Ticks are tiny mites that suck blood from animals and humans. Ticks love to hang around in leaf litters, trees, shrubs, tall grasses and even in your own backyard. they wait patiently in their usual hiding spots until a suitable host walks past them and they cling onto the fur or skin of the host. Once the tick finds a suitable spot, it burrows into the skin without causing the host any pain and starts to feed. The average time a soft-bodied tick stays on the host’s skin is a couple of hours but the hard-bodied tick can stay on the host’s skin for up to 2 weeks.
Although it is very rare to contract disease from ticks, they have been known to spread the following disease to man:
- Babesiosis
- Rocky mountain spotted fever
- Lyme disease
- Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis (HGE)
- Human Monocytic Ehrlichiosis (HME)
- Colorado tick fever
- Relapsing fever
- Q fever
- Tick paralysis
- Tularemia
The type of disease contracted depends on the location, type of tick, duration of the tick’s attachment to the host’s skin and season of the year.
How To Get Rid Of Ticks On Your Own:
- Antisepticize the tick bite region with antiseptic.
- Wear a pair of PVC gloves if possible and use a pair of tweezers or forceps to grip the tick close to the skin of it’s head. Be careful not to wriggle, jerk or squish the tick.
- Apply a consistent amount of pressure to pull the tick out until it lets go.
- Use a disinfected needle to remove the tick’s head or any other body part that got stuck in the skin.
- Apply some disinfectant cream onto the bite wound and area around it.
- Wash your hands thoroughly with antiseptic soap like Dettol to kill any traces of bacteria on your hands and fingers.
- If possible, insert the abstracted tick into a bottle and bring it to a doctor for identification.
When You Should Consult A Doctor:
- You fail to remove the tick or part of the tick from the skin.
- You develop a fever, rash, headache, muscle pains, joint pains or flu-like symptoms 2 to 14 days after the tick bite.
- You develop widespread rashes 2 to 14 days after the tick bite.
- You develop redness, pus, swelling or yellow drainage from the tick bite wound 1 to 2 days after the tick bite.
- You develop a red-ring or a bull’s eye rash around the tick bite wound 3 to 30 days after the tick bite.
- You have complications moving your legs.
- You feel ill and want to make sure your illness is not related to your tick bite.
