Zimbabwe Reveals Truth About “Cecil the Lion”

      This article brings the right perspective to the uproar over Cecil the lion.  If we spent a 10th of the time that's been devoted to this ridiculous scenario in talking about murdered babies in-and out-of the womb maybe something constructive could be done to help.
      People obviously don't have enough to worry about and have lost their moral compass when they can spend so much time and millions of dollars on animal rights while hardly giving a thought to the babies that are sacrificed daily for convenience.  What a topsy/turvy world.

Zimbabwe Reveals Shocking Truth About “Cecil the Lion” Animal Rights Groups Are Desperate to Cover Up

Both social media and the progressive mainstream media have been in an uproar over the past few days about the death of “Cecil,” a 13-year-old lion in Zimbabwe.

Cecil was killed in an organized licensed hunt by a big game hunter, Minnesota dentist Dr. Walter Palmer, who has now gone into hiding after receiving numerous death threats from outraged animal rights activists.

However, it would appear that the outrage surrounding the death of Cecil is what is commonly known as a “First World Problem,” as residents of Zimbabwe were mostly unaware of, and really don’t care about, the death of just another lion.

“What lion?” was the response of acting Information Minister Prisca Mupfumira, after being asked about the death of Cecil.

Though the government had yet to give an official response to the lion hunt, local authorities opened an investigation into whether the professional guides who led the hunt abided by the rules and regulations in place for such things.

According to Yahoo News, that hasn’t stopped angry animal rights and anti-hunting activists from ruining the life of Dr. Palmer, with some calling for his arrest, extradition and even death for hunting the lion with a bow and arrow and finishing it off with a gun.

But most people in Zimbabwe don’t care about the dead lion, as they have much greater problems to deal with, such as an 80 percent unemployment rate, insane monetary inflation and a hugely corrupt government.

“Are you saying that all this noise is about a dead lion? Lions are killed all the time in this country,” said Tryphina Kaseke, a used-clothes hawker on the streets of Harare. “What is so special about this one?”

The truth is, most locals in Zimbabwe actually look forward to the big game hunts that Westerners engage in, as the high price tag for the hunts means money pumped into the local economy, not to mention the meat from such hunts is required by law to be given to local tribes and villages.

“Why are the Americans more concerned than us?” said Joseph Mabuwa, a 33-year-old father of two. “We never hear them speak out when villagers are killed by lions and elephants in Hwange.”

Lions and other large animals are typically viewed as dangerous by the local population, and if these animals are not hunted, their populations will explode and bring about all sorts of other issues, like rampant disease and increased attacks on people.

If only as much outrage over a dead and dismembered lion were directed at those who kill and dismemberhundreds of thousands of babies per year, our society might have a moral leg to stand on.

Every Administration and News Desk Covered Up For McCain by Mychal Massie

Are we seeking the truth?  Mychal Massie doesn't seem to think so and doesn't mince words telling us so.  This is a good expose' of John McCain and the lies we've beenled to believe about him.

Every Administration and News Desk Covered Up For McCain

by Mychal Massie on July 30, 2015 in Daily Rant 6

Donald Trump is to be commended for exposing the lies, liars, and frauds in the media and specifically in Congress. Which is one of the two reasons he is being assailed. The last thing party leaders and those in elected office want We the People to know is that they are liars, frauds, and more egregiously, that they are singularly interested in their own affairs which do not include the affairs that are of concern to you and me.

Trump caused a furor when he condescendingly said: “[John McCain] is a war hero because he was captured, I like people who weren’t captured, I hate to tell you.” Apparently the media and McCain’s Congressional sycophants forgot that General Wesley Clark made the same remarks almost verbatim during McCain’s failed presidential campaign.

A close friend said it best when he stated “every president, vice president and secretary of state since President Nixon had to be complicit in covering up and concealing the truth about McCain’s embellished and at times fictional military record.”

McCain has basked in the vestiges of being recognized as a war hero; a POW who spent five and a half years in a North Vietnamese prison enduring torture on a routine basis. The truth, however, is quite different, and McCain needed to be exposed to the American people not as the “maverick” he relishes being called, but for the charade he is.

“McCain was not a fighter pilot, although in later years the media would perpetuate the mistaken belief that he was. Trained as an A-4 bomber pilot, he was assigned to the attack squadron VA-163.” (The Day John McCain Got Shot Down by Zalin Grant)

“A lot of pilots were not…enthusiastic about McCain. They were not really convinced that he had the right stuff. Navy aviation was a small, tightly-knit community made up of highly-trained men with large egos and a fiercely competitive nature. Even if they did not know each other personally, everybody was linked together via the gossip hotline, and McCain’s reputation had preceded him to the Oriskany…McCain’s grandfather had been a highly decorated admiral in World War II. His father, John S. McCain II, also an admiral” was “soon to become commander-in-chief of all forces in the Pacific, making him the highest ranking officer in the Vietnam War.”

Zalin Grant further reported: “McCain had acted as though he was determined to show all those who were inclined to think the worst of him that they were right.” McCain himself wrote in his book Faith of My Fathers: “I did not enjoy the reputation of a serious pilot or an up-and-coming junior officer.”

His record as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy was abysmal. He piled up demerits…for breaking the rules, and barely passed his schoolwork, graduating 894th in a class of 899.” After McCain left the Academy he continued to show the same attitude that would have resulted in flunking out or led to his being expelled from the Academy if not for his “silver-spoon” military lineage. “He barely passed flight school…he crashed two airplanes and damaged a third.”

An investigation into the first crash caused investigators to openly question McCain’s version of what happened and to leave open the possibility of “pilot error.” There was also what was to be considered to be the worst U.S. Navy accident since World War II aboard the USS Forrestal, which resulted in 134 sailors dying, and many others seriously burned. It was the fourth serious accident involving McCain since his becoming a pilot. “His reputation for being a hotdog – a show-off pilot who broke the rules – led to rumors that McCain had caused the fire by trying to scare the pilot behind him by suddenly shooting flames out of his tail exhaust. [While] there was no evidence McCain was at fault…the rumors persisted….McCain also developed a reputation for volatility…He had a quick temper and was prone to flare up over minor incidents.”

The civilian public has little if any comprehension of how well trained and gifted these pilots were and are. Ergo, what the public believes based upon lack of knowledge is far different from what these pilots factually know and expect from one another. Grant wrote: “To the American public, every pilot brought down by enemy fire was a hero; but carrier pilots made a sharp distinction between someone who was unavoidably shot down and a pilot who simply made a mistake.”

The facts surrounding McCain being shot down and captured are not those of a hero but of a self-absorbed “idiocrat” whose pattern of misconduct caught up with him. Here again Grant provides factual insight into what took place. After supposedly being hit by a SA-2 (SAMs) fire, McCain by his own admission: “failed to follow instructions in combat.”

But was he actually hit by SAMs? “The pilots flying near him, one of them with a handheld camera, said [McCain] was not hit by a SAM. He had flown too low and was brought down by a barrage of antiaircraft (AAA) fire…And since official Navy records listed McCain as downed by AAA fire, they were puzzled by why McCain later insisted in his political campaigns that it was a SAM.”

McCain made another critical error in the seconds immediately after being hit. He failed to use the proper procedure he had been taught for ejecting. As a result, he injured himself critically, breaking both arms and his right leg.

McCain has used his misdeeds and poor decision making to transform himself into a national war hero. The truth is that his cockpit alarm signaled him of incoming fire giving him plenty of time to respond according to evasive training but McCain ignored proper procedure.   It is important to note that while McCain was assaulted upon being on the ground, both “the Vietnam Government and an American veteran living in Hanoi confirmed years later that, Mai Van On, 49, a Hanoi resident ran from the safety of his bomb shelter and with the help of a neighbor tossed bamboo poles in the water and swam out to rescue McCain. Mai Van On and his friends floated McCain to shore where they were confronted by an angry mob which wanted to kill the American.” Mai Van On and his friends were able to save McCain but not before the mob further injured McCain.

McCain was unusually candid, (albeit I suspect for self-serving reasons), in admitting the injuries sustained in his poorly performed ejection drove him to try to bargain with his prison interrogators.

That McCain was beaten and tortured is true. But by his own admission in his book “Faith of My Fathers” he believed his treatment was less harsh than what the other POWs suffered. He attributed his being treated less cruelly than the other POWs because the Vietnamese knew who his father and grandfather were. He went so far as to confirm the other POWs “endured far worse than [he] had, and withstood the cruelest torture imaginable.”

But McCain went on to benefit from his own mistakes as a pilot when his political career took off. He benefited enormously from his self-sustained and avoidable ejection injuries. The television shots of him on crutches and bandages told a far different story than the truth did – and the American public bought the lies.

That McCain gave his captors information in exchange for easier treatment is not in question. The extent to which he personally benefited from same while being held varies only slightly. I had a full-bird colonel personally tell me several years ago that McCain enjoyed the company of prostitutes, drugs, and drinks while his countrymen were truly suffering as POWs. Variations of this account continue until today.

“Another public misperception arose concerning McCain’s refusal of an early release offered to him by the North Vietnamese. In reality, John McCain was not the singular POW who, as Time magazine wrote, languished in prison in Hanoi for years rather than accept a release he considered dishonorable…This was not about [his] honor, as he later made it appear, or about his personal struggle as to whether to accept an early release.”

His self-described anguish pursuant to whether or not to take an early release was not his decision to make, that decision was left to Air Force Colonel Ted Guy – unless of course, he had chosen to violate regulations and put himself at risk for future censure.

As referenced earlier, my friend’s observation was spot on. Everyone including the media is aware of McCain’s faux hero status. Yet they ignore it. Meanwhile the politicians and the media lavish McCain with recognition he is wholly unworthy of receiving.

The pernicious calumniators are guilty of misleading the public. But Donald Trump has changed that dynamic. He has forced the conversation and the politicos are outraged because the last thing any of them want is the truth told.

As I said to my friend: How does it make you feel to now be unavoidably confronted with the truth that you have been lied to and misled? Venal marplots have exploited you no less than pimps exploit prostitutes who are foolish enough to believe they have no choice and are afraid to take control of their destiny.

Think about it. Every single pundit attacking Donald Trump is attacking him for telling the truth. Since when did telling the truth become an indictable offense? Isn’t the truth what so-called conservatives constantly blather about? The politicos do not want the truth made known because the truth will set you free and the last thing either political party wants is for you and I to be free.

I have another question for so-called conservatives. If Fox News is such an advocate for conservative values and so “fair and balanced” why haven’t they told the truth about McCain, et al? Why does a President Reagan hating liberal pretending to be conservative Charles Krauthammer call Trump boorish, i.e., vulgar and common instead of praising Trump as a truth teller?

Trump is being attacked for speaking the truth about illegal aliens, McCain, and both political parties. Shouldn’t that tell you the voters something isn’t right if the party of your choice is fighting to conceal the truth? What will it take for you to realize that politicians are not our friends?

What will it take for you to realize that politicians are there to serve our interests; they are not there to thumb their noses at us? When will you realize that Fox News is nothing more than a jaundiced and invidious camarilla whose sole function is to validate the aberrant hebephrenic behavior of politicians? Or doesn’t it matter to you that you have been lied to? Let’s face it, if politicians and the media from the president to the lowest ranking politico know the truth about McCain and chose to prostitute the lie – they did it because they know you aren’t smart enough to understand you’re being lied to.

And to insure that pattern continues they will attack Trump, telling you he is wrong for speaking truth. They know that if they say it enough you will turn on him as you did Herman Cain and Sarah Palin.

Lyme Disease on the Rise As Tick Epidemic Spreads Across the US (Dr. Mercola)

Since a member of our family has been battling Lyme Disease for almost a year now I think it is very important we all understand how prevalent it is and seek treatment immediately if we have been bitten by a tick or have any unusual symptoms.  

This article by Dr. Mercola is very informative.

Lyme Disease on the Rise As Tick Epidemic Spreads Across the US

July 29, 2015 | 56,009 views

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By Dr. Mercola

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),1 an estimated 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year, and the prevalence is rising.

Since national surveillance began in 1982, the number of annual Lyme cases reported has increased nearly 25-fold.2 The disease is also spreading out geographically.3

Between 1993 and 1997, 43 counties across the US had a high incidence of Lyme disease. By 2012, the number of hotspots had skyrocketed to 182. As reported by Time Magazine:4

“‘Lyme disease is not only becoming more rampant in its normal hotspot of the northeast United States, it’s spreading across the country,’ a new report5 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns.

 ‘Over time, the number of counties identified as having high incidence of Lyme disease in the northeastern states increased more than 320 percent,’ researchers write...

They also note that the disease is appearing in states where it has never been recorded before. One big reason why Lyme disease is spiking, according to the CDC report: climate change.”6

Eliminating Predators Have Allowed Lyme Disease to Spread and Become More Prevalent

While deer usually gets the blame for spreading tick-borne disease, rodents are actually the primary threat. According to Richard Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at a Lyme disease research center:7

“The resurgence of deer population is an overblown factor. Our research suggests that white-footed mice are more important numerically. Basically, mice are a fantastic host for both the tick and [the bacteria that causes Lyme].”

Ticks are not born with the Lyme spirochetes. It picks up the bacteria when feeding on an infected host.8 Ostfeld’s research indicates that white-footed mice infect 75-95 percent of larval ticks that feed on them, while deer only infect about one percent.

Urban sprawl and hunting has eliminated many of the mice’s natural predators, allowing populations to grow, and with them comes infected ticks. This year, ticks are epidemic in certain areas of the US, including Illinois.

The CDC has identified high-risk counties in 17 states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota.

What Is Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease refers to illnesses transferred by biting or blood-sucking insects. The bacterium responsible for Lyme infection is Borrelia burgdorferi, 9 a “cousin” to the spirochete bacterium that causes syphilis.

Many still attribute transmission of Lyme disease exclusively to ticks (in the US, the black-legged deer tick, Ixodes scapularis; in Europe, the castor bean tick, I. ricinus.).10

But according to Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt — one the leading authorities on Lyme disease — the bacteria can also be spread by other biting or blood-sucking insects, including mosquitoes, spiders, fleas, and mites.

Common side effects of tick bites include an itchy “bull’s eye” rash, pain, fever, and inflammation.

However, you don’t have to get the hallmark “bull’s eye” as this rash occurs only in about half of those infected, so absence of such a rash does not exclude the possibility of a tick bite. Symptoms of Lyme disease typically start out with:

• Unrelenting fatigue
• Recurring fever
• Headaches / migraines
• Achy muscles and/or joints

If left untreated, the disease may progress to muscle spasms, loss of motor coordination, and even intermittent paralysis, meningitis, or heart problems. For a more complete list of symptoms, refer to the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance.11Lymedisease.org has also created a printable Symptom Checklist.12

The B. burgdorferi spirocheteis shaped like a corkscrew, which allows it to burrow into and hide in a variety of your body’s tissues. It can also live intracellularly (inside your cells), which allows it to evade antibiotics.

For this reason, some doctors recommend giving antibiotics along with Plaquenil in order to change the intracellular pH.13 The organisms can also take up residence in biofilms, or in an encoated “cyst” form.

All of these different morphologies and clever evasion capabilities explain why Lyme infection can cause such wide-ranging multisystem involvement and why treatment is so difficult.

This also explains why recurrence of symptoms can still occur after standard antibiotic protocols. Complicating matters further, ticks can also infect you with a number of other disease-causing organisms, such as Bartonella, Rickettsia, Ehrlichia, and Babesia.

These organisms can travel with Borrelia burgdorferi (the causative agent of Lyme) and each organism causes a different set of symptoms. According to Dr. Klinghardt, many Lyme patients have one or more of these co-infections, which may or may not respond to any given treatment.

The Lyme bacterium has yet another stealthy survival mechanism. While most bacteria need iron to survive, the Lyme bacterium has adapted to survive without iron, using manganese instead.

This allows it to evade your body’s natural immune system defenses that destroy pathogens by cutting off their iron supply.14

Why Lab Tests Are Unreliable for Diagnosing Lyme Disease

The simplest presentation of Lyme disease is the orthopedic forms, which typically affect the larger joints. When the microbes and the associated immune reactions are situated in the connective tissue, the infection presents as a “vague, dispersed pain,” which oftentimes ends up being misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia by conventional doctors. In fact, Lyme disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose, and doctors quite often get it wrong.15

Lyme is known as “the great imitator,” as it can mimic many other disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS), arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, ALS, ADHD, and Alzheimer’s disease.16 When nothing unusual shows up on blood tests, some patients are even told their problems are “all in their head,” and may be referred to a psychologist.  

One of the reasons blood tests are so unreliable as indicators of Lyme infection is that the spirochete is capable of infecting your white blood cells. Lab tests rely on the normal function of these cells to produce the antibodies they measure. If your white cells are infected, they will not respond to an infection appropriately. Interestingly, the worse your Borrelia infection is, the less likely it will show up on a blood test.

In order for Lyme tests to be useful, you actually have to be treated first. Once your immune system begins to respond normally, only then will the antibodies show up on a blood test. This is called the “Lyme Paradox” — you have to be treated before a proper diagnosis can be made.

I recommend the specialized lab called IGeneX because they test for more outer surface proteins (bands), and can often detect Lyme while standard blood tests cannot. IGeneX also tests for a few strains of co-infections such as Babesia andErhlichia. That said, a negative on the IGeneX test for these co-infections does not necessarily mean you are not infected, as there are many more strains than tests can currently detect.

The Controversy over Treatment for Chronic Lyme

While most doctors now acknowledge that Lyme disease is real, controversy still remains over whether or not Lyme can persist and become chronic — and if so, whether extended, long-term treatment with antibiotics is effective.17 Doctors who belong to the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) do not believe in chronic Lyme and typically will not treat a Lyme patient beyond four weeks.

Doctors belonging to the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society18 (ILADS), on the other hand, do believe Lyme can persist and are willing to treat you beyond the four- week period. Insurance companies typically will not pay for extended use of antibiotics though, as they follow the guidelines of the IDSA.

Personally, I find it baffling that physicians would deny the possibility of ongoing infection when these organisms are known to operate by stealth, and are capable of evading detection and most standard treatment protocols. I can tell you first hand, from my experience with my girlfriend Erin who was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2013 after suffering from a range of hard-to-pin-down symptoms for 14 years, chronic Lyme does exist.

The good news is that no matter how long you’ve had it, there is hope for a full recovery. A new Lyme research center attached to the rheumatology division at Hopkins Bayview Medical Center has also been created, specifically to investigate chronic Lyme. As reported by BDN Maine News:19

“Dr. John Aucott, a leading Lyme researcher tapped to direct the Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center... said his new affiliation with Hopkins will bring fresh attention, and resources, to the issue. He and others will look to determine if the infection is hiding or, as he hypothesizes, is developing into a new disorder, possibly an autoimmune one like rheumatoid arthritis. He and others will explore if there is a genetic component, an underlying condition or other bacteria or viruses involved.”

Treatment Recommendations

Total Video Length: 1:35:03

Download Interview Transcript

I personally do not believe that long-term antibiotic treatment is a wise choice for most chronic Lyme sufferers. I recommend exhausting every natural alternative before resorting to long-term antibiotics as it will seriously impair your gut microbiome. They also leave you open to yeast or fungal co-infections, which are already common in the disease.

Eliminating the beneficial bacteria in your gut with antibiotics will also seriously impair your natural immune function, and may raise your risk of antibiotic-resistant infection, which could be life-threatening. A gentler solution to conventional antibiotics is the Nutramedix line of herbal antimicrobials. This was developed by one of my alternative medicine mentors, Dr. Lee Cowden, and is often termed the “Cowden Protocol.” 

It is not thought to cause resistance because this protocol cycles various herbal antimicrobials. The use of antifungals like fluconazole and nystatin may be appropriate and helpful when a secondary yeast infection is present. Ideally, you would focus on boosting your immune function with a healthy diet and antioxidants such as astaxanthin. A compounded drug called low-dose naltrexone (LDN), known to help your body fight harder, may also be beneficial. 

Below is a summary of Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt’s basic treatment strategies. For more comprehensive details on his full treatment protocol, please see this previous article: “Dr. Klinghardt's Treatment of Lyme Disease.” You can also visit Dr. Klinghardt’s website,20 where he posts his more current treatment protocols and recipes. In summary, there are five basic steps to his protocol:

1. Evaluation of all external factors. External factors include electrosmog, EMF, microwave radiation from wireless technologies, and molds. (For more information on mold, see Ritchie Shoemaker’s website21).
2. Remediation and mitigation of external factors. Once external factors have been assessed, they're remediated and mitigated. (Please refer to our previous article on mold remediation.) To mitigate microwave radiation, Dr. Klinghardt recommends shielding the outside of your home with a graphite paint called Y Shield. Inside, he uses a special silver-coated cloth for your curtains. Patients are instructed to remove all cordless telephones and turn off all the fuses at night, until they have recovered from Lyme disease.
3. Addressing emotional issues. Emotional components of the disease are addressed using Energy Psychology tools, including psychokinesiology (PK), which is similar to the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), but more refined and advanced.
4. Addressing parasitic, bacterial, and viral infections. Dr. Klinghardt addresses the parasites first, followed by the bacteria and the viruses. "The Klinghardt Antimicrobial Cocktail," which includes wormwood (artemisinin), phospholipids, vitamin C, and various herbs, is an integral part of this treatment. He addresses viral infections with Viressence (by BioPure), which is a tincture of Native American herbs.
5. Addressing other lifestyle factors. Nutritional considerations and supplements are addressed.

Nutritional Supplements That May Be Useful in the Treatment of Lyme Disease

The following table lists a number of nutritional supplements found to be useful in the treatment of Lyme disease by those embracing natural methods.

Probiotics to improve immunity and restore microflora during and after antibiotics	Curcumin is helpful at reducing neurological toxins and brain swelling
Astaxanthin to neutralize toxins, improve vision, and relieve joint pain, common in Lyme	Whey protein concentrate may help with nutrition, often poor in Lyme patients who don’t feel well enough to eat properly
Grapefruit seed extract may treat the cyst form ofBorrelia	Krill oil to reduce inflammation
Cilantro as a natural chelator for heavy metals	Serrapeptase helps to break biofilms
Resveratrol may treat Bartonella, a co-infection and also helps detoxification	GABA and melatonin to help with insomnia
Artemisinin and Andrographis, two herbs that may treat Babesia, a common co-infection	CoQ10 to support cardiac health and reduce muscle pain and brain fog
Quercetin reduces histamine (often high in Lyme)	Transfer factors can help boost immune function

Additional Resources

• International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS)
• Tick-Borne Disease Alliance (TBDA). Under the “Diagnosing TBDS” tab, you can find a listing of medical professionals knowledgeable in the treatment of Lyme
• Lyme Disease Association, Inc.
• LymeDisease.org
• Lyme disease expert Joseph J. Burrascano, MD, wrote what is essentially a manual for managing Lyme disease, entitled: Advanced Topics in Lyme Disease, which is worth adding to your resource files. Realize that his treatment focus is long-term antibiotics, which I believe should not be your first choice. Nevertheless, there is some good information there.

Prevention 101

Considering how difficult it is to diagnose and treat Lyme disease, I strongly recommend taking preventive measures22 to prevent infection in the first place. This includes the following recommendations:

• Avoid tick-infested areas, such as leaf piles around trees. Walk in the middle of trails, and avoid brushing against long grasses path edgings. Don’t sit on logs or wooden stumps.
• Wear light-colored long pants and long sleeves, to make it easier to see the ticks.
• Tuck your pants into socks, and wear closed shoes and a hat — especially if venturing out into wooded areas. Also tuck your shirt into your pants.
• Ticks, especially nymphal ticks, are very tiny, so do a thorough tick check upon returning inside, and keep checking for several days following exposure. Also check your bedding for several days following exposure. Ticks must typically remain attached for at least 24 hours for the Lyme disease bacteria to be transmitted into your blood stream, so early removal is important.
• If you have Japanese barberry on your property, you may want to consider getting rid of it. As noted in a recent Forbesarticle:23

“This popular shrub has pretty red color and is easy to grow — so much so that it is invasive, choking off native plants in its path. Deer favor native shrubs, leaving the thorny barberry alone.

And the microclimate around the barberry also favors the tick’s reproduction and that of the white footed mouse, an intermediate host in the transmission cycle, resulting in an aptly described ‘tick nursery.’ So rid your property of barberry and go with native plants as much as possible.”

I do not recommend using chemical insect repellants directly on your skin as this will introduce toxins directly into your body. If you use them, spray them on the outside of your clothes, and avoid inhaling the spray fumes. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a list24 indicating the hourly protection limits for various repellents. Also beware of using toxic insect repellants on your pets. Misuse of Spot-On flea and tick products can be lethal. For safer alternatives, see Dr. Karen Becker’s recommendations.

If you find that a tick has latched on, it’s very important to remove it properly. For detailed instructions, please see Lymedisease.org’s Tick Removal page.25 Once removed, make sure you save the tick so that it can be tested for presence of pathogenic organisms.