Following my experiences on Mull this past week thought it might be a good opportunity to raise awareness of Ticks.
Although I’ve picked up the odd one in the past (on Mynydd Nodol, one somewhere on Skye) I’ve never experienced the numbers I saw on Mull before, on some summits they were crawling over my clothing whilst I sat there activating and despite care (clothing closed up as completely as possible, Smidge on exposed skin) I still managed to pick up eight over the week.
There’s shedloads of information out there on the net so I’m not going to go into detail here but if you are in an area where ticks may be endemic be aware of the risks and check yourself regularly, it may be a bumper year for them…
I think many people pick up ticks without even realising - ignorance is bliss. I’m quite obsessive about avoiding them especially on DL/DM summits it’s a case of wearing light trousers and tucking them into the socks. Basically anywhere with a high dear population will also have a high tick population.
Having first hand experience (well my son to be precise) of the effects of Lyme Disease I implore everybody who activates in areas where ticks abound (where there are deer and sheep populations, as Inky says) to be aware of the signs of this very nasty tick-bourne affliction and to know how to safely remove the little horrors.
They have a particular fondness for lurking close to gentlemen’s parts (and my dog)!
The whole of OE is infested by ticks - we have them in the garden even if there is no deer nor any other animal population nearby. Long trousers and tucking them into the socks is no protection. They also fall down from bushes and keep crawling until they find some unprotected skin. Many Austrians get vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis but there is no protection against lyme disease. The only thing to do is see a doctor when you’ve had a tick and find this characteristic ring of redness around the location where the tick was. Antiobiotics will normally do the job but it’s mainly a matter of being aware of the problem. However, there is no point in being hysterical about it - not every tick is a carrier of these diseases.
Treating your clothes with permethrin is a good defense against ticks. That is safe for humans, but kills insects. Army uniforms are treated with permethrin now (US and British).
Kintyre and Knapdale on the west coast of Scotland are bad for them as I found out a couple years ago. Trousers tucked in, gaiters on, everything that can be tucked in was tucked. Still the little blighter’s go in. As you they were crawling all over my clothes will walking through deep vegetation.
The first one I found on that trip was by accident in the shower and the lump took several weeks to heal properly. Horrible wee beasties.
You are scaring me with these stories of ticks everywhere.
I think I’ve never had one, but my dog gets plenty of them regularly just by being out in our house garden and I’m now feeling irritations all over my skin, but I know it’s just psychosys… is it?
Tucking in pant legs is helpful, but I highly recommend Gaiters. Not only do they provide another layer at tick level, they help protect against prickers and other grabbies at shin height, keep you legs and feet drier, and provide another layer against venomnous snake bites depending on the material chosen (here in central PA we have both Copperhead and Timber Rattlesnakes, both of which are hard to see until you are almost too close). I also recommend wearing waxed cotton or ripstop fabric as these are lower friction than other materials and allow you to more easily brush off ticks and other bugs. Obviously insect repellent is an effective tool as well.
There are special tick pincers available which would normally allow you to remove the tick without any problems. You just need to make sure you don’t leave the head in - that might cause some inflammation. Otherwise they don’t leave any trace. However, I don’t know what Australian ticks are like - they might be more dangerous than the Austrian ones.
Now that is going too far. Have to agree that some of our beer is dog pee - I include Fosters, Victoria Bitter and XXXX (yes this is how they spell beer in VK4) in this category. There are however some very nice beers - including some very palatable pale ales. But we digress, I am sure that non VK ticks are probably just as annoying as VK ticks are - our snakes and spiders however, they are pretty nasty and not a good idea to irritate unless you have the 12G shotgun handy…
This is the only way to be sure. Works on midgies by way of a bonus.
On a less frivolous note, I see that there are now home testing kits that you can feed the little blighters into once you’ve extracted them from your body. I’ve absolutely no idea if they’re any good, but given that a) lyme disease isn’t very nice and b) not everyone develops the characteristic rash, it might be worth investigating. http://evaq8.co.uk/Care-Plus-Tick-Test-Lyme-Borrliose.html
