On Monday, March 24, 2003, at 03:10 PM, Sukie Crandall wrote: >The reservior for the disease (which is given the very youngest ticks >which are very tiny) is ground nesting rodents, but once they leave >those rodents the ticks then have a host of possible hosts. :-) In >my area there are over 30 potential wild hosts, and then there are the >rest of us who aren't as wild as we used to be but can still host >ticks now and then... Maybe I phrased that info in a confusing way. Rodents might be the most common host, but birds are the reason it has spread so far so quickly... faster than doctors and the CDC believed it would. Rodents don't travel very far during their lifetime. Neither do deer. Birds, however, fly hundreds of miles during their seasonal migrations. For the FHL questions lately regarding squirrels and other rodents as carriers of disease, I can see the need for clarification. But for the basic question of an oddly colored sore, it's a moot point in my opinion. The reason I chimed in was simply to warn people that Lyme disease is all over the country, not just areas it was supposed to be "contained" a few years ago. Don't let the region you live in be a reason to feel safe from such a horrible disease. Trust me....you don't want it! Thanks for the additional info, Sukie. Since a lot of us seem to read both lists, I can see where I should be a little more specific in the future. Again, to everyone reading this...take Lyme seriously. The ticks are tiny! They look smaller than most freckles and are so small that when I was covered with them, I simply scraped them off with my fingernails. That's undoubtedly why I ended up with the disease. It would be next to impossible to see the little buggers buried under a ferret's (or dog's or cat's) fur! Even when they are swollen with blood, they are the size of an unfed normal tick. Use Sukie's link below to take all precautions! [Posted in FML issue 4097]