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Ticks - how to protect yourself?

I’ve always lived with ticks. I had a few at my first scout camp. I remember that on each such trip, there was a queue for the procedure every day in front of the nurse’s tent. Record holder, had a dozen of them in one day.

Although I spend most of my free time in the field, for several years I catch them only sporadically, three or four a year. However, I pay special attention to ticks, because they are the greatest threat in our forests. If there’s anything to be afraid of, it’s not wolves or bears, but ticks.

What do ticks like and what don’t they like?

  • they like it humid
  • they like shady places, they are not fans of heat
  • they hunt mainly in the morning and evening, less during the day because it is too hot for them
  • they become active when the daytime temperature exceeds 4 degrees Celsius. It used to mean that ticks appeared in March. Now, thanks to the climate catastrophe, they are active all year round. In January they bit me on the Biebrza river. 

How to protect yourself from ticks? There are three phases:

PHASE I – AT HOME:
1. Ticks cause Lyme disease, for which there is no vaccine, and tick-borne encephalitis. In case of the latter disease, you can get vaccinated.
2. Dress well before going out into the field. What does it mean? Boots, long pants tucked into socks, a long sleeved shirt or sweatshirt and a cap/jockey cap. What for? The idea is to make it as difficult as possible for ticks to reach the skin and penetrate it.
3. Get some repellent. I usually use Muggi.

PHASE II – ON THE FIELD:
Ticks are flightless 😉 They reach as high as the grass or bushes (usually up to 1-1.5 m). They don’t hang from trees, they don’t jump from branch to branch, they keep their ass in the grass and wait (scientists have determined that even 13 years!) until the victim passes.

1. Don’t go off track. The less you deviate from a well-trodden, wide path, the less likely you are to catch a branch or grass and catch a tick.
2. Avoid tall grass.

PHASE III – AFTER RETURN:
1. Check for ticks before entering your home or car.
2. At home, undress and check all sensitive places: neck, skin behind the ears, armpits, groin, wrists, bends in the elbows and under the knees.
3. Take a shower.
4. Wash your clothes.
5. If you find a tick, remove it. According to the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate, removing the tick within 12 hours of the bite can save you from contracting Lyme disease. Why? “The number of Lyme rods that enter the human body will be too small to cause infection”.

HOW TO REMOVE A TICK?
1. Do not lubricate with butter or fat.
2. Don’t burn.
3. Pull out with tweezers, and disinfect the place after the bite. Check that the tick has come out intact and observe whether there is any erythema. If it appears, go to the doctor. Although it must be remembered that erythema does not appear in 100% of cases of Lyme infection. Therefore, if you want to be sure that you are healthy, you need to do blood tests.

Have you ever had a tick? How did you do?

Read in polish.