DeerDucksFishin
Well-Known Member
if in any doubt get it checked lyme disease rates have more than doubled over last two years
Bitten by ticks. Black dot at centre.
- Thread starter FISH BOY
- Start date
just to reassure those bitten, Ive been bitten about 150 times in the last 10 years. sometimes pulling 20 off after a weekend stalking in scotland. Ive never had rashes/lymes etc and never been to the dr's.
Ive never been bitten by a big one. They have always been little microscopic ones and I've just scratched them off with my nails and they come off easily when they are tiny.
Ive never been bitten by a big one. They have always been little microscopic ones and I've just scratched them off with my nails and they come off easily when they are tiny.
I did the same thing recently Fish Boy. I visit the West Coast of Scotland every year and find ticks regularly, but they've never bothered me.
I stalk in Essex where I have never been bitten or even seen a tick. Recently though I did pick one up which I hadn't noticed for many days and I reacted quite badly. I didn't get the red target rash, but went to my GP anyway.
I had the black dot and the GP suspected that I'd left the mouth parts in, even after using a tick lifter. He dug around and it turned out to be just a blood clot.
It's not the sort of ground where I'd worry about Lymes, as there is no new planting. Speaking to the chap who takes me out, he said that he had got Lymes there some years ago. He was never diagnosed, but after an operation for something else, which included a course of antibiotics, his symptoms disappeared. His wife who is a nurse said this confirmed her suspicions that he'd had Lymes.
So, we agreed that I'd have a three week course of antibiotics to play safe. And why not?
(Two days in, my knees started aching
, but that could have been psychosomatic.)You've got peace of mind now. Go and enjoy your stalking.
I had a hard lump/rash on my calf and dry skin peeling on one of my ear lobes which are sometime symptoms of Lyme disease. Had not noticed a tick bite but I regularly take them off the dogs, so it was quite possible.
Doctor agreed that a two week course of Doxycycline would be over before he had the not-particularly-accurate-in the-early-days-of-infection blood test results back.
Doxycycline is often given to prevent catching malaria if you are travelling to an infected part of the world I gather.
Alan
Pushed a tick under water in a pint glass once, ... fe**er was still alive a week later 
Cut+Squirt
Well-Known Member
Agreed,
There's no doubt they can be nasty little bastwards but I'm working in tick areas almost daily and lost count a long time ago of how many times Ive been bitten. Remove with care and some antiseptic cream. Unless symptoms show I really wouldn't trouble my Doc.
There's no denying that for obvious reasons there may be sales element behind my comment - so apologies on that score...., however I used to be a tick-magnet and had Doxycycline treatment up until 5yrs ago (negative for Lymes), since wearing Rovince Anti Tick clothing I've been tick free.
Far more folk are now becoming aware of Lymes which is good - we are just in the process of kitting out all outdoors staff on a highland estate so employers are now taking the risk seriously.
Precautions can be taken and Rovince is one of them & works
Rgds
Rob
Far more folk are now becoming aware of Lymes which is good - we are just in the process of kitting out all outdoors staff on a highland estate so employers are now taking the risk seriously.
Precautions can be taken and Rovince is one of them & works
Rgds
Rob
Pushed a tick under water in a pint glass once, ... fe**er was still alive a week later
They don't mind moisture, it is lack of humidity they can't deal with. They can survive the washing machine which is why they say clothing should be given a 10min cycle in hot tumble dryer as the dry heat is what screws them over
Cannot say I have ever seen one on S Warwicks/N Oxon but I shoot in fields and generally not around forests/woods which is where I believe they prefer to reside due to a more moist environment. They deffo exist around here as I have friends who pick them off dogs but almost always when mutley has been running around the woods or those types of environment.
If I was in a risky environment, I would deffo be taking more precautions than just tucking my trousers into my socks ha ha.
You are in a risky environment. But tucking your trousers into your socks and checking yourself over in the shower are good things to do.
This year the local BDS branch AGM had a talk by tick guru Mike Peacey...
"A talk will be given by Michael Peacey MSc (Oxon) who is an Entomological fieldsman and Post Grad Supervisor as well as being the Author/co-author of number of important Papers relating to Tick/Insect borne diseases.He is a real Countryman you will be very surprised by what you he has to tell!! Not to be missed"
And if I remember it correctly, he said they tend to be species specific, so the ones that cycle with mice tend to inhabit low level herbage, rabbits and foxes higher, and the deer ones climb higher still. Though they are quite happy to latch onto anything with a pulse that brushes past the plant foliage they are clinging to. Having fed they drop off, and that is of course usually on or beside a path where their hosts are likely to return. So they are in the right place to climb up to their chosen height and wait when they are ready for the next stage/feed of their cycle.
My own unscientifically gathered experience is that they are in meadows, grassland and heather more than wooded areas...the highest concentration I have found was on open heathland, I took 27 off one little springer after a few walks on Arran in late May June a few years ago. There are fewer opportunities to latch onto a passing mammal in open woodland.
Plenty in this part of the Cotswolds, so I would not be complacent about S Warwickshire/N Oxon fields. Anywhere the deer/fox/rabbit/mice go, there they will be.
Alan
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Cut+Squirt
Well-Known Member
Worst tick infestation ever I saw was on the Isle of Rum. No trees, all open moorland, heather and lochans
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