Tick-A-Tack

“Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin….”

“Ixodes!” you may shout, uncontrollably, at some point(s) in your life. It may, possibly, often be followed by a stationary, involuntary, shaky bodily shudder, whilst squirming the words

“Get it off me, get it off me! Bleuch, Bleuch!”

This is a normal reaction for, mostly, first timers, if they have ever found a Tick embedded in their skin or rustling through their body hair and over them. To be fair, the reaction’s consistent with most subsequent encounters too.

This year, here in Aberdeenshire, I have hosted more than 35 individual Tick attacks. ?They’ve either crawled, surprisingly rapidly, over me, normally just appearing, suddenly, on my hand or been found embedded, with their creepy wee teeth in various warm, moist-ish parts of my body. This year I’ve had a lot more than I usually attract and I’ve not really changed any of my exploring habits: forest walks, grass field wandering, and riverbank excursions, so beware, Comrades.

Ticks are tough muthas and are classed as hard Ticks or soft Ticks. ?They are part of the Spider family, although only have 6 legs in their larval stage, the first of 3 stages they go through to adulthood. They can be quite long lived, several years, waiting to mate, in a predictable, prehistorically gruesome manner of course, after which they die. They can vary in size from teeny weeny sized, like a full stop.. and the biggest on me came in at a hefty 5mm dia or so located in my naval. (Are you itching yet?)

They’re often hard to simply brush off your skin, even with repeated attempts.? This is due to their small, flat shape….and tendency to stick, like small, rough plastic Velcro to you, defiantly. This is un-nerving especially when you can feel them, tangibly and repeatedly, lump like, as your hand quickly, (speed of light quickly actually), brushes over them, destroying a relaxed day.

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The physical crawling over you isn’t really an issue, although they can potentially carry nasty bacteria on their bodies. So, wash your hands after flicking, flicking & flicking & doing it again and again, doing whatever, to just ‘get-it-off-me’ in a screamy kind of, shuddery panic and avoid touching your eyes or moist parts until you’ve washed your hands. (Stop itching).

Likewise, with their head like ‘Capitulum’ buried inside your skin, even rigorous rubbing can, surprisingly, not remove them, at which point you’re allowed to scream. ?This is the sign that they are now, or they are now becoming, embedded within you. (Stop itching). They use extending arms called Chelicerae which sheath an even more formidable body part called a Hypostome.

To get themselves embedded these Chelicerae, in conjunction with their salivary glands, manipulate the saliva by rubbing it into the texture of your skin, softening it, teasing the skin fibres apart. At this stage, with a small skin hole now starting to be created, both Chelicerae extend and perform a swimming, breaststroke, motion and head into the newly created hole. As they do this, they force another barbed organ, called a Hypostome, that looks like a chainsaw blade, to penetrate still further into the blood supply and then actively start to pump your blood into their bodies. (Stop itching). This Hypostome is covered in reverse pointing barbs and very effectively ‘lock it’ on target.

When their abdomen is even slightly full of blood the Tick resembles a grey Pumpkin seeds or grey pine nut and about the same size in my experience.? The thick-walled abdomen takes some effort to burst too, often in a mildly explosive way. Don’t touch the blood but use a tissue as their gut contents may contain horrid bacterium which you’re trying to avoid. The walking blood bomb (stop itching). can be quite obvious, as it waddles over your carpet, and initially you’ll wonder what it is and then, probably more alarmingly, wonder where it’s been to get so full. Go check...

Now, (stop itching), if it’s in you, embedded sucking with it’s wee dangly legs waving in the air at you, this is the danger point. You got to stop panicking and think clearly. Ticks can contain horrid dormant bacteria, such as Borrelia (which can give you Lyme Disease), within their gut and as the Tick feeds these little bacteria start to ‘wake up’ and organise themselves. ?Luckily, this normally takes time, and they mobilise to the salivary glands where they are carried into the victim host’s blood supply. This is ‘lucky’ because you got some time between discovering a Tick and removing it before the first bacterium can mobilise from the Tick – they say between 24-36hrs – into you. Either way “get-it-off-me!” is key of course. (Stop itching).

#LymesDisease, which I’ve think I’ve had and have just been tested for, is described as being like bad flu or COVID with severe lethargy.? It can have even worse effects with time, like vomiting, loss of balance, very sore joints and, I’m advised, bring on facial palsy and heart conditions and memory loss. You really don’t want it. Your pets can also, as I understand, contract it too. (Stop itching).

So, to minimise the risk #ALARP of even getting close to contracting this uncomfortable malaise or even avoid stupid, over-reactive dancing at a picnic or campsite fire, often with spilt wine everywhere, you need to do 2 main things:

·?????? avoid getting bitten &

·?????? if you find them sucking on you, remove it ASAP.

Avoid Getting Bitten:

Simple stuff: either stay at home and bake a loaf or something or, if you’re still keen to wander our byways, then go forth but cover up so the Ticks can’t just make skin contact that easily.?

Look on your clothes and bare skin regularly as you’re walking to see if they are there…sometimes they can be really tiny, almost bread crumb sized, reddish brown, like a fox colour to black, in my experience.? Sometimes you can really feel them rustling through your hairy bits, which is un-nerving. So, act on your instinct and check. (Stop itching). Check everywhere.?

Remove It Pronto:

Sometimes it takes a while to feel them nibbling, maybe several hours. You may not feel anything for a long time or at all, but it’s always a distinctive biting feeling I get.? I can only liken it to an almost electric, acid type feeling & very itchy in nature. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve had them. ?And, whilst it doesn’t really hurt, not like a Wasp or Clegg (Horsefly) bite, you will likely stop what you’re doing and raise your eyebrow when it happens, go check. Look out for raised welt (where the tick is or was) and a ‘bullseye rash or what may appear as a bruise also surrounding the Tick entry hole. Sometimes you might not have this and, apparently the rash can appear days later, and you’ll wonder what it is.

If you can physically see the Tick on a visible part of your bod, consider yourself lucky! Stay calm, you need them off you, stop screaming and, for the time being, don’t imagine that there could be others, lurking elsewhere on you. If you have nails, grab them between your fingers, in a pronounced pincer kind of way, like you’re picking a sugar cube from a bowl in polite company. Grab it at the Tick head / your skin interface not on the swollen abdomen, go for the head bit. ?Firmly grip it and pull it straight off.? If you have tweezers, like we all do in our pockets, then these can work better. ?Don’t be scared, be firm, but get to that interface, pushing slightly on your skin as you do.? You can kind of feel a small gripping resistance as the saw like, horrible Hypostome, is ripped out your skin.

Now, the next bit is also important: Keep hold of the Tick until it can be disposed of safely…you don’t want to lose that sucker. (Stop itching).?

You may mess it up and leave the head in-situ. ?It’s a pain to remove, like digging for a splinter with a needle type of effort and they can infect you or go sceptic if left. So be confident pulling it in the first place. Now you also got to try to avoid squashing them as you squeeze them. ?They do take some crushing so, as I said be firm but not like superhuman crush, you don’t want to crush them and for them to disgorge their body contents in you or over you – remember it may contain horrid bacteria.

If you can’t see them, then too bad. ?All is not lost. I’ve used aftershave & whisky, or high alcohol stuff, to remove them from inaccessible places (like navels, ass crack & worse). But, to be brutally honest, it can be disconcerting waiting for them to drop off after you applied this, and you may not even know they’ve gone or they may simply even remain in-situ. Get a friend, if they’re still about, or a stranger, to help you unless you’re too modest….Mum’s are a great asset at this point, even if the drive to them is over 80 minutes. (Stop itching).

Next, make it safe and so no-one else gets sucked by it. This is where you get your own back - they say wrap in tissue and drown in the toilet bowl, but, one year I took 238 ticks off me, my dog and my wife in a single day – see photo below.? We tried drowning them but after 3 days they were still wiggling their little palps and paired legs, wanting out, like Robocop emerging from the flames.? So, we turned to alcohol and petrol which worked a treat killing all of them.

My own personal favourite extermination method is to burn them, mumbling expletives as I do and before shaking myself down in a squirmy, kind of relief dance. (#HSE WARNING: fire and alcohol are often a? dangerous combo be careful).? Now, when they burn, they often ‘pop’ which is joyful to be honest as you’re now positive it’s not coming back but, be careful not to get ‘burst Tick juice’ over you, especially onto those moist parts like eyes. (Stop itching). Also, avoid inhaling the brief whisp of Tick smoke too is it cremates, remember, they may contain nasty bacterium as already described.

If you’re still scratching at this stage, have you learned nothing?? Go check yourself….be safe out there….

For other info try out:

GOV.UK : https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2024/03/21/what-is-lyme-disease-and-why-do-we-need-to-be-tick-aware/

https://lymediseaseuk.com/

Or a neat little, video on Youtube called: True Facts: Dangerous Little Ticks (youtube.com)

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