With spring comes ticks…  It seems to be worse and worse every year.  On an average hike I can pick at least 3-4 ticks off me and if I have the dog with me double that off him. Ticks carry lyme disease and rocky mountain spotted fever.  The risk of contacting lyme disease increases after 24-72 hours after the tick attaches.  At least with pets you have the availability of Revolution, Advantage, Advantix, and the like.  For us two legged folks we are not so lucky…  We don’t have any magic topical drops to repel ticks.  In this post I will go over some ways to help keep you tick free.

The most important thing is keeping the ticks off you to start with.

Here are some simple things you can do to keep ticks from biting:

• Wear long pants, long sleeve shirt, socks, and a hat when you can.  Also it helps to keep your shirt tucked in to your pants.
• Stay on groomed trails, avoid bushwhacking.
• Spray exposed skin and areas like bottom of pants with a replant containing deet.  The more deet % the better.

Always check yourself very carefully when coming in from an adventure in the woods or other tick hot spots.  Ticks like to make a home in warm moist areas on your body like armpits and the groin area.

If you find a tick on you don’t panic if you take the right steps to remove it you will be on your way worry free.  You can find a tool in just about every shape and color for tick removal.  If you are lucky the tick will not have had a chance to bite and embed its head yet.  If that is the case you can just pick it off…  If the little bugger has got a chance to embed then removal is a bit trickier.

How to remove an embedded tick:

• If you have a tool follow the instructions that came with the tool.
• If not you can use tweezers the finer the point the better.
• Grasp the tick as close to the skin as you can.
• Pull the tick out by slowly pulling straight up. Do not twist or rock the tick out.
• Flush the tick down the tolit or place the tick in a cup of rubbing alcohol to kill it.
• Clean the area the tick was attached with rubbing alcohol.
• Never try to remove a tick with a hot match, peanut butter, or petroleum jelly.

For people that spend a lot of time out side and are worried about lyme disease you can now get a vaccination against lyme disease called  Lymerix.

If you take some simple steps to protect yourself ticks are nothing to worry about…

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