Finding Caches

Once you have made an account on the geocache website, you are ready to start. (Don't forget that you will need to purchase a GPS or borrow one from a friend.)You can start by finding caches or hiding caches. Finding caches first might help you get ideas for your own caches. To find a cache near you, go to the geocache website and on the left you will see "Hide & Seek A Cache", click this and fill in the information according to your location. Once you've clicked enter, a list of geocaches will appear. These are the caches in your area. Pick one of those caches and enter the coordinates into your GPS. Then you are ready to find the cache. Once you have found the cache, write in the log book, found inside the cache, about your finding. When you go home, you can go on the caches info page and mark that you found the cache and leave comments about it.

What Is Geocaching?

Here is a video, seen on the geocaching website, that explains geocaching.

Visit the website to get started: www.geocaching.com

Our Goal

This was created as part of a Gold Award Project for the girl scouts of Troop 30543. Our names are Maggie & Katie and our project is called “Geocaching in the Historic Places of Camden County!" Geocaching is the main focus of our project. We plan on hiding caches at various historic locations in Camden County, NJ. We also need something extra to go along with the project. We decided to create this blog to help you with geocaching and getting started.

Chiggers - A Hazard of Cacheing

Chiggers, which are also called harvest mites or red bugs, are very small and can not usually be seen without a magnifying glass or microscope. Their 'bite' also isn't usually noticeable, which is why you usually don't even know you were around chiggers until you start itching and notice the rash about 12 or 24 hours later.

Once on your body, they typically move around looking for a good place to feed, which is usually a thin layer of skin. They will also begin to feed if they reach a barrier, such as the waistband of your clothes or your armpit.

But chiggers don't even really bite you in the traditional sense, like a mosquito does. Instead, they attach themselves to your skin, inject saliva with digestive enzymes that helps to break down your skin cells, which the chigger drinks. It is these enzymes that cause the itchy rash.
Although chiggers can stay attached to your skin for several days and continue eating, they are very easily brushed off and are usually knocked off once you begin to scratch the rash or take a shower or bath. That is why it can be a good idea to have your kids take a quick shower or bath after they have been playing outside in any type of 'wild' areas of your neighborhood. Another good reason is just so you can wash off any insect repellent that you had put on.

Myths About ChiggersOne of the biggest myths or misconceptions about chiggers is that they can burrow under your skin and drink your blood. This leads to the common treatment for chiggers of putting clear nail polish on chigger bites to suffocate the chiggers. Since chiggers don't actually burrow under your skin, this 'treatment' is unnecessary.

Treatments for Chigger BitesWhile nail polish isn't a good treatment for chigger bites, anything that can help control the itching can be helpful, including:
- take a bath or shower as soon as possible after any possible exposure to chiggers
- apply your favorite OTC anti-itch medication, such as hydrocortisone, Calamine lotion, Sarna, oatmeal baths, etc.
- oral Benadryl
- a prescription strength steroid cream Although chiggers in North America don't usually carry any diseases, the bites themselves can get infected.

Avoiding Chigger BitesSince not going outside and being active is not good advice and unlike poison ivy, it is hard to spot and avoid chiggers, it is important to learn other ways to avoid chiggers and chigger bites. This can include avoiding wearing clothing that put you at risk for chigger bites, such as sandals without socks, sleeveless shirts, and shorts. Instead, wear long pants made of tightly woven fabric, long sleeved shirts, and high top boots or shoes. As an added defense, it can help to tuck your pant legs into your shoes or boots.

Insect repellents are another good way to help you avoid chiggers. In addition to applying it on your exposed skin, it can help to apply your insect repellent around your ankles, wrists, neck, and waist, which is where the chiggers often gain access to the rest of your body through your shoes, shirt, pants, and shoes.

Reports indicate that the most effective repellent for chiggers is sulphur. Chiggers hate sulphur and definitely avoid it. Powdered sulphur is available through most pharmacies.

Another good way to avoid chigger bites is to keep them out of your backyard, especially if your lawn is infested with chiggers. Since chiggers like high grass and weeds, keeping your lawn well groomed and treating the infested area with an insecticide may be helpful.

Sand Fleas - A Hazard of Cacheing

A sand flea is also known by many other names. For example, this crustacean (although it resembles an insect, the sand flea is actually not one) is also called a sand fly, beach flea, hop-a-long, no-see-um, biting midge, and punkie or punky. The sand flea is less than 1/8 of an inch (3 mm) long and is often difficult to see. It is a shrimp-like creature in appearance and ranges in color from pale to brownish. The body has seven segments and it has long legs that are used for swimming or jumping. They are known to jump to a height of at least 40 cm and therefore, it is unusual to experience a sand flea bite on upper body parts unless the victim was lying down. The bites are normally found in clusters around the ankles.

Ticks - A Hazard of Cacheing

Prior to the late 1970’s, tick-borne diseases in New Jersey were relatively rare and not considered a major public health threat. Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) was the only tick-borne disease recognized in New Jersey at that time. The first cases of Lyme disease were reported in New Jersey in 1978 and since then, it has been the most commonly reported tick-borne disease in the United States. The majority of Lyme disease cases occur in the Northeast. New Jersey consistently ranks among the states reporting the most cases. Recently, several other tick-borne diseases have become a concern, including human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE), human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME), and babesiosis. The geographical distribution and public health importance of these emerging tick-borne diseases in New Jersey is not well understood at this point. Three ticks, called vectors, are responsible for all tick-borne disease transmission in New Jersey:

1. black-legged tick or more commonly known as the deer tick
2. lone star tick
3. American dog tick

Each of these species is a 3-host tick, meaning it must locate and obtain a bloodmeal from a host animal in each of its active developmental stages (larva, nymph, adult) to complete its life cycle. The role that various hosts play in the transmission cycles is critical to understanding tick-borne diseases. Certain animals provide a source of blood only and are termed maintenance hosts. Those that provide a bloodmeal and a source of disease organisms are called reservoir hosts. Certain hosts, such as birds, are also responsible for dispersal of ticks over long distances. The
ticks involved in disease transmission in New Jersey are not host-specific, that is, they will feed on a variety of animals. The type of host generally is determined by the behavior of the tick species and life stage. Humans are considered incidental hosts. The transmission cycles of the various tick-borne diseases have both similarities and differences. Lyme disease, human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, and babesiosis share a common reservoir host (white-footed mouse) and tick vector (black-legged tick), both of which are most frequently encountered in forested habitats. Rocky Mountain spotted fever has a different reservoir host and tick vector (American dog tick), which exploits habitats quite different from the other tick species. Therefore, an understanding of these differences is important in reducing exposure to infected ticks and minimizing transmission risk.


PREVENTION
The best way to prevent tick-borne diseases is to avoid tick-infested areas, including woodland, wooded edges, and landscaped areas with dense ground cover, leaf litter, or shrubs. If this is not possible, take the following precautions when entering likely tick habitats.
- Wear light-colored clothing, making it easier to see ticks.
- Tuck pants legs into socks and shirts into pants. Ticks will be forced to crawl on the outside of clothing, where they can be more easily seen and removed.
- Use repellents. Personal repellents which contain DEET can be used on skin or clothing, while repellents containing permethrin should only be used on clothing. Be certain to read label directions carefully.

The risk of transmission can be reduced further by examining yourself and family members when returning from tick-infested areas and removing ticks before they have a chance to feed. Ticks require a relatively long time to insert their mouthparts and begin feeding. Ticks that are removed promptly are unlikely to transmit disease organisms. Ticks embedded in the skin should only be removed by grasping the tick with pointed tweezers as close to the skin as possible and applying firm, steady backward force until the tick becomes dislodged. Attempts to remove attached ticks with noxious chemicals or by burning will not work, may cause injury to the skin, and can increase the risk of transmission by causing the tick to regurgitate disease organisms into thebody. After the tick has been removed, wash the skin area thoroughly to avoid infection.