From bbc

Whilst I’m always suspicious of unidentified ‘experts’ there’s some interesting info here about ticks:

Perhaps one of the most underestimated creatures frequenting the countryside is the tick.

Experts have warned that ticks – blood-sucking, disease-carrying arachnids – appear to be on the rise.

Lyme disease, an infection that can cause arthritis and even death if untreated, can be transmitted to humans through its bite.

One victim, Joanne Drayson, was infected after walking in woods near her home in Guildford, Surrey.

In 2003, she remembers finding a tick on her foot, which caused a rash. At the same time she had flu-like symptoms that lasted several weeks.

When Mrs Drayson was bitten again two years later, she developed symptoms similar to arthritis, but doctors still did not suspect that the ticks had infected her with Lyme disease.

Her health deteriorated to such an extent that she was unable to lift her legs or arms. The pain in her hips meant she was unable to climb stairs in her own home.

It was 2007 before she was given a clinical diagnosis, after her GP prescribed antibiotics for a chest infection and they dramatically improved her symptoms.

She said: “I had removed ticks from my dogs for over 30 years, but didn’t really know much about them. There are probably thousands of people who could end up like me.”

Official estimates put the number of new UK cases each year at around 3,000, but Lyme disease charities say the figure could be as high as 15,000 annually because so many people do not have their condition diagnosed.

However, Richard Wall, professor of Zoology at Bristol University, said: “While it’s important to be aware of the risks – only a very small proportion of ticks carry Lyme disease.”

He added that ticks were most prevalent in areas with large numbers of their preferred host, red deer.

My two year old has just been given antibiotics as a pre-caution after we found a tick by the front door and 2 bites which came up like bulls-eyes on his legs. Better safe than sorry!

I had a friend who contracted Lyme Disease a couple of years ago from a tick bite. He had the textbook rash / flu symptoms.

His GP dismissed it and said he hadn’t heard of the disease, therefore it must not exist. My friend took in a load of printoffs from the internet to show him, GP still dismissed it and refused to prescribe antibiotics, then tried to blame my friend’s symptoms on work stress / anxiety.

Friend went to a different GP who was clued up, sent him for the blood tests, came back positive, long course of antibiotics (think it was 3 months or so), all good.

There needs to be more awareness among GPs about this disease because the warmer and wetter summers predicted due to global warming are perfect tick conditions.

I used to get munched on something serious by the little buggers, I think my record was six attached to me in one outing.
A mate from Sweden swore by eating garlic to prevent them and it seemed to work as I never found any after that.

On the whoel I think GPs are more clued up than they used to be, and those in more rural locations (or who are outdoors active) have always been quite aware IME, those in more urban areas, less so?

Thankfully i’ve never been bitten from a tick. I’m sure it’s coming however as i’ve only been riding 3 years in the forests to date.

Which is why I bought a set of these: Tick Twister

which is sat in my backpack should I ever find one on myself after a ride.

I get a few each summer (a nymph on Sunday). Just remove them carefully and be aware of the symptoms of Lymes.

I got one at either Dalbeattie / Kirroughtree / Mabie last weekend, very small but had a firm bite of my inside thigh!

I am always coming home from rides and having to get the tweezers out to remove one of them. I always find they are just small ones and I read that as long as you don’t leave them attached for more than 24 hours and don’t develop a rash after removing them, then you should be ok.

I find the best of getting them off is to use those very fine needle nose tweezers as you can get right under the head and grab them there rather than grabbing the body and leaving the head part in the skin.

GPs go for the quick answer and assume there is nothing seriously wrong with the patient. Not particularly being cynical, it’s just the way the NHS works. Given that most people turning up to a GP actually have little wrong with them, and they have limited time for assessment and referrals and prescriptions cost the NHS money, the approach is to send the patient home with reassurance and chances are they won’t be back. If it becomes serious they’ll be back (or end up in A&E, or a morgue!).

Anyway – http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/

Ideally, carry a tick remover (I’m thinking of getting one myself) and if you do get one, remove it properly and try to keep the thing to show to your GP and stress your concern about lyme disease. It’s a nasty thing and misdiagnosis can lead to long term health problems, or potentially death. Can be prevented though. First by avoiding them, and then by taking care when removing ticks.

Those Tick Twister things are great and really effective – picked some up from the vets and they got a lot of use last summer. On one occasion my boyfriend had about 30 ticks liberally distributed from ankles to chest after a day-long walk in fields/woods.

5 years of misery. Got better (a la Monty Python).

Not without a lot of money spent on private treatment. Don’t rely on the NHS to bail you out properly if you get ill.

Just a friendly warning…stay safe folks!!

Tick twisters – which way to turn, clockwise or anticlockwise? Or doesn’t it matter?

I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease in May after getting a bite in March. I got 2 bites whilst coppicing some hazel – one went unnoticed for 24 hours until I scratched my elbow and popped it.

Got the trademark bullseye rash but didn’t think anything more about it until my family commented that it was a little odd that I was sleeping 14 hours a night and couldn’t motivate myself to get out of bed in the morning.

I was prescribed a 2-week course of Doxycycline which seemed to do the trick – not sure about any long term effects though…

Awful illness…

I pulled a couple off this weekend.

And I got this one a few weeks ago.

I pulled a couple off this weekend.

you can take the boy out of mleh…

I am always surprised, and thankful, I never get them. Always out in fields which are home to livestock, whether running or biking. Starting to think there may not be a great concentration of the little bastards in my region.

TFFT!

After recovering from the Lyme disease, I then got a Harvester tic grub in my ankle… That was nice! I could feel it munching into the skin around my Achilles tendon. I dug it out with a knife, but not before it digested a big hole…

I picked 16 off myself at the end of my HTR550 attempt last month. They latched on during an extended section of thrutching through bushes. Then got an email from Alan Goldsmith telling me he’d changed the route to avoid that section. Worst one was 1cm below the eyeball.

I rang my GP immediately and they were very understanding, stuck me on Doxyclene immediately and I had a blood test last week. Hopefully the results will be fine.

One more reason for shaving your legs.

Ticks climb around your body using hairs etc iirc. Slippery legs = less ticks IME.

Loads of deer and sheep round here so billons of these pesky blighters. Mrs slowjo is very keen on us not having an extra partner in the bed/house so leg shaving is encouraged.

One more reason for shaving your legs.

I was wearing arm/leg warmers ???

Got one on my nipple after a holiday on Islay last year.

Torture to get off with a twister.

Thankfully been ok in the uk. Got tick bite fever in South Africa…on both occasions I went 🙁

I’m concerd ht GPS don’t recognise the disease,but also that some are prescribing antibiotics with no symptoms.

Keep a tick puller in the house or use tweezers (properly) I never notice them while riding, just in the shower when I get home.

If I rode in a bad area I would probably try a repellent.

@DavidB I’m sure they didn’t mind your arm/leg warmers! 🙂

A mate of mine ended up with one in a very intimate area as it crawled up inside his shorts. They are quite well adapted to getting in all sorts of places so shorts, arm warmers, leg warmers etc shouldn’t be too much trouble if they have hairs to cling to. The only ones I have picked up in recent years seem to have got onto my socks and no further.

I could be totally wrong on this but it seems to work.

Tick twisters – which way to turn, clockwise or anticlockwise? Or doesn’t it matter?

Don’t twist them in either direction! Twisting increases the chances of them breaking (and leaving bits in you or regurgitating their stomach into you).
Grab them under the head/as close to the skin as poss; then pull them straight out.

Don’t twist them in either direction!

Someone disagrees with you.

Don’t rely on shaving. A Nature Reserve warden showed us volunteers three juvenile ticks crawling up her legs last month. Very nice legs too, and not at all hairy.

I’ve not been bothered by them here in North East Scotland but when we lived in Holland it was in an area surrounded by livestock so ticks were quite common. Was always pulling them out of our cat. The local vets all recommended using a slight twisting motion when trying to remove them, and we always used a tick lasso like this….

Brilliant bit of kit.

Last year went riding in Bristol a couple of times, first occasion at Ashton Court, nipped across part of the golf course so waded through long grass, then Plantation the next weekend and had a tick on the back of one knee one weekend and the other knee the next, right in the gap on my leg armour – little feckers.

First one I didn’t notice until 2 days later, 2nd one the evening I got home. GP put me on a course of antibiotics as a precaution, no noticeable problems since.

I’ve heard the key is to get them off ASAP or at least within a few hours to minimise risks of infection of Lyme disease, although not all ticks carry it. The bacteria which causes the disease is in their gut so if you get them off while they are still feeding the bacteria can’t get transmitted to you. When they are full and bloated sometimes they can regurgitate back into your bloodstream which causes the infection if they are a carrier.

In 30+ years of riding and dog walking on the Quantocks I’ve been bitten once but some people I know only have to leave the house and the little beggers flock to them. 😕

Hi there- thank you for helping to raise this issue. I was bitten in 2011 in Dorset. It was my first holiday cycle touring, and we rode a tandem from The New Forest and through Dorset. We parked up our tandem one day at the campsite and enjoyed a walk to Lulworth Cove.

I sat down for a short rest in a field on the way back from the walk. Un-beknown to me, I was not sitting alone. We walked back to the campsite and my partner spotted a fleck of black on my face, which he went to knock off. He realised it was in fact a very tiny (nymph)tick. We soon realised my legs were covered in them. I showered them all off as quickly as I could. 3-4 weeks later I started getting ill with headache, neck pain, back pain. I then got a rash like a bullseye (not everyone gets this). I went to the Dr and pleaded for some antibiotics, I didn’t know much about Lyme then but I knew I needed something.

Unfortunately for me, it seems the Lyme had already took some sort of hold. The GP gave me antibiotics but at a low dose and the wrong type. 2 weeks passed by and I then got the right antibiotics, doxycycline. I began to improve, having slept for nearly a month, hardly being able to walk. I still was tired and still had some symptoms, the GP told me he was putting it down to a virus and there was nothing more he could do.

2.5 years pass by, I have further visits to the GP, and get referred to an infectious diseases clinic. I take responsibility for myself, and learn more about Lyme from sources such as http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk and the Facebook UK Lyme Disease Discussion Group and films. I realise what I knew all along, I am not better, but I had just got used to my ‘new life’, and as far as I was concerned, still better than other people who have the illness. Still, my quest is to be as well as I once was, or at least a damn bit closer.

I have now been on antibiotics on and off for a few months. I am getting the wind back in my sails. I would urge anybody to cover up, check themselves, wear repellent to enjoy the fabulous great outdoors. If you do have a ‘run in’ with a tick, remove it safely using a tick twister, never pull if off with your fingers or put vaseline etc on it. If you do have the misfortune of being bitten, read about what to do quickly, and seek advice and support from ‘those in the know’ like Lyme Disease Action. Spread the word and help to protect other cyclists/ walkers/ runners/ gardeners whilst they enjoy their pursuits.

Useful films include: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/under-our-skin/
Or- http://vimeo.com/95647143
Symptoms list: http://www.cangetbetter.com/symptom-list
UK Lyme Disease Action: http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/

I got bitten last year on the Quantocks and had the bullseye rash come up. Went straight to my doctor and hopefully 2 weeks of Doxycycline sorted it out.

I must have a scent that anything that bites homes in on as if there is any mozzys, gnats, ticks etc around i always end up being bitten while my riding buddy gets nothing 👿 At one point i got so fed up with ticks attaching themselves to me I was riding with my lycra leggings on during the summer 😆

This is what my bite ended up looking like.

I still shudder at the “night of ticks”. I stealth camped at the war memorial in plockton and during the half hour of waking up in the morning found about 50 small ticks everywhere I looked on my body(gave up counting in the late 20s) Never sure how they got in the tent but I reckon they could push straight through the mesh. I was finding ticks days later (shudders)

The ticks I have found on the dog recently are like bits of angry sweet corn I will probablyc have some kind of episode if I find one on myself.

@slowoldgit….true. When they are particularly prevalent I combine with Skin so soft. Disgusting smell but it keeps crawly, bitey things off.

I’m one of those ‘everything bites me’ types, ticks included.

I have a routine. Get home, shower, check for ticks, remove ticks. Minimises attachment time and I know I’ve actually screened myself rather than relying on luck to find it.

So I guess if one is cycling/running, they go for the legs?

Jamie

The bigger ticks climb up vegetation, a grass stalk or bracken frond perhaps, and perch at the top ready to latch onto any passing animal. So they grab onto you at that height and crawl around looking for somewhere covered, like where the sun doesn’t shine. They dig in.

When I ride I swerve a lot to avoid vegetation arching over the track.

The smaller ones hide lower down, in leaf litter and such, working in woodland I’ve had two under my watch strap on separate occasions doing coppicing and such. Other people get then when sitting or kneeling on grass, or generally moving around. As the young lady’s nice smooth legs.