Hi Carl. I have been responsible for a great deal of culling on the west coast of Scotland this last two seasons, the area is near Lochinver.
Lymes disease is very common in the area, and the ground we stalk on is riddled with ticks. the problem being there are no sheep on the area, so the ticks latch on to anything they can find. The first year we stalked the area with overseas clients my firend who works for me received over 100 bites, and by the end of two weeks stalking was feeling fairly run down and feverish. We took him straight down the doctors who put him on a course of antibiotics. Unfortunatly he likes wearing tweed breeks, and the little buggers get in between the gap in the breek and the socks.
I on the other hand wear gaters, and sprayed them with deet, I got one bite on the belly. What you must also watch is once you have the deer in the larder, that is also when you will get unwelcome visitors. Even the next day if you are standing near a carcase you can get the little blighters climbing on board.
One of the worse places I ever visited hunting was Zululand in Africa. The ticks there are terrible, in fact if you look at the Trophy room sight you will see the Nyala I took on that safari. The area was bad for pepper tick, which are so small you can hardly see them, but they carry just as many diseases as an ordinary tick. Again I wore long trousers, wlaking boots, and gaters sprayed liberally with deet. And I had no problems, as you do not want to get tick bite fever.
If you are bitten by an infected tick carrying Lymes disease, you will usually notice a red ring occuring around the bite. You should seek medical help and tell your doctor that you suspect that you have been bitten by an infected tick. A course of antibiotics usually does the trick. However if you do not detect the bite until later, you normally feel generally unwell, similar to the flu coming on, it is important that you seek medical help immediatly, Lymes disease if left undetected can kill, and will if left too late damage vital organs beyond repair.