Let me tell you a true Lyme Disease story. Back in the mid' 90's, during the TVA's tenure as overseers of the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area (LBL) in western Kentucky and Tennessee...
I become convinced they were engaging in Deer Tick research and high volume production. For it was impossible to go into LBL without finding lots of them on you...and wearing white pants (as some do), if you looked closely it would be like watching a bunch of black pepper flakes moving about.
So anyhow, I'm an expert on historic Iron Furnaces (where 100 to 200 years ago, iron was reduced out of limestone and iron ore, in large furnaces built generally, to look like pyramids), and there are several furnace remains in LBL.
So one day, I found, not the standing stack or pyramid of the Great Western Furnace, but instead it's broken down stack over which a gravel road ran. That left a rock bank about 15 feet high, running down from the road into a creek.
So I took a gingerly step upon the first rock...and it turned out from under me, throwing me down the stack of rocks head long and head first. Of course, it being summer, my greatest fear, as I bounced down the bank hitting furnace rocks and piles of leaves in the voids...was Copperhead snakes.
Fortunately though, I saw no snakes. But for that matter, I didn't see any deer ticks either.
Two days later I'm itching like crazy. About 85 tick bites covered my body, and I couldn't sleep, couldn't sit still. I was about half mad with the aggrating itching and scratching.
So my stepmother says, "Shotgun...you need to draw yourself a tubfull of water, and add some Purex or Chorox in, and take a bath. That'll stop the itching real quick".
So I did as she said, drew the water, emptied a gallon of Purex into it, and crawled in.
And my Word!!! the water was some kind of slick, and as I laid back, waiting the relief, well, the Purex burned through the first scab, right on my rear thigh. It felt like someone had poked me with a hot poker. But before I could make a move, another burned through behind my right knee. And another! and then two at the same time, on two different legs...fact is, I was squalling, jumping, crying, gnashing my teeth, and doing everything within my power to get up. And before I could, I believe every one of the 85 tick bites I had about my pore ole body had been burned out...
But that bloomin' water was so slick, so slippery, that every single time a got a foot down, and put a mite of pressure on it, it slipped off.
Well, to make a long story short, I did eventually get out of the tub, drained it, and took a long cold shower. It had to be long to get the Purex off of me sufficiently to stop burning, and cold to help decrease my sensitivity.
At the doctor's the next day, we found the bull's eye rash, which we treated for a good while. And Lord a mercy! I was one sick puppy for months thereafter.
Do yer utmost to stay away from deer ticks...and even more to stay out of Purex treated bathtubs. Oh yeah, stepmother told me later she meant a cup of water in the tub, not a gallon.