week to check I'd noticed the programme (River Monsters, series 4, episode 5, 9th May 2013) about Fitzroy River. She knew I'd spent 3 months (July to Sept 1995) field assisting a friend with her PhD flood research of Fitzroy River, nothern Western Australia. The programme made me realise that carrying out research in dry season and further inland than King Sound was a wise move. The only crocs we encountered were freshwater ones we heard coughing on banks opposite our camps (we favoured high banks above cliffs on outer sides of bends, while they prefered low banks) and the only fishing we did was for cherubin (freshwater shrimps).
This fishing experience was important, as I don't think the Fitzroy Crossing policeman who conducted my driving test would have passed me if I wasn't aware - he locked up and we left my friend sitting on police station steps, policeman: "we'll just drive round, and if you don't bit anything, that'll be fine"; four left turns, no roundabouts, no traffic lights (nearest were 100km away), while answering questions about techniques for catching and cooking cherubins, and I'd passed!
By the way, approved techniques are baiting with chicken pellets in a cloth bag inside a net laid on river bed, leaving for at least 30 mins before removing net, then cooking on metal sheet or grid over campfire, then serving with butter and garlic (fresh or from jar).

[ifititches]

back to ticks and Lyme disease again, updated leaflets on the subject have been issued by Public Health England. You can find them via the link from this article
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/phe- ... tick-aware

[ianandmonika]

Both Monika and I had Lyme disease/borellia while living in Sweden. Unlike TBE, there is no prevention. It knocked us both back for about 6 months and we don't want it again. Best to keep a watch out in UK as, compared to Sweden, doctors are not that aware of it. That is improving but a some way to go.

[Glucosamine]

Two-stage Lyme Disease tests are not straightforward or cheap, which, though I'd like to think not, may help explain some GP reluctance to test in our increasingly budget-driven NHS ...