Fucking ticks

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I'm very tick conscious. I'm careful about where I walk, and about what I wear. I wear long shirts and trousers, long socks, and if the trousers are loose, bicycle clips. I only go for short walks anyway. And I still find ticks on me. I worry about there being some I don't notice or can't reach (I don't have a partner). I don't feel able to sit on the grass to have a picnic or read a book. It's miserable, when being in the countryside is such a big part of life in Scotland.The deer we have here make the ticks much more likely to carry infections - especially the horrendous Weil's disease. How do the rest of you deal with this?

Non Scot here but a northerner with a dog who regularly picks the buggers up even with the tick repellent from the vet.

We have a tick remover tweezer thing that adeptly pulls them out then we squash them bugger between 2 flat stones.

Haven’t been routinely checking recently but thanks for the reminder.

We bought a tick remover very cheaply in somewhere like Go Outdoors for oldest DS's first D of E expedition. We're all getting fairly nimble at removing them.

There were plenty ticks in the 80s in the Scottish highlands!

But there seem to be more generally now. Wetter summers maybe?

Interestingly, the conspiracy theory view that I believe more and more now is that a lab in the US (near a place called “Lyme”) we’re experimenting on using ticks as disease vectors and one escaped. Lyme didn’t really get to the Uk until the early nineties I think

I've never found a tic on me, I'm now wondering if I've just missed them. Found one on my dog and removed it with a tool.

I was in long grass with my dog constantly as a child, neither of us ever had a tick. The only ticks I saw as a child were on a hedgehog we found.
A few Summers ago we were sitting out in a friend’s garden on very short grass occasionally grazed by sheep, just as in my childhood, and there were loads of ticks. We had to go indoors.
Then after gardening (rural village garden) a year or so ago I found one crawling on me. I am in Wales and not near any deer. The nymphs are so tiny, and only a third of Lyme carrying bites will show the typical bull’s eye rash, so they worry me a lot. Not every tick carries Lyme, the percentage varies by area, but every tick could be carrying it.
I do use tick repellent on walks . It does seem strange, my father spent his childhood Summers on the family farm, yet never got a tick.

After reading this thread I had a tick related nightmare last night - ugh, I've never seen one on us or the dog! If you don't have a removing tool, what's the best way to remove them from humans?

Tweezers and very carefully turn whilst holding the tweezers around the body

They go in like a corkscrew. I twist anti clockwise

There are definitely more ticks now than in my childhood - used to play in woods, long grass, fields with livestock and never had any. Had first ones in Sweden few years back (v common and yes they do vaccinate for encephalitis) but have had 3 in Scotland, last one 2 weeks ago. Am as far east as possible in Scotland but roe deer are everywhere even Glasgow and other urban areas. I have had on leg and stomach - if i found one on my nipple I would be in A&E!!! Tick removing tools available from outdoor shops for a fiver.

Remove ticks with care, you want to avoid their stomach contents going into you as they are pulled out. Tweezers gripping tightly at the mouth end are the thing if you don’t have a specialist tool.
Friends checked themselves after a walk in Pembrokeshire recently and had over five ticks each on them.

I meant Lyme disease, yes. I'll look into the lemongrass idea. I didn't realise that only a 3rd of lyme disease infected bites produce a bullseye. Bugger.

Out today walking with DH up the side of Loch Lomond and came home with three of the buggers. Not a one on DH.

We have one of the proper removers and got them all off easily. Yuk though.

We get loads where we live. It’s standard here to be vaccinated. The vaccine is for tick borne encephalitis though. Lyme you just have to watch for redness and get antibiotics if so.

Our cats are tick treated monthly. One still came in last month after being outside for about 3 mins with 5 stuck on his head! We have tick o twists to remove dotted all around the house

Tick season seems to be April- end June here so they are gradually decreasing

Yes this is a big worry for me too. I know someone’s whose child had lymes disease (confirmed via blood test) and they dont remember ever having had a tick at all. I always worry they will be in my scalp and I will miss them

Do the repellents work? Like, work better than midgie repellent which is useless?

I had to remove one from toddler DS's scrotum once. They were definitely fairly common in the Highlands in the 70s, my dad was an avid hill walker and we used to wild camp in places like Glen Etive and were trained not to pull them off and leave the heads in. I was more worried about clegs at the time but obviously Lyme disease is a concern. The most hideous tick I've seen is a hedgehog tick one of my cats picked up in the back garden :

I think maybe there are more lymes disease in ticks now than in the 70s though?

@Turquoisesol

Yes this is a big worry for me too. I know someone’s whose child had lymes disease (confirmed via blood test) and they dont remember ever having had a tick at all. I always worry they will be in my scalp and I will miss them

Friend’s dd had the bite that gave her Lyme on her scalp.

We have recently got a dog and it’s doubled my worry cos they bring them in on their coat

Is walking only in the beach a good preventative measure maybe ? (Although not very practical)

My dog got a tick in the sand dunes so I doubt it but there are fewer

I use a lemongrass spray in the dogs and me, I check carefully and would act v promptly if I saw a tick bite.

I hillwalked for years pre kids and picked up the odd ticks. Don’t pee hovering over grass or Heather! I haven’t had a tick in years now.

I’ve had a couple of ticks from hill walking. I’ve seen a few ticks in our garden recently, before they could attach, which is worrying as we’ve been here 12 years and I haven’t seen them before.

I will look out for the lemongrass spray.

Yes, someone here crouched for a wee while on a walk, and a while later her partner noticed a bullseye mark on her bottom. If she'd been single, she wouldn't have known to get treated for Lyme's Disease before it was too late. She hadn't noticed anything.

This pleasant-smelling, completely natural spray is very effective at preventing dogs from picking up ticks and I also use it myself 😂. It works very well as a repellent.

The active ingredients are:

geranium, grapefruit, cedarwood, rosewood, lemongrass

vitacanis.co.uk/product/natural-tick-repellent-for-dogs/

The tick off stuff looks good. Yes our dog got a tick from our garden. I know it was definitely our garden as it was pre vaccinations and we hadn’t been anywhere. And we live in a residential area - not right next to woodlands. A few hundreds metres from woodlands.

I think the ticks get spread by sheep as well. I come from a place where they are very common and we would always change clothes and check everyone after a woodland walk. Also you would never wear shorts into grass.

The vaccine for encephalitis is not so useful in the UK because it's thankfully still very very rare for the ticks to be infected.