My 2-year-old daughter has seemingly been hurdling over one life milestone after another. She caught her first fish, moved out of a crib into a big-girl bed, and many other wondrous milestones. She recently had another milestone, one that everyone who spend enough time outdoors will encounter. She had her first tick.
This thing was no bigger than a pinhead. See the picture from the CDC’s website above – that’s a DIME they’re using for scale. I thought it was a speck of dirt, but then realized differently when I went to brush it off her leg – it just stuck there. I don’t think it had been on very long, and she was a brave trooper (after bribes of treats) to sit still as I pulled it out with the tick twisters. It made my wife and me bristle with protective instincts as I prepared to KILL THIS TICK WITH FIRE.
Or at least that’s what I wanted to do. The truth is, beyond giving me the ability to write an article about how to avoid/remove ticks, I don’t know why God created ticks. If we are going to enjoy God’s creation, we must accept and prepare for the fact that in certain parts of the country, ticks are trying to come along for the ride. As someone who knows people with Lyme disease, the symptoms are no joke and you have it for life. Read more here if you’re one of those masochists who enjoys looking up medical symptoms on the internet: Lyme Disease Symptoms
A Stitch In Time Saves Nine
Being able to do basic sewing is an underrated skill for hunters. I can’t tell you how much money I’ve saved repairing expensive hunting clothes instead of buying new ones. The old adage of ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ is completely true; if you see a small rip, stitch it quickly before it becomes a gaping hole. If you wait too long, the problem does not multiply, it expands exponentially.
The same applies to ticks. The number one practice that I have adapted for avoiding tick bites is to pick them off of my clothing quickly after they attach. This means that whenever I walk through a ticky area, I stop and take six seconds to check my boots, pants and arms for ticks. Ticks can be appear in many different habitats, but I’ve found that any green habitat (from grasses to cedar limbs) that are knee-high or taller have a higher likelihood of holding ticks.
So, whenever I talk through a thick row of pines or a head-high fallow field, I stop quickly and check for ticks crawling on my clothes. If I find one, I stop and look more closely since where there is one, there are usually more. Same goes for when I get set up in my stand or before I get back in my truck after a hunt – just take a quick second and check. It is amazing how many ticks I get rid of this way.
Once back at the truck, my boots and outer layer of clothes comes off and either goes into a scent-proof container with no other clothing or into the bed of my truck. Once I get home, those clothes get hung outside for a day. This goes for backpacks or any other fabric-based gear as well. Do not wash tick-covered clothes in the washing machine! They have the ungodly ability to survive drowning so they can attach to the next load of clothes. Witchcraft if you ask me.
Once back home, I follow the Brad Paisley prescription and check myself for ticks. Yes, that means stand near a mirror in your birthday suit with a good light and give yourself a good once over. Since teamwork makes the dream work, invite your spouse to help you out. Since you are clearly a provider and protector for your family, offer to do the same for them. Safety first out there.
Spraying permethrin on your clothes and boots is also another option. I personally have not used permethrin but know many people who do use it. I have nothing against it; it’s just one more thing to remember and one more thing to buy and using my method of finding them early and not wearing the clothes for too long seems to be pretty effective.
The Tick Has Bit
Thankfully, I can only think of a few times when I actually found a tick embedded in my skin. This is where tick twisters come in handy. You can find tick twisters online or at most sporting goods or drug stores. Tick twisters are definitely one of those simple yet incredible inventions that make me wonder why I didn’t think of that.
The reason tick twisters are so awesome is because ticks are next to impossible to pull straight out. You should never try to pull a tick straight out anyway. You will most likely pull off the tick’s abdomen while leaving the head or pincers in your skin, which is where they Lyme disease gets transmitted. Tick twister do exactly what they sound like – after you position the tick’s head in the middle of the tick twister, you literally twist the entire tick out cleanly.
Now, depending on your level of concern and length of time you believe the tick has been embedded, you might not want to flush it (or burn it with a propane torch or shoot it with your largest caliber load) right away. To be completely certain the tick does not carry Lyme disease, you can store it in a ziplock bag in the freezer and have it sent to a lab for testing.
There’s also the dreaded bullseye ring that people can find on their skin, a telltale symptom of Lyme disease already having set in. The bullseye ring is usually a red circle rash with a red dot in the middle of it. You might find the tick with it, you might not find the tick. Lyme disease usually takes 36+ of the tick being attached to transmit the disease (which is why I subscribe to the birthday suit check at the end of every day outdoors).
Fortunately, there are steps to remedy Lyme disease if you catch it in time. Simple courses of antibiotics may be able to cure you of the disease. Since I am clearly not a doctor, I cannot claim that this is direct medical device and if you think you have been bitten by an infected tick, you should consult with your doctor right away. The CDC also has a lot of good information about ticks.
There’s no way around it – ticks suck. While I may not always understand the reasons behind why God created ticks, much like the reason he allows sin in to exist – I know they exist for our good and for his glory. So check early and check often. Brad was right – you never know where one might be, and there are lots of places that are hard to reach.