Twitter
Facebook
Summer is here and as the weather warms up, we become more active. The bad news is so do ticks. Ticks are arachnids, closely related to spiders and scorpions. Ticks are also carriers of several diseases, including anaplasmosis, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, as well as other spotted fevers, and southern tick-associated rash illness.
In Germany, the two most common tick-borne diseases are encephalitis and lyme disease. The symptoms of lyme disease include fever, headache, fatigue and a skin rash that looks like a bull’s eye. Most cases of lyme disease can be treated with a few weeks of antibiotics.
Tick-borne encephalitis is caused by the Powassan virus. TBE causes inflammation of the brain and meninges. Both of these diseases are spread from the bite of an infected tick. To play it safe outdoors, here are some tips to remember when taking part in outdoor activities.
Prevention:
There are simple ways to prevent getting lyme disease and other tick related diseases.
• Avoid contact with ticks by walking in the center of trails.
• Ticks like to hang out in the tall grass along the edges of trails. Control the brush around your home, and avoid wooded and bushy areas with high grass and leaf litter.
• If you are going to spend the day outside, make sure you use an insect repellent that contains DEET. You can also use Permethrin to treat your clothing and gear.
• Wearing light-colored clothing helps make it easier to see ticks that may be on you.
• Perform a full body check using a mirror to view all parts of your body. Parents should check their children for ticks, focusing under the arms, in and around the ears, inside the belly button, behind the knees, between the legs, around the waist, and especially in their hair.
• Ticks can also ride home on clothing and pets and then attach to a person or pet later.
• Carefully examine pets, coats and backpacks.
• Place clothes in the dryer on the highest heat to kill any remaining ticks.
• Showering within two hours of coming indoors has been shown to reduce the risk of being bitten by a tick.
Follow Up:
If you develop a rash or a fever within weeks of removing a tick, see your doctor. Be sure to tell the doctor about your recent tick bite, when the bite occurred and where you most likely acquired the tick.
Tips For Your Own Backyard:
• Remove leaf litter.
• Clear tall grasses and brush around homes and at the edge of lawns.
• Place 3-foot-wide barrier of wood chips or gravel between lawns and wooded areas to restrict tick migration into recreational areas.
• Mow the lawn frequently.
• Stack wood neatly and in a dry area (discourages rodents).
• Keep playground equipment, decks and patios away from yard edges and trees.
• Discourage unwelcome animals from entering your yard by constructing fences.
• Remove old furniture or trash from the yard that may give a place to hide.
Proper Removal of Ticks
Use fine tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible.
Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Do not twist or jerk the tick. This can cause the mouth parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouth parts with the tweezers.
If you are unable to remove the mouth parts easily with clean tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal.
After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water.
Avoid old school remedies such as painting the tick with nail polish or petroleum jelly, or using heat to make the tick detach from the skin. The goal is to remove the tick as quickly as possible — not waiting for it to detach.
