First, allow me to proclaim no scientific background to this piece. Only the observation of a lover of forests and all creatures living therein, big or small.

Anyone who has been bitten my a wood tick or just had one on them likely is afflicted by ghost tick syndrome. The syndrome also applies to ants, spiders, wasps, and other potentially biting insects. Except those would not be ghost tick syndrome but more likely ghost ant or ghost spider syndromes.

The syndrome appears whenever someone is in an area where such insects as ticks proliferate on animals or just hang out in the wild. It is, unfortunately, only humans who get the itch of ghost tick syndrome. It is the sensation you have a tick on your body, even after you’ve checked every inch of your body and, perhaps, had someone else check you for one working in an area where it’s difficult for you to see if there’s one there.

You feel something crawling across your skin or being in your hair, maybe even your ear. You freak out at the prospect of being infected or, worse, infested with several ticks…even where there’s no reason to be alarmed. Ghost tick syndrome can even affect someone who merely hears people talking about ticks.

You can still be alarmed and require a second body scan to just make sure. Know it is just your mind in ghost mode playing tricks on your psyche. If you’ve had GTS, you will always have it, even if you stay out of the woods and away from areas where ticks may be hunting for people like you, or deer, bears, and other breathing animals. Advice: Don’t be afraid of the forest because of ticks. Wear natural balm or use bug spray and follow directions on how to minimize attracting ticks. Those don’t help with GTS though.

I share this information with you because I have ghost hornet syndrome. When I was younger and went fishing with my brother and grandfather, by accident I stepped on a black wasp net as we walked to the stream. Grandpa got stung on the thumb. My brother got it on his belly. I got the worst, despite trying to run and escape. I was stung seventeen times. When we got back to the farm and my grandmother used one of her home remedies to combat the venom in my veins, I passed out. I still have reactions to bee stings more than sixty years later. But I don’t let hornets, wasps, or bees stop me from living.