Yes, you heard that right. Ticks.
There are animals out there that are big and bad. These animals can easily tear you to shreds if you’re caught unprepared in an encounter with them. Tigers, bears, cougars, hippos, rhinos…. Nature’s beasts are beautiful, but only if you’re watching from a safe distance away from them.
But it’s not like the wild jungles, the steep mountains, and the sandy dunes are the only places you’ll get to encounter dangerous creatures. We still have to watch out for nature’s little critters back at home.
Take the little tick, for instance. A seemingly tiny and innocent little bug, that skitters about, looking for an animal to bite and suck the blood out of. Yet, while they may not have as big a bite as a bear, but they can be just as, if not even more, dangerous for humans. This is because like mosquitoes, ticks are vectors for spreading a myriad of diseases, such as Lyme disease. Heck, they can even give you a permanent allergy to red meat if you’re bitten by a certain tick!
Depending on where you live, ticks can be a common occurrence. Some of them may even be found in your house! Them being common and being prime disease transmitters are why you must ensure that you, your house, and even your pets are tick-free.
Read this article to see how you can keep yourself safe from ticks.
Know where ticks are found
Prevention will always be your best defense against ticks. After all, you can’t get diseases from ticks if you don’t get bitten in the first place, right?
Ticks love to frequent grassy, brushy, or woody areas. There, they lie in wait for a suitable host to brush against the grass before they latch on for a ride. This does not mean just humans, but even animals like deer or dogs. And these ticks don’t just hang around in national parks or hiking trails far away from your house. They can appear in your neighborhood, or even your backyard!
That is why it is best that unless necessary, you should stay away from grassy areas, especially places that have lots of tall grass. This also means that if you’re on a hiking trail as well, you want to stay in the center of the path.
And if there isn’t any grass nearby, don’t think you’re safe just yet. Ticks can be hiding in trees as well, and your hair can easily catch a couple of them without you noticing! If you want to stay safe, then use insect repellant on your face, or wear a cap.
Wear lots of clothing and properly cover yourself
If you truly must venture into the grassy areas of the ticks, then at the very least, suit up properly. A tick won’t be able to bite what it can’t see, and if all it can see are your thick clothes, then congratulations, you’ve successfully placed a barrier between you and the tick!
If you’re wondering what type of clothing you should wear, the best types are clothes that can cover your arms and legs. Next, your pants should be tucked into your socks to ensure that ticks aren’t able to access that part of your clothes. Finally, to be able to spot a tick more easily, wearing light clothes will make the dark colors of a tick stand out, especially when they try to crawl all over you.
On that note – treat your clothes with permethrin
Permethrin is a medication and insecticide, primarily used to kill a large variety of pests, of which include ticks. Use products that contain 0.5% permethrin on your boots, clothes, and camping gear, and they will still be able to have significant effects despite several washings.
If bitten, remove the tick properly
Despite your best efforts, a tick still managed to sneak its way in and latch itself onto you. Is it over? Are you doomed to experience the diseases that it has?
Not quite.
A tick isn’t automatically able to disperse every little germ or virus that it has inside of it instantly. Rather, it takes quite a good amount of time before it is able to do so. Take Lyme disease, for instance. A tick needs to be attached to a human for a full 36 hours before Lyme disease can be transmitted, and if one regularly checks themselves, whether it’s after an outing or while in the shower, one can easily remove the offending tick before it can do any serious damage.
So don’t worry; you simply need to remove the tick quickly. The faster you do so, the better.
Oh, but don’t just pluck the tick off with your bare fingers. It might cause the tick to regurgitate the blood it has sucked, which may have already been mixed in with the disease that it carries. Not only that, a tick’s mouth might break and remain on the skin from forceful removal of the tick from the site of the bite, leading to potential infections.
Instead, use appropriate forceps, like tweezers, and pull the entire tick out.