Tick-Picking in Ticomo...

Just as an FYI…our neighborhood is called Ticomo…

After a rocky start of trying to find last minute transportation to the Managua airport for our trip back to the States, we made it in good shape and we had a wonderful three weeks visit with our friends and family. The time is always too short and it passes much too quickly. But we wouldn’t have had that if it weren’t for our friend, Karen Schlabach, who made sure we had someone to take us on that early morning ride to the airport.
In spite of me having a pesky respiratory thing that tried to take away the joy of our time there, we thoroughly enjoyed every minute. We were especially blessed to be a part of the missionary celebration called GIC at our home church and to worship once again with those folks who mean so much to us.
On our last Sunday there, we attended our 2nd “home” church - Lone Star in Willard and once again, we were inundated with encouragement and good food! That may be a church that is smaller in size but they are big on heart and they never fail to make us feel welcome and loved. A special thanks to Dick and Wanda Sanders for their hospitality…those folks are masters at making us feel at home.
Trouble with transportation seemed to be the theme for us this trip. We weren’t sure about who was going to meet us at the airport. We had not heard from the person who normally meets us at the airport and so we contacted Karen. Once again, she came to our aide and made arrangements for us to be picked up when we arrived back home. And she did all this from Ohio! What a Wonder Woman she is and we appreciate her friendship so much. We also appreciate David Glaze who is the very kind man who made that night-time airport run to make sure we got back home safe and sound!
So, through the generosity of time and efforts of several really special folks, we made it home last Thursday night, arriving around 10:00 or so to an extremely happy dog and a very neat and tidy house. Unfortunately, what we had considered a really great homecoming would soon deteriorate into what could have been a pilot for a reality t.v. horror show.
We had just finished bringing our luggage in to the house when Miguel, who had worked as our night guard for us while we were gone, said that Xander had “parasitos”. My first thought was he meant worms and my heart sunk. He then said that Margarita had seen them in the house and he said that they were falling off the dog. Well that wasn’t a pretty picture to think about!
I told Miguel that the dog wasn’t in the house during the day while we weren’t home and Miguel told us that Maragarita had let him in while she was here. Miguel then pointed to the floor and I realized there were several small bugs crawling on the floor. I bent over to get a closer look and recognized the little critters as ticks. I asked Miguel if those were the “parasitos” and he nodded his head yes. In Spanish, the name for ticks is “garrapata” but we were to learn that many of the country folk also call them parasites…they’re right. At that moment, I didn’t know which I thought would be worse to have, worms or ticks. I think I know which I would answer now.
Jim picked them up to kill them and we noticed there were several more just a few inches away. We began looking and there were ticks everywhere we looked and in practically every room. They were on the baseboards, the walls, the floors and crawling across the table. The house was crawling with them! At times, it almost looked like the floor tiles were moving. I thought I was going to be sick. I don’t just dislike ticks, I hate them. Every place we looked, there were ticks. I wondered if God had come up with a new plague and I had visions of Charlton Heston whacking them with his staff. Miguel went back outside…evidently, he didn’t like them any better than we did.
We opened up all the windows and doors and then Jim went downstairs to get the sprayer that we keep filled with the spray that we use to kill scorpions. We put Xander outside with Miguel and Jim began spraying the entire inside of the house, covering every square inch of the floor – including under our beds. I was hoping the spray would kill the ticks on contact…it didn’t. It just made our floors slick and the ticks wet. And it made our nice, shiny floors filthy with our footprints on the wet tiles. It was obvious that Margarita had made sure the floors were gleaming for our return and for a brief moment, I wondered just how mad she was going to be that we had tracked up every single floor tile in the entire house.
If it hadn’t been so late and the decent hotels hadn’t been so far away (back by the airport), I think we would have grabbed our suitcase and gone to spend the night there. But it was late and the distance was too great, so we just kept trying to kill ticks. Mind you, ticks don’t kill easily and it was taking too much time trying to squish the life out of them. So, we began just picking them up and putting them in the toilet. Before long, the surface of the water was covered with the nasty things. And there seemed to be no end to them. I couldn’t figure out where they were all coming from because as soon as we would have one area what we thought was tick-free, there would be more crawling around to take their place. It was eerie and disgusting.
Someone asked me if I took pictures…I have to say that trying to capture a Kodak moment of the synchronized swimming taking place in our toilet bowl never crossed my mind. I was just focused on drowning as many ticks as I possibly could. All I could think about was total annihilation. Isn’t that just the kind of thing you want to hear come from a missionary???
We opened the action packers and began rummaging around in them trying to find the Advantix that we had bought while in the States. We brought Xander inside and immediately treated him. His coat is so thick that it was impossible to see the ones on his body but his face was a different story. And although they weren’t easily seen at first glance, Xander was so covered with ticks that his skin felt lumpy. Again, I thought I was going to be sick. I could hardly bear the thought that my poor pup had lived like that for the last three weeks.
This was so serious to me that I sent out a prayer request…we needed divine intervention. Needless to say, our first night back was not a very restful one. We had to make sure we had all the creepy things pulled off the bed before we could get in to it. Then we did a quick scan of one another to make sure that we had them off of us. As tired as we both were, neither of us slept well. I kept waking up, sure that I had ticks crawling all over me. But, God was faithful and we both woke up “unattached”. That, folks, was a miracle, I’m telling you. We should have looked like two ships covered with barnacles but neither one of us had a single tick on us.
A week ago, the thought of me intentionally touching a tick, be it flat, brown and crawling like crazy or bloated, gray and looking like a miniature blimp, really would make me almost physically ill. I have such an aversion to the little blood-suckers. When one has attached itself to me, the only thing that allows me to touch it is the panicky feeling of hysteria I feel quickly rising within me. I want it off of me and I want it off NOW! But it’s amazing how quickly one can change when there’s really no other option. One week later, I am now a Tick-Picker Extraordinaire! I don’t like it but I am getting pretty adept at plucking them off the pooch.
Our kill count was increasing at such a rapid rate that it was impossible to keep track. Every time we could get Xander to sit still for any length of time, we would be pulling ticks off of him. We continue to do that six days later. Each time, we “harvest” a minimum of 25 or so. We have pulled off literally hundreds of ticks off that poor dog. And as much as Xander hates to sit still for anything other than dog treats, for the most part, he’s been really good about it.
On Saturday, Jim also gave him a bath with the flea and tick shampoo and for the first time ever, Xander sat still for his bath. I would like to think that he knew we were trying to help him but I think it was more the fact that the cold water felt good on such a hot day.
It has been a rough week but we have made great strides. The Advantix is now appearing to work somewhat and although the war hasn’t been won, we know we’re gaining ground. The numbers have decreased greatly and we can actually sit down for a bit and then get back up without having to de-tick ourselves. I can actually sit and type on the computer and not have to pick ticks off the screen or the keyboard. We are still checking our shoes after Jim had a nasty, squishy tick incident in his Croc. I love my husband to pieces but I have to admit that selfishly, I am SO thankful that it happened to him and not me. This tick plague has put me in a fragile state of mind and that might have just pushed me over the edge!
Tick-picking is a tedious and distasteful pastime. But it has afforded me time to reflect on all that has happened since we’ve been home. The ticks were only one of our challenges…although in my opinion, they were probably the greatest. I will write about the others in the next blog. What I will tell you now is that God has a remarkable way of teaching us the things we need to learn.