Ticks

[Jack]

Dear all.

Just a quick one to say that the next time you are out in the woodlands just check yourself for ticks when you get back, as I have just found two having something to eat on me as I got in the shower..............yeah, that's what I thought - but I have been on the end of a chainsaw all day!
Anyway, keep your eyes open for them and regulary check your dog as that will tell you which ticks are about in your environment.

Cheers.

Jack.

 

[Bob]

Jack

That will teach you to miss a DCG meeting!! (sure you didn't catch them off the KMC students !!

 

[Jack]

Bob!......is that you!?.............if it is, you still owe me £50, remember?

 

[C_Claycomb]

Argh!! Ticks in November?!? That is plane nasty. In the summer I give my outer clothes a treatment with (about) 0.5%Permethrin solution. It seems to keep all biting bugs, flying or crawling, off very effectively. They say it works for up to 2 weeks, even with washing. Given the choice between cloths treated with permethrin and skin treated with DEET I go for the cloths.

What sort of ticks where they, just the big sheep ticks?

You gotta watch out for deer ticks that leave a big red ring.

Chris

 

[Jack]

Evening Chris.

Like most things in nature, there are loads of different ticks but these two gits were the red backs, the hunter ones.

They can smell the carbon dioxide on your breath at about thirty feet and then starts looking for you and when it's only a few feet away it can smell the ammonia in your sweat and when it gets really close to you, it can detect your body heat and then you are had!!

And as humans think we are cleaver :roll:

Cheers.

Jack.

PS. Don't forget to turn them anti clockwise when you go to remove them from yourself.

 

[Tony]

Cover them with Vaseline, stops them breathing and they retract

 

[Bob]

Jack

£ 50 ? What £ 50 ?! :shock: Think you've got the wrong Bob (I hope!!)

Bob :-D

 

[Jack]

Come Bob! You know what £50!!

Tone, why are you carrying vaseline around with you!

 

[Neil1]

I was talking to a local vet a while back, he and many of his colleagues have noticed a large increase in tick-related cases.
I normally use gaiters to keep the little buggers out, but still I get the occasional one.
The vet sold me a neat little tool for removing them cleanly which works very well (and not bad for £1.50), though he thaught I would be using it on the pets!!
Neil1

 

[Tony]

What's the little tool ?

 

[boaty]

What's the little tool ?

Its a little plastic spatula jobbie with a v-shaped groove in the cranked, flat bit. You carefully manoever the tick into the groove so you get a tight grip then twist it out, head and all

We've had to remove more ticks than ever this summer from our (6!) cats

 

[Neil1]

Thats the one, looks like the back of a claw hammer, only very small and made of green plastic. They come in packs of two (one large & one small) and most vets will sell you one it seems.
Neil1

 

[alick]

It's a bit surprising since everything that flies loves to take a bite out of me, but i've never been bitten by a tick. Do any other tricks - like a lit cigarette or whatever - work to get these guys to let go ?

Cheers, Alick

 

[PC2K]

you don't want the tick to release you !!! if it comes of by it self it too late, if you cover them in vaseline, oil or whatever they will inject you full nasty stuff as a reaction to that, before they release you. WE don't like ticks because of the diseases they can cause, not because they suck a little blood out of you, so bad idea to sufficate them. Use a tick tweezer, a V shaped thingy to slide under the tick and than to lift it up or other tools to remove them ( scalpel or other sharp blade would work too )

 

[Roger Gregory]

I have seen a few warnings around Exmoor about ticks. They can carry Lyme's Disease which is supposed to be rather unpleasant.

The best tick removal tool I have seen is a magpie

Again on Exmoor, I saw a magpie hopping up onto a sheep's head and pecking off ticks, then it hopped onto the sheep's back, then the next sheep, cleaning up ticks as it went!

Roger

 

[Jon]

The one time I have had these little things stick their teeth in me I actually saw them and did not recognise them for what they were. They look like little spider mites that my dad used to get on his roses . So I vaigly(sp) tried to brush them off and then ignored them, mistake. If you have to check for mites let us be honest, you can't check yourself, not all of you. You need a significant other. Fortunately she is not squeemish but it still counted as doing me a big big favour. :notworthy

So how do you pull them off without leaving the mouthparts still embeded ? We used tweezers. Or does the head come off due to squeezing them too hard with the tweezers. Otherwise how does the tiny plastic thing help get them out in one piece ?

And Jack what is this about "anticlockwise" ? Is that just you having a laugh ? It sounds like the sort of thing you would say to an aprentice after he has been for his Long Stand and his Stripped Paint.

Jon

 

[C_Claycomb]

If you really want to know about ticks, removal and diseases, just do a search on Google. Our American cousins have been dealing with the little blighters for years.

http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~acarolog/tickgone.htm
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20020815/643.html
http://www.lyme.org/
http://www.lymediseaseinformation.com/lymediseaseinformation.pdf

Above are just a sample.

Having been bit by an infected deer tick as a kid I am all for preventing the little devils climbing on board with any and all means available. Duranon rocks :-D

 

[george]

This one is quite interesting too: http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~acarolog/tickgone.htm

It compares various ways of getting rid of the buggers.

Up here - NW Highlands- they are sometimes in plague proportions! I've literally had to pull 20 or 30 of the little nymph stage ones off after brushing against bracken covered in them.

I hate the things but they're pretty much a fact of life these days and you have to be careful. At least 2 people I know have been infected with tick related diseases. Mind you a flame thrower might be the answer :twisted:

George

 

[Wayne]

we all need to be aware of ticks.

i caught lyme disease this summer from infected tick bite, probably bitten in New Forest or Sussex downs.

Had to be on antibiotics for a month and still feel lousy at times.

 

[Tony]

:yikes: bad news - makes me realise how careful we all need to be.
I hope that you recover fully.

Tone