Tick Awareness
It’s good to be aware of ticks when we spend time outside, since they can carry bacteria that can transfer to humans and cause infections like Lyme and others. Thinking about ticks at all (even tick prevention) used to really kick up my fear response (I had a really tough bout with Lyme disease), but now I try to just take a few simple precautions and not let it stop me from being fully present and relaxed in the woods. There are lots of good resources out there if you want to delve deep, but I’ll share a few basics with you here.
Tick-bite prevention:
Use a repellent. Natural repellents with essential oils such as thyme, oregano, lemon eucalyptus, and rose, have been shown to be helpful. (I love the local, eco-friendly option from Luna Delgado Botanicals — Vampire Repellent. If going to heavily-infested areas (or if you’re deep-woods camping), you may want a stronger, chemical-based repellent such as those with DEET, or to apply permethrin on your clothes and shoes and allowing it to dry before you put them on, but I typically just use natural repellent when I’m doing forest therapy.
Wear close-toed shoes, socks and long pants that are light-colored so you can see ticks more easily.
Consider tucking pant legs into socks. (Let’s make it cool again!)
Check yourself before you leave the woods/prairie for any ticks, realizing they can be as small as a poppy seed.
When you get home, if you’re not washing the clothes you wore, put them in the dryer on high heat for 10 minutes to kill any remaining ticks or larvae. (Alternatively, you could shake them out outside and leave them outside for a few hours or overnight.)
Before you go to bed, and ideally within a couple of hours, do a full-body tick check, using a mirror to see your whole body. Check all the nooks and crannies as ticks like to go to the warm spots. Shake out your hair (either outside or over someplace where you can see anything that make shake out, like the bathtub), making sure to feel around your scalp. Consider a shower or bath for extra precaution.
If you get a tick bite:
Good news — catching it early is great!
Remove tick carefully with tweezers or a special tick-removal tool, aiming to extract it by its head rather than its body, so that its mouthparts are removed. Grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible, and pull it upward in a swift motion with steady, even pressure.(Here are some options for removal tools.)
After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.
Never crush a tick with your fingers. If you would like to keep the tick for testing or identification, put it in a carefully sealed bag/container. (If you don’t want to test it, you can dispose it by flushing it down the toilet or putting it in in the trash in a sealed bag/container.)
If you want to test the tick for Lyme and other diseases, this is easier and more effective than testing yourself. This is not necessary, especially if you find the tick within a few hours, but if you’re really curious or concerned then testing the tick can be a good option. The University of Rhode Island has some links to companies for testing ticks, along with a FREE tick identification and risk assessment email process.
If you suspect that the tick has been in your skin for several hours or longer, and you didn’t get a negative test from the tick, see a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD) doctor after the tick is removed for a blood test. This is especially important if you notice redness, swelling, or a rash, such as the bull’s-eye rash associated with Lyme disease, or if you notice symptoms such as fatigue, headache, muscle pain, joint pain/swelling, or fever in the weeks following. Early treatment can make a big difference.
(Personally, if I get a tick embedded in me for more than couple hours, I start taking a few natural immune-boosters / infection fighters just in case.)