Summer is here. It’s
the season to spend more time outdoors and with the outdoors, comes the
possibility of ticks. Ticks carry many
diseases so it’s important to avoid them as much as possible.
Here are some suggestions from the CDC for dealing with
ticks this summer:
Avoid Direct Contact with Ticks
-Avoid wooded and bushy areas with high grass and leaf
litter.
-Walk in the center of trails.
Repel Ticks with DEET or Permethrin
-Use repellents that contain 20% or more DEET (N,
N-diethyl-m-toluamide) on the exposed skin for protection that lasts up to
several hours. Always follow product instructions. Parents should apply this
product to their children, avoiding hands, eyes, and mouth.
-Use products that contain permethrin on clothing. Treat
clothing and gear, such as boots, pants, socks and tents. It remains protective
through several washings. Pre-treated clothing is available and remains
protective for up to 70 washings.
-Other repellents registered by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) may be found at http://cfpub.epa.gov/oppref/insect/.
Find and Remove Ticks from Your Body
-Bathe or shower as soon as possible after coming indoors
(preferably within two hours) to wash off and more easily find ticks that are
crawling on you.
-Conduct a full-body tick check using a hand-held or
full-length mirror to view all parts of your body upon return from tick-infested
areas. Parents should check their children for ticks 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.
-Examine gear and pets. Ticks can ride into the home on
clothing and pets, then attach to a person later, so carefully examine pets,
coats, and day packs. Tumble clothes in a dryer on high heat for an hour to
kill remaining ticks.
If you find a tick on your body, here is the tick removal
recommendation from the CDC:
-Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the
skin's surface as possible.
-Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don't 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 tweezers. If you are unable to
remove the mouth 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.
Don’t use any of the folk remedies that have gone around
over the years. The goal is to remove
the tick as quickly as possible and tweezers are the best way to do that. Here’s a link to the instructions from the CD
that has diagrams of the tweezers technique:
http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/removing_a_tick.html
Here is a diagram from the CDC of the stages and relative
sizes of ticks:
Here’s an excellent link from the CDC for the prevention of
tick bites: Stop Ticks
(Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention)
Other links:
Tick-Borne
Diseases: The Big Two (MedlinePlus Magazine)
For Children:
