kevj – Member
I had a tick some years ago and read up on Lymes disease as I was worried I may have been infected. One article advised the main process of contracting the disease is the method of extraction of the tick. Basically, you can discharge the guts into your skin if you squeeze it. Apparently if you cover it completely with candle wax, it un-buries itself due to lack of oxygen so reduces the chance of infection.

NO. NO. NO.

Use tick tweezers/card/hooks.

Aye, steer clear of using Vaseline or candlrwax, use a tick hook, though I’ve improvised with thread around the bite area, looped around then ease the wee bugger out.

I bought some of these years ago. Not had to use them yet.

Jamie – Member
I bought some of these years ago. Not had to use them yet.

Same here. I guess despite all the deer round here, P-town and its environs isn’t yet a hotbed of tick activity.

Some info here regarding tick habitat Tick tube is interesting.

If you can stand listening to Jeremy Vine on R2 he’s got Matt Dawson on the show talking about his Lyme’s experience.
I’ve also got those ‘tick twisters’in my pack,fortunately I’ve not had to use them.I also keep covered up,long sleeves & long trousers when I’m off road.

Hmmm. Unfortunately for me, one of the few people I find more annoying than Jeremy Vine is Matt Dawson. Listening to them together would be life-threatening.

chewkw – Member
Question is how do you get the tick onto you if you are cycling, running or walking?

By riding through vegetation, especially ferns, in my case. Probably the same for everyone else, too.

Chewy, even by your standards, that’s a daft question.

It’s on Radio 2 about it now

I was watching Youbtue where one of the “researcher” in the US/Canada(they were talking about Lymes) was walking through a small woodland and brushing passed the plants while walking. Later on he got about 8 ticks on him. In his case it is understandable that he would pick some up because he was brushing passed the plants.

But how do you guys get them?

You answered your own question before you asked it 🙄

Nobberinthefridge – Member
Chewy, even by your standards, that’s a daft question.

Looks like Mark forgot to reboot the Spambot after the recent site issues.

But if you’re riding places where you don’t brush against plants… 😉

Anyway, as I said, I ride loads of places through undergrowth. More so at the moment with fern take over. Yet never a tick in all the years I’ve done it, as far as I know.

Yak – Member

The Big Tick Project has map based purely on survey/reporting data.

Couldn’t get to the local information, just a very low res image/

I am a bit paranoid about tick so check myself after every ride. Not found one yet – touch wood. Which I find surprising as a normally ride through common land where sheep graze.

Guardian article written by a Lyme disease sufferer:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/22/lyme-disease-matt-dawson-diagnose-doctors

If I remember correctly, the smaller ticks tend to live in leaf litter, they’d probably feed on small rodents and ground-feeding birds like blackbirds and pheasants. I’ve had them on me while working in woodland, I guess they got onto boots or trousers and climbed up.

I believe LD was fairly well known in forestry before the increase in cases.

One other point seems worth making. I’ve often been scratched and stabbed by the thorns of blackthorn and hawthorn. The scratches often look red and angry. Well a small tick feeding looks exactly the same, a tiny black dot on a small red swelling. It was only when I has one under the middle of my watch that I realised what it was.

Whizzing round overgrown trail at speed other day and got sharp rip on the arm from a prickly. Practically pint of blood drawn* but tiny scratch really. If there were any ticks tucking in too, maybe they drowned.

* exaggeration, but a fair bit 😀

Anyway, got friends who are a bit larger shall we say, and tend to get shredded by prickly stuff way more than those with less bulk. I wonder if there’s a similar thing with ticks going on in the undergrowth. Less of a target for them to hit 😀

John Caudwell speaks out in relation to the above:

Full article We must declare war on Lyme disease, to avoid what happened to Matt Dawson and my familyBy John…

Posted by John Caudwell on Friday, August 25, 2017