Tick season is already in full swing and it’s going to be one of the worst years for ticks and lyme disease. Make sure your pets are on flea/tick/heartworm prevention and get your dogs vaccinated against lyme!

The sun is shining and the grass is green in minnesota today, what a lovely beginning to the impending TICKPOCALYPSE

Remember to cover yourselves appropriately if you’re going places with lots of wildlife! Ticks are dangerous for people as well as pets!

I’ve always heard to avoid long pants because ticks are easier to notice and remove when they try to climb a bare leg, but I think it’s a matter of preference tbh.

What you really need is to use a good repellant made for use in tick heavy areas. I’m not talking citronella essential oils, I mean a real repellant like Deep woods OFF that uses DDT. Spray it on your shoes and inside your shoes. You would be surprised how many ticks start in your socks and work their way up. I have had waaaaaay fewer guests on me after spraying my shoes as well as my legs.

If you want to get REALLY serious you can treat your hiking gear in permethrin, or get permethrin treated exercise gear. It’s a very potent, effective substance that kills ticks and other parasites on contact. It’s present in some flea and tick treatments for dogs. But the kicker is, permethrin is also VERY toxic to cats, so if you have a cat and you feel like you need permethrin treated gear, you MUST keep the gear where kitty can’t get it.

Friendly reminder to stock up on tick meds for your pets, and repellent for yourself! This year is going to be a BAD one.

ALWAYS check yourself after a hike, or any trip outside. Wear bright clothes so it’s easier to see ticks on you, and make sure to do a full-body check when you’re done. This includes checking your hair line and under waistbands or underwear (last tick I found on me was on my butt, and I had been hiking with pants and a long shirt on…trust me, check under your underwear).

Remove ticks as soon as you find them, and keep them in a small container or bag (heads completely squished) for identification purposes just in case your bite looks iffy later on. Clean the bite site thoroughly. Be on the look out for any flu-like symptoms, rashes, or red rings around the bite site like a bulls-eye (note: a slight red ring right afterward is normal, see below for what “bad” looks like). Usually if you get a tick off in the first 24 hours you’ll be ok, so long as you didn’t agitate the tick, but if you notice anything abnormal go to the doctor ASAP. If your tick was engorged when removed, be especially on the lookout. It’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to the nasty diseases ticks can carry.

Remember: if you’re buying tick preventatives for your pets, make sure you get one that’s meant for them. Don’t use dog-specific medicine on cats, or vice-versa, and make sure you get the correct weight range for your pet. Failure to do so can lead to serious complications for your pets. If you’re not sure what you should use or what’s safe for pets, contact your local veterinarian and ask. If your pet is bitten by a tick and displays any abnormal behaviors or symptoms of sickness get them to your vet as soon as you can and bring the tick with you.

This has been your tick safety reminder post for the season.

Reblogging for both human tick safety and the note that permethrin is really deadly to cats.

also keep in mind that the rash only develops in 70-80% of lyme patients so you’re not safe just cuz you don’t have a rash. It also doesn’t necessarily develop at the site of the tick bite.

I ended up with lymes and not knowing it for awhile, and they tested and suggested everything else BUT lymes until a doctor suggested I do a lymes test. Some places like Oklahoma insist that lymes doesn’t exist here. Which is pure BS. Do what you can to keep those ticks away! (And mosquitoes and sand fleas cause you can get it from them too.)

Heads up PayPal is changing ToS again

And they are getting even more strict when it comes to not using invoices for charging for Digital Goods.

Whatever Invoices make you uncomfortable or not, you gotta start using them if you want to keep your PayPal and your money. Changes starting this October 19th.

Honestly I don’t get why so many artists are so overwhelmed by invoices, takes just a few clicks to set up. 

And is not only “oh you have to use invoices because PayPal says so” if you don’t use invoices you’re putting yourself at risk of being scammed by an user abusing the buyer’s protection. 

Since PayPal ain’t got no idea of what those $50 you received were for, but the buyer is saying they didn’t got anything for the money, PayPal will just side with the buyer.

I’m seriously begging ppl, start using invoices. I’m tired of seeing ppl complain their paypal was banned, or is under investigation, or worse, the $100 they got for a very complicated commission, 3 months later get a refund issue. 

just

start

using

invoices

for your own sake. 

Here is how you use invoices because I can’t keep playing devil’d advocate, yes I would love to help you get your PayPal restored but just this last month I had to help three persons, and they were MORE than aware of this issues. 

Just protect yourself. 

Step 1. You login and click here

Step 2. You click create new Invoice. YOU NEVER CLICK REQUEST MONEY, unless you want to risk yourself to get scamer by buyer’s protection exploit and not only lose your money but your paypal account, and any future paypal linked to your irl name. 

Step 3 You follow this steps

1. Invoice for amount only

2. Ask your client for their PayPal email and put in that field

3. Add a vague description of what you’re doing, something like “Character Coloured with Background” is good enough, and if you need more than 1 character you can type in “2″ where it says amount, or just say “2 characters”.

Warning: don’t type in “Naruto rawing Sasuke”. That will get you banned. 

4. Click send. 

Optional steps. Create a template, doesn’t take more than 10 minutes and it will save you a lot of time for future invoices, you can even click on “items” right next to “create invoice” and add a list of services you offer such as “character sketch” “character flats” along with a price, so next time you invoice you just add to the invoice from your list of items and you saved yourself some more time. 

More importantly, you protect yourself from buyer’s protection exploit because if PayPal knows you’re doing digital goods, then you will be allowed that you did in fact created a digital good. 

Keep PayPal happy, as for right now there are no alternatives to this service, and this is the only source of income for many freelancers. 

Stay safe. 

Heads up, all commissioning artists

Heads up to people looking to commission artists, too

Read an artist’s TOS–if anything in the TOS so much as mentions an invoice, do not send payment without an invoice. Even if an artist doesn’t work with invoices, ask for one anyway. Cover both of your asses. Link them to this Tumblr post if you have to. With PayPal’s policies getting stricter and stricter with digital goods, you could potentially get an artist in a lot of trouble and their account frozen if you just up and send payment without waiting for them to send you an invoice.

I’ve been using PayPal invoices for three to four years, and I still get people who pay for their commission before I can even get an invoice filled out, despite being told outright that I’m sending them an invoice. It’s very, very nerve wracking for me, especially if the payment is a large one. I need my PayPal account to make a living; I literally can’t afford to take a gamble with commissioners who can’t be patient anymore.

Let's talk about Sophia/@slimegirl_/Paul.

I should preface all of this by saying that I don’t at all enjoy dragging people through the mud, making a big scene, doing callouts, and that’s why I stayed silent for so long, I just told people what happened and left it at that. But staying silent benefits Paul, it means he gets away with what he did, it means he can return to some semblance of normalcy, it means he has a chance of doing what he did to Nikki and me to others. Yelling about this feels necessary. It’s time to be loud and unprofessional because it’s the only way I can make sure that this guy can’t do this again.

So Let’s Talk About Sophia Slimegirl Paul.

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