Ahh Plumb Island, home of many unusual animal diseases like foot and mouth, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and purportedly the point of origin for Lyme Disease (first case Lyme County a few miles away) ! AKA Plum Island off the tip of Long Island. The place was thought to be a wonderful spot to Build a secret lab, Lab 257 . Lab 257 was a 1950s Biological Weapons research Lab. Unfortunately being along the flyway for Canadian Geese and many waterfowl as well as the perfect spot to get hammered by hurricanes it is reported that Lyme disease first escaped into the environment and has been wreaking havoc up and down the East coast ever since. Lab 257 is a great book for those interested in some real life scary stuff. What I find interesting is that Lyme is not particularly debilitating to most animals but is devastating to humans if not immediately treated with heavy antibiotics like Doxycycline . Us detectorists should definitely wear our bug spray (deep woods off) and some friends of mine wash their clothes in Pyrethrum based insect repellant available for that purpose. It is good for three washes after and will keep you from getting ticks which spread Lyme disease among other diseases. It is the tiny deer tick that carries the disease and if you find the tick in the first 24 hrs and remove it you should be ok. Lymes is pretty much everywhere on the East Coast and many people I know have been affected. So don't detect on Plum Island or you could get quarantined or just melt in a pile of ooze if the spooks don't grab you first.
