Fucking ticks

[darkpink]

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?

@charliebrown59

This has been useful, I've ordered a couple of tick cards. I'm contemplating never going outside again though!

That and the rise in jellyfish due to global warming, lovely.

We went out on a boat recently and the sea was FULL of jellyfish. Huge ones too, not tiny.

I got some water shoes for dd today, think they're becoming essential - so many of the yucky things.

I wish I'd never read this thread. I'm never going outside again!

I've never seen a tick and my hermit life will ensure it stays that way.

@latissimusdorsi

Sorry here they are

We have those. They’ve never worked for us - ticks are too small. Waste of money for us, but they may work for you.

Forgot link

www.otom.com/fr/

@Turquoisesol

I think not all doctors are very clued up on it

Definitely not in the UK.

I’ve never seen the tiny ticks people are talking about. Only the ones that get to the size almost of a sweet corn when full.

@ATieLikeRichardGere

I’ve never seen the tiny ticks people are talking about. Only the ones that get to the size almost of a sweet corn when full.

It’s the larvae that are tiny

Ah okay. I haven’t seen the young ones then! Maybe they just are too small to be apparent in the dog’s incredibly thick fur....

They can be tiny. Every time I see something like a black speck on my children, I check.

We used to get them as kids if we'd been playing in the fields where there had been sheep. If we were just playing in gardens we didn't tend to get them. My friend used to absolutely smother the ticks in cheap hairspray and said that made the ticks lose their grip so you could pull them out. My dad used turps to do the same thing on our dog. Fun times!

This thread is quite the eye opener. I've lived in Scotland all my life and never heard of ticks. Is it only certain areas that are affected? I've got two children and never checked them for ticks either, I wouldn't know what I was looking for.

I had a friend at uni who contracted lymes disease but he from equador and had just returned from travelling so I assumed it was some kind of tropical disease.

@Turquoisesol

Just looking at the seresto collar for dogs. It is supposed to protect for 8 months. Wondering if this may be good idea to stop dog bringing ticks in to house. Has anyone used one of these?

Our cats wear them - we've found them to be the only deterrent that actually works. They're very spendy though!

Many flea spot ons kill ticks as well as fleas.

LBOCS2 do the collars smell at all? And they just stay on? Even at night ?

I haven't noticed a smell. They stay on all the time unless your cat is like Houdini and removes it in under 4 hours the first time around, and they do repel and kill ticks. We tried spot ons and they just didn't do the job.

Ticks definitely seem to be more prevelant now than when I was wee. We got them occasionally when I was young, maybe one a year, and only if we had been out walking in the Cairngorms or something. Now my kids seem to get them about once a month and thats just from walking in local forests in Tayside. And the cat was covered in them last June, but I think it must have been an excpetionally bad year or something. None so far this year on the cat and just one on DS.
I find the ones on the DS very tricky to remove as they are so tiny, we tend to spot them easier on skin than fur. The ones on the cat are normally engorged before I find them and that makes them easier to get off with the tick tool.

Hate ticks though. Wish insect repellant or something worked

I found a tick under my boob after wild camping in Scotland. I thought it was a new mole at first yuck

According to Amazon, there is tick repellant that works. I've ordered some of it, so we'll see.

Maybe dog collars around ankles would be a good deterrant.

I live in Ireland and in summer 2 of my kids regularly get them - one in particular. We once came home from a walk in a grassy area beside sand dunes and he was covered in these teeny tiny ones.

The dog is prone to them too.