TickWatch is an awareness campaign promoted and supported by Woodlife to try and raise awareness into ticks and the effect of ticks on the human body. Much of this information is taken from the http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/ website.

Please read the article below which was put together by Pablo. The article has appeared in “Traditional Naturopathic Remedies and Tips” by Roderick Lane , N.D.)

Forums and websites signing up to TickWatch:

Bushcraftliving

Natural Bushcraft

Woodlife

Woodlife

Network

Skills for Wild lives

Sam at Woodcrafters Log

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What the Problem?

The trouble with tracking or going out into the woods and fields is that sometimes you have to get “down and dirty”. Trackers call this “dirt-time” where your nose is to the floor examining microsigns of compression, disturbance and spoor. This can cause a problem especially in the summer. In fact you don’t have to haveyour nose to the ground to pick up a tick or two.

What are ticks?

Ticks are related to spiders and feed off the blood of virtually any bird, mammal or even occasionally, reptiles. There are a number of species depending on where you live. Most can be seen with the naked eye and are generally dark coloured. The nymph stage is the most likely to bite and is size of a pin-head. Its size will grow as the blood sac enlarges and its colour will change to a lighter grey. It’s at this stage that people are likely to realise that they’ve been bitten especially if an adult tick bites as they’re more visible. The bite itself doesn’t hurt. Ticks will survive better in hotter weather, but they will actively seek blood during warm weather and attach themselves anywhere (and I mean anywhere) on the body, especially those nice warm places we have! They tend to hang out in damp places for example mammal feeding areas but they can also be found in the long grass of meadow land and parks.

So what’s the deal?

The trouble is that ticks carry diseases. They pick up the diseases from other animals they’ve feasted on and could transmit these diseases to humans. They can also inherit the disease from the parent tick. The most harmful is Lyme disease or Lyme borreliosis which can be a very debilitating illness lasting sometimes for years if not treated in the early stages.

Early symptoms can develop within days or weeks of the bite which may include tiredness, chills, fever, headache, muscle and/or joint pain, swollen lymph glands and blurred vision. A characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans may appear. It is generally a circular rash that may clear in the centre, resulting in a “Bull’s eye” appearance. It can expand and move around the body. Medical help must be sought as soon as possible.

Watch this video of how a tick feeds [tick1] (Open or save .wmv file)

How to remove a tick

It’s difficult to avoid ticks with our past-time, so we have to take the risk; it’s as simple as that. We can obviously check ourselves thoroughly at the end of the day and use a buddy-buddy system of inspection if you’re with a group of people. When you get home after your excursion, check yourself over thoroughly before jumping in theshower. If a tick is found, it should be removed preferably with a tick removal tool. Failing that, use pointed tweezers and grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible without squeezing the tick’s body and pull the tick out by twisting and pulling gently. There may be considerable resistance. Ah… those huge fangs! Lovely!

The mouth-parts of a tick include a hypostome (rostrum) which is implanted in the skin during biting. This hypostome is fully covered with backward directed projections like barbs; this allows the tick to “anchor” into the skin. If you try and pull out the tick, the spikes will rise and the mouth-parts of the tick can break and stay in the skin, causing pain and infection. With a specialist hook, you can turn the body of the tick; the spikes fold into the axis of rotation, and the tick is easily removed, without traction effort, and decreasing the risks of breaking the rostrum.

It may not be possible to twist out the tick if you don’t have a bespoke tool, therefore try and gently pull out the tick.

If no tools are available at all, rather than delay, use a cotton thread – Tie a single loop of cotton around the tick’s mouthparts, as close to the skin as possible, then pull gently upwards and outwards. The idea is to remove the whole of the tick from the skin. If a part is left in (if you’re not careful, it’s normally the head) you can still get infected.

The sooner the tick is removed the better, but there’s no set time that a tick has to stay attached to the skin to potentially infect the host.

Don’t…

… be tempted to burn off the tick or use any other methods, for example paraffin, petrol, vaseline or meths. This may make the tick regurgitate the content of its stomach. You must then use antiseptic to clean the area; wash your hands (and tools used) and try and save the tick in case later symptoms develop. There’s no need to panic though. Many ticks do not carry the disease but just be wary and check yourself thoroughly.

Please also bear in mind that the information is for use in the UK and other countries may have different tick types and diseases.

Don’t let this stop you enjoying the outdoors… just be aware of the dangers of ticks.

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Merchandise

Help us to help you to help others…

We will be stocking these items soon. If you are interested, please leave a comment below.

Tick-borne Disease Alert Card

The card is intended to alert medical staff to the fact that the cardholder may be exposed to tick bites and therefore there may be a possibility of tick-borne infection (such as Lyme disease).

BADA-UK Awareness Lapel Ribbon

This very smart lapel pin is eye catching and will help to raise awareness amongst friends, family and people in your local area.

BADA-UK “Ticks can make you sick”: Car Sticker

Help to raise awareness and funds in one easy purchase!

O’Tom Tick Twister (for people and pets)

Easy and effective tick remover. Pack contains two remover hooks in a zip-lock bag, complete with full instructions.