If I had the power to solve one problem in this world, it wouldn’t be world peace, or hunger, or inventing a longer-lasting light bulb. I’d get rid of ticks. There, I said it.
Ticks have given me the heebie-jeebies since I was about 6 and my mom explained to me what that wierd bug was doing as she pulled it out of my skin. I about had a fit of the dry-heaves watching it pull my skin with it and I decided that these evil creatures were a good thing to hate. Later in life, when I found out that they communicate diseases, it just made my hatred that much more vindicated.
Spring is officially here, with the departure of the mounds of snow and the arrival of 50+ degree temps. I also mark the arrival of spring with the first tick sighting. Much to my chagrin, it was buried in me by my collarbone and I discovered it after a shower. My son and I had been out geocaching, and since we were still wading through knee-deep snow in spots, I figured we’d be good in the parasite department. Wrong. My dog has also had a couple already on him this year as well, since he likes running about in the woods after squirrels and other furry woodland creatures. So start keeping an eye out, folks!
What to look for?
picture courtesy CDC
These are the lil’ bastids you’re looking for. All ticks can carry forms of diseases, but far and away the champion in the “oh shit” department is the one in the top row, the Black-Legged, or Deer tick. They are famous for transmitting Lyme’s disease, Anaplasmosis, and Babeosis. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is transmitted by the Dog Tick. For a list of other tick-borne diseases and which ticks transmit them, check out the CDC page here. Ticks pick up diseases from latching onto and feeding off rodents (primarily) when they are in the nymph and/or larva stages, then dropping off, molting, and latching onto a human or bigger creature and then feeding off that host, spreading the disease from a former host. It’s all pretty appalling if you ask me.
What if I’m bitten by a tick?
Once you’re bitten by a tick (the CDC says the best way not to get bitten by a tick is to not go where they are. Duh.), you have to get it out of you. Early detection is the best (I’ve been told a tick must be attached to you for 48 hours for it to transmit diseases, but my research didn’t support this…nevertheless, the sooner you get it out the better.), and it must be pulled out. Using heat to get it to pull out, or painting it with vaseline or nail polish to inhibit its breathing will just result in a dead tick still stuck to you. Using tweezers and grabbing as close to its head as possible, or using a tick removal tool such as these and pulling with steady straight outward pressure will do the job. Don’t twist or yank, as this has a higher probability of leaving the mouth parts inside of you, causing a possible infection. If a little piece of your skin comes off with the tick, you got all of the tick.
As soon as the tick is off you, you may want to save it in case you develop symptoms of tick-borne diseases. Scrub the area clean with soap and water, and rubbing alcohol. Wash your hands thoroughly as well. It would probably be a good idea to check the rest of your body out, perhaps while listening to this.
Keep tabs on yourself after you’ve been bitten. Many tick diseases (Lyme’s in particular) will have tell-tale signs such as this “bullseye” rash:
Also, the CDC has this to say about symptoms that are common to almost all tick-borne diseases:
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Fever/chills: With all tickborne diseases, patients can experience fever at varying degrees and time of onset.
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Aches and pains: Tickborne disease symptoms include headache, fatigue, and muscle aches. With Lyme disease you may also experience joint pain. The severity and time of onset of these symptoms can depend on the disease and the patient’s personal tolerance level.
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Rash: Lyme disease, southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI), Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), ehrlichiosis, and tularemia can result in distinctive rashes:
- In Lyme disease, the rash may appear within 3-30 days, typically before the onset of fever. The Lyme disease rash is the first sign of infection and is usually a circular rash called erythema migrans or EM. This rash occurs in approximately 70-80% of infected persons and begins at the site of a tick bite. It may be warm, but is not usually painful. Some patients develop additional EM lesions in other areas of the body several days later.
- The rash of (STARI) is nearly identical to that of Lyme disease, with a red, expanding “bulls eye” lesion that develops around the site of a lone star tick bite. Unlike Lyme disease, STARI has not been linked to any arthritic or neurologic symptoms.
- The rash seen with Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) varies greatly from person to person in appearance, location, and time of onset. About 10% of people with RMSF never develop a rash. Most often, the rash begins 2-5 days after the onset of fever as small, flat, pink, non-itchy spots (macules) on the wrists, forearms, and ankles and spreads to the trunk. It sometimes involves the palms and soles. The red to purple, spotted (petechial) rash of RMSF is usually not seen until the sixth day or later after onset of symptoms and occurs in 35-60% of patients with the infection.
- In the most common form of tularemia, a skin ulcer appears at the site where the organism entered the body. The ulcer is accompanied by swelling of regional lymph glands, usually in the armpit or groin.
- In about 30% of patients (and up to 60% of children), ehrlichiosis can cause a rash. The appearance of the rash ranges from macular to maculopapular to petechial, and may appear after the onset of fever.
Tickborne diseases can result in mild symptoms treatable at home to severe infections requiring hospitalization. Although easily treated with antibiotics, these diseases can be difficult for physicians to diagnose. However, early recognition and treatment of the infection decreases the risk of serious complications. So see your doctor immediately if you have been bitten by a tick and experience any of the symptoms described here.
How does this affect us?
As people who might have a propensity for being outdoors often, preppers, survivalists, hikers, outdoorsmen, hunters, fishermen, all have a much higher risk of being bitten by ticks. With a little bit of vigilance, though, this possibility can be mostly negated. Check yourself, your clothes, and your gear over COMPLETELY when returning in from the woods – ticks can latch onto your clothing and find you later. But, gone unchecked, tick-borne diseases can and will screw you up for life. Lyme’s disease will destroy your joints, nervous system (leading to possible paralysis) and your circulatory system. A normal course of antibiotics will straighten things out if caught early enough, but obviously, if there are no antibiotics to be had, you are in a world of hurt. So in this case in particular, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Keep an eye on yourself, pets, and loved ones when you get out in the woods.
For further reading, I definitely recommend the CDC page on ticks. I learned a lot from it, so I’m sure you could too. Now I’m gonna go check myself over, because just writing this post has given me case of the creepy-crawlies like you wouldn’t believe.
Stay safe!
-TRW
16 comments
Ticks and me go way back as well.
Unfortunately the fear of them are keeping people from enjoying the outdoors and over protective parents are keeping children indoors.
We even had a radio announcement last year to stay out of the woods.
My best advice is to enjoy the outdoors but check yourself from head to toe at the end of day. Also do not pee in a waist high grassy field, you may find a tick in the worst of places. ( yes this happened to me )
Not a fan of ticks either. Does anyone have 1st hand knowledge that garlic REALLY does work as advertised ?
The past couple years of drought have had one good effect – much less high grass so much less ticks being picked up.
From my experience Garlic only makes you taste better.
Hate these guy’s for sure.
Our Vet mentioned a 24 hr time frame for possible infection so I’m not sure of what the actual time frame really is.
Much harder to find them on pets. The preventatives on the market are poisons so I use them sparingly.
I treat my property every year with an Ortho product that prevents ticks. Works pretty well. Haven’t seen any on us or the dogs since using it.
We get allot of deer ticks here. Piece of advice, when pulling them out make sure they have a face. Look close you will see antennas head etc. this way you know you got it all out. I pull them out set them on a paper towel. Make sure they have a head and face. Try to get a leg count then flush them.
I treat the area with peroxide, alcohol and cover it with neosporin. So far so good.
I hate those little MFers too.
Damn ticks! When i was a kid my father had another property that had been vacant and negelected for some time. We went over there to cut the yard and get it ready to rent and the whole back fence was red with ticks! I was 8 years old and about died. I think that was the only time i’ve ever blatantly disobeyed my father. I was NOT going in that backyard! Death to them all!
Ticks, and Mosquitos. Both of which need to be vaporized LOL
The last couple of years we’ve had a new type of tick in our mountains. It’s very small and almost completely black. Mean little buggers that don’t want to let go. All our dogs get meds from the vet….a little expensive and primarily for fleas, but they seem to work of ticks too. And as long as we are banishing bugs can we get skitters and no see um’s included?
I have Lyme’s. I was diagnosed in 2001 after being bitten on the heal by a dog tick. I had been canoeing on the Saco river, which at the time was a hotbed of Lyme’s infections.
Three days after the bite, the first signs of a bull’s-eye started to appear. I had saved the tick and was in the Dr.’s office that afternoon. In those days the test to confirm Lyme’s took 6 weeks. The Doc asked if I wanted to wait. I told him no and asked him to prescribe immediately. He did 3200 MG of an aggressive antibiotic a day for 12 days.
I had completed the therapy before the test came back. It was positive. To this day I have had none of the classic symptoms suffered by others I know who are infected (Knock on wood). I credit that to the haste of which I received treatment.
One thing about tick removal with a pair of tweezers… The infection is borne along by a tiny bacteria called a “spirochete” that lives in the tick’s gut.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/spirochetes.html
If you squeeze any part of his body with the tweezers in the process of taking the tick off, you run the risk of pumping the bacteria into the wound. Better to slide a needle between the tick’s mouthparts and pry him loose without squeezing. I’ve seen a small fork-like tool for this that sort of rakes them off. Yes, you are going to lose some hide in the process.
This post is making me itch and twitch. I pulled many a tick off of me in IN as a kid. I think I tried every technique know to mankind, just as an experiment, how stupid was I. I too hate tick’s, do they serve any positive purpose? Food for birds? They could live without them.
I live in deer country so ticks and chiggers are a fact of summer: DEET on the legs and Cutter on the pants. I have never seen anything organic that works.
I know it’s messy, but a 3″ wide band of petroleum jelly all the way around your ankle directly on your skin at and above the top of your socks will go a long way toward keeping them off of you. I don’t know if the jelly smells bad to them or if it’s just the slippery, sticky surface that inhibits their mobility. I would guess the same would be true for your wrists. The point would be to control their entry to openings in your clothing.
Yeh its not just the legs in Ky. The little SOB’s drop out of the trees, climb your pant legs and attack in waves. The chiggers and saber tooth gnats are like a billion little vampires hiding in the long grass just waiting for warm blooded prey to drain. On the upside I have learned to love the smell of Cutter and Off. The best thing in Ky. is to squirt a solid band of military DEET around your sleeve cuff your trouser cuffs your collar, and your boonie hat (if in wetland leach country use it around your trouser waistband and fly too) then spray cutter on the rest.
And don’t EVEN turn your back on the deer fly’s. They travel in packs lusting for flesh. But even they are not the worst of the southern bloodsuckers OH NO! the worst are the horse fly’s. For all you city folk and Yankees A southern horse fly is a nightmare creature that looks like it evolved to kill and eat dinosaurs . Imagine a house fly two inches long grafted to a small chain saw by Dr. Frank N Stine who’s greatest joy is to cut out bitts of your body and eat them while drinking a Cutter cocktail. They can be stopped if you have a good shotgun and someone to use as bait. But it takes several shots and half a can of raid to be certain they won’t rise from the dead as zombies.
Great article, RW. Thanks for filling in the gaps of what I knew and didn’t know regarding these disgusting parasites. We reside in the Ozarks and are over-run with these nasty critters. Hopefully our new chickens will help control the damn things.
chickens are great for ticks…..unfortunately you cant take them in the woods. They also hold down snails and slugs in your garden.