Fighting Ticks: How To Prevent A Bite, How To Get A Tick Out

2024 Author: Rachel Wainwright | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 07:39

Fighting ticks

Unfortunately, a walk in a park or forest in spring and early summer hides not only positive emotions, but also danger. At this time of the year, each of us can fall prey to ticks.

Ticks, as a rule, live in dry conditions, that is, their favorite habitat is dried branches of shrubs and trees, as well as dry grass. Also, ticks thrive on lush vegetation, for example, in a mixed forest and deciduous trees. Therefore, if you are going to take a family walk in the park or into the forest for a picnic, do not neglect the precautions.

Safety measures to be taken

First of all, you need to take care of the protection of the legs. Trousers or sweatpants made of smooth fabric that can be tucked into socks are best suited in this case.

But rubber shoes are best suited. A tick that tries to attack you in the grass simply won't hold onto the rubber surface of your boots.

Be sure to cover your head with a scarf or panama. Hide your hair under a hat.

Walking through the forest glades, you should not get too carried away with climbing through densely growing bushes (raspberries, hazel, alder, etc.). It is there that you are most likely to meet a tick. Do not pluck branches from bushes and trees, because this little bloodthirsty enemy can also lurk on them.

Upon returning home, you should carefully examine yourself from head to toe for ticks and shake out your clothes. Hair, even meek, must be combed well with a comb.

If you find mites that have not yet penetrated the skin, they should be burned, as other methods of killing are not very effective.

Nevertheless, all of the above does not mean at all that in such wonderful sunny spring weather it is worth giving up walking and staying at home. It is important just to remember that you can be as safe as possible if you examine the exposed skin every hour.

By the way, ticks are quite picky parasites, and their most favorite places are delicate areas of the skin: the armpits and groin, inner thighs, neck. Therefore, during the inspection, it is worth paying special attention to these places.

Even if you are wearing tight enough clothing, it doesn’t mean that you are protected from ticks, so do not neglect to check your body regularly. Ticks are very nosy and can find a loophole even in the most difficult to reach places.

And here is a sure remedy for ticks used by tourists: you need to purchase two pairs of nylon tights. Put some tights over your pants, and from the second make a T-shirt (cut off the feet and crotch area with scissors, and fill the edges with glue or nail polish). This kit, it turns out, is very effective in the fight against ticks, because they will not be able to crawl through the nylon clothes and will slide off you.

How to get rid of an already stuck tick

If you, despite all the precautions, are still unlucky, and a tick, a kind of parasite, has found a nook in your body, then the first rule is not to panic. Do not immediately grab the tweezers and try to pull out the tick, as this can only aggravate the problem. Most likely, in this way, you will simply tear off the body of the tick, and the head will remain inside the skin, while the parasite will not die.

What then to do? It is necessary to fill the area of skin with a mite with camphor or vegetable oil, wait 10-15 minutes, and only after that take tweezers. The tick must be pulled out very carefully, making rotational movements. After you have pulled out and got rid of the tick, lubricate the affected area with brilliant green or iodine.

You should also not immediately run to the hospital with suspected encephalitis. Believe me, not all ticks carry this dangerous disease. However, it is necessary to carefully monitor the affected area and, at the first sign of deterioration, immediately consult a doctor.

You shouldn't ignore the tick by delaying its extraction. This will only aggravate the matter, since every day the mite will grow and dig deeper into the skin, making it difficult to extract it.

If you did not manage to completely remove the tick, and its head remained inside, disinfect the needle and pick out the head like a splinter. Do not leave it inside, otherwise it is fraught with suppuration.

Found a mistake in the text? Select it and press Ctrl + Enter.