yuechhh! Noticed a red dot on M last night,under her arm & she wriggled giggled so I left t,again this evening so got hubby to hold her whislt we looked(she larfing her head off ) & yuech it was a tiny tick
Used tweezers & all off,nothing left in skin but have just googled & now it appears I can add this to Another Thing To Worry About living in the countryside & having a field they spend alot of time in help any tips?
thats tips,not ticks
keep a bottle of surgical spirit and some cotton buds handy! Any ticks, just anoint them with copious quantities of the surgical spirit until they lose their grip and drop off!
Whatever you do, resist the temptation to just rip them off with tweezers - that can leave the pincers embedded in the skin which can go 'orribly septic
You can also use tea tree oil for the same purpose!
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When I visited the New Forest, my friend who I lived with (an A&E doctor) told me that I must avoid ticks because it is one of the few (perhaps only?) places in the UK where Lymes disease is carried by them. Lymes disease as I understand it is for life.
So what to do, well they should only be found in places where there are animals such as horses, goats etc. So make a separate place for your LO to play. It is also recommended that no bare flesh should be in contact with grass, so if it is possible keep grass short and/or wear long trousers, for really tiny tinies this might also mean long sleeves.
That said, we have goats and a donkey that we tether all over our land, though our garden directly in front of the house is off limits to them. None of us have ever picked one up here (touching wood), but the dogs get them.
baby-loving, earth-digging, bread-baking, jam-making, off-grid, off-road 21st century domestic goddess....
Clara wrote:
When I visited the New Forest, my friend who I lived with (an A&E doctor) told me that I must avoid ticks because it is one of the few (perhaps only?) places in the UK where Lymes disease is carried by them. Lymes disease as I understand it is for life.
It's around up here, too. The vet recommends using vaseline to suffocate the ticks before removing. There are special little gadgets for removal, too - but I've been told they don't work so well on small ones.
Ina
I'm a size 10, really; I wear a 20 for comfort. (Gina Yashere)
the gardens front & back t the house have short grass,but the field is well a field dad mows the perimeters of the plot we have marked out to keep the pests & beasties down the rest is wild.The smalls were up there yesterday but sat on clover?we were looking for a four~er they didnt wade in the long stuff?
I shall have to get in teh habit of checking them each night I thnk
I have to contradict some of the advice above. If you put stuff on the ticks that makes them "let go", you actually increase the chance of getting lymes. The saliva they spit out while releasing is where its carried.
Choose carefully the right kind of tweezers, you want to be able to grab it as close to the skin as possible without squeezing the body. Don't yank, just steadily pull straight outward, if done right this should pull the head out without breaking the neck. Bigger ones hold on tighter, smaller ones are easier, but both carry lymes.
Dab some disinfectant on afterward, if the head broke off and is still attached watch it closely and keep disinfectant on it. Its possible to dig the head out (I've done it) but its a rather painful process that I wouldn't want to put a child through.
I should mention that I've been bitten hundreds of times and have never gotten lymes. If you spend a lot of time outdoors I recommend getting tested for it at least once a year.
I just wiki-ed it and it confirms what ellendra just said, the vaseline method is not a good idea if there´s a risk of lyme´s.
I´ve always pulled them off my dogs by hand, giving a slight twist anticlockwise as I´ve been told the mouthparts go in clockwise. Works well but not perfectly. I reckon the special tweezers probably do something similar.
baby-loving, earth-digging, bread-baking, jam-making, off-grid, off-road 21st century domestic goddess....
I second the advice not to put anything on to to make the tick let go. I'm not a medic, but that's the advice I found in - what I consider - reliable sources. It seems you indeed increase the chance of getting Lyme or another tick-carried disease.
I probably was infected with Lyme not so long ago. I knew we'd been in contact with ticks during the vacation and just after having come back I had, what I thought at the time, a summer fever. I discovered a red blotch on my chest a few weeks later. I got antibiotics for lyme disease and it went away. Fortunately I never got any of the long term effects (as far as I can judge now). I never saw the tick who did it...
If you remove the tick within 24 hours, I've read, there's not much chance of ill effects (except for the bite going septic, which can be bad enough). But keep an eye out for red blotches or circles on the skin in the area where the bite was. It can take months for these marks to appear, so keep checking.
I don't know how prevalent Lyme is in the UK or other countries, but here in the Netherlands on average some 20% of the ticks carry it.
In my opinion Lyme's disease is no joke and a suspicious red blotch or ring is not something to doctor around with yourself, although I'm aware people make their own choices and have a right to take risks with their health as they like/believe.
Ticks are a real problem here and barely a day goes by between april and october without me having to remove several from wife, child, or meself. between us we have had THOUSANDS of bites and had several heads left in and go bad. So whilst the risk of Lymes is there ( a friend has it ) don't blow it out of proportion. I also read that it was only carried here by the red deer tick which is far less common ( but that could be cr4p ) I nearly always pull them out by twisting and occaisionaly with tea tree oil. If they are too small I just let them get bigger. They do seem to prefer the tender skin of my 8 year old boy to both the wife and I and he's the worlds worst for scratching the heads off but seems to suffer no harm. Sure there's a risk but there's a risk in everything.
Cheers, Paul
please bear in mind when reading this post that i'm a taurus so prone to talking bull.
It was not my intention to blow anything out of proportion. Sure there'se a risk in anything and I do still go down stairs and go out in traffic every day, which apperently are very dangerous activities.
Just as wearing seatbelts and helmets on motor cycles is life saving, just as it is wise not to go down stairs with your arms too full of clean laundry, just as one simply doesn't get behind a steering wheel after having drunk alcohol... so it is important to check for ticks and tick bites. As with seat belts and helmets on motor cycles and drinking, it's not worth losing your health over something that is so easy to pay attention to.
Many people here underestimate the risk of ticks, so I'm sorry if I came on a little strong.
Ticks, the bane of all gammies lives! And they are getting worse up the glens; thanks cimate change with the wetter and warmer weather they seem to be around for longer and in greater quantities (now there is a useful PhD!)
If you tried to remove the tick with a pair of tweezers (I know it seems like a good idea at the time, but it probably the worst thing you can do) and even if you don't think you left some of it in please go the doctors; especially if it is your child.
I could be wrong but I thought Lyme's Disease can manifest itself fortnight/ month later with is flu- like symptons.
Noticed a red dot on M last night,under her arm & she wriggled giggled so I left t,again this evening so got hubby to hold her whislt we looked(she larfing her head off 
) & yuech it was a tiny tick 
they didnt wade in the long stuff?
