"Gettysburg Part of America's Soul"

[Rsmyth]

Hi Liz, good tips but i have seen clothes come out of the wash with a tick still alive. When we are out in the woods the first thing we do is put the clothes in the dryer. That seems to do them in. Plus, number 7 on your list should be after the shower, check yourself closely. My wife and I check each others heads.

[Gene C]

And....fleas are every bit as annoying and difficult to get rid of.

[L Verge]

Poor Fido - they didn't have Frontline Plus in your day, did they?

[MaddieM]

Maddie -

Do ya'll have chiggers in the UK?! Now, they are horrid as well! Only they go in GROUPS! Little red tick like creatures....and OMG do they ITCH!!

Back when I was about 16, my sister and I were helping my dad and another man cut hay - when we got home, we found we were covered in chiggers! And yes, they itch and itch - they pepper your legs and arms like you have the measles - little red itching spots! They burrow under your skin.

We had to get into a tub filled with hot water and put rubbing alcohol all over us - only thing that got rid of them.....

All that beautiful swaying Spanish Moss in Florida is also covered with them - or so Lew Powell's great niece told me! She told me not to touch it as it was covered in chiggers....

BTW - CONGRATULATIONS!! I see that you've reached "Forum Master" status!! HA!

Chiggers? CHIGGERS! What new hell is this? I can't possible come to the States now. We don't have such horrors in the UK. I don't do camping and outdoor stuff. I'm strictly a five star en suite kinda gal! I think I'd have to do the battle field on horseback. Or do horses get chiggers too?

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The tips about head coverings is a good one. Ticks can literally fall from the sky (or leaves and branches) and head for the scalp where I've been told that blood vessels are closer to the skin. Yum, breakfast, lunch, and dinner before their bite begins to itch and alert you to something foreign nesting in your hair. Part of the pleasures of country living.

Oh, my giddy Aunt! Is this prevalent all over the States? Don't you have anywhere you can just go for a nice picnic or stroll and not get infested?

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Oo eck! I've just Googled Chiggers and we have them in the UK... they're called Harvest Mites. Though I have to say, I've never picked one up.

[Hess1865]

Getting back to the Gettysburg topic, I'd like to tell you of a book I have, which is about Gettysburg after the battle ended. It's called, A Strange And Blighted Land: Gettysburg-The Aftermath Of A Battle, by Gregory A Coco. The books goes into depth about the wrecked farms. the piles of dead bodies, the horse carcasses and just about every other battle aftermath you could think of. Hence the books title. It can be very hard to read at times due to its content, but it will explain how they reinterred the bodies for the National Cemetary and also how the town turned into a tourist stop within days of the end of the battle. The big problem was people [if you want to call them that! ] who scavenged the fields, looting bodies looking for money and relics, totally tasteless things. The army quartermaster in charge got wise quick and would force anyone caught doing this to be put on burial details. And that was not a pleasant task.
An offbeat book worth reading IMO.

[BettyO]

Oh yes, Mr. Coco's books are WONDERFUL! I have that one as well as one or two others and the titles escape me now as I'm not at home - but they are on the Gettysburg shelf in my library - he is (or was) a park ranger and his stories of the horrors of the battlefield during the aftermath of the battle and in the hospitals are riveting - a MUST read!