By Natalie Williams

Ticks are tiny arthropods that suck blood from animals and humans. Ticks live in tall grasses, trees, leaf litter, shrubs and sometimes in your own backyard. Ticks do not have the ability to fly or jump. What they do instead is wait patiently for a host to walk past them and grab onto the host’s skin or fur and crawl to a suitable spot to feed on the host’s blood Ticks have the amazing ability to dig into the host’s skin to suck blood without detection as it does not cause any pain to the host in the early stages. The average time a soft-bodied tick stays on the host’s skin is a couple of hours but the hard-bodied tick can stay on the host’s skin for up to 2 weeks.

Although it is very rare to contract disease from ticks, they have been known to spread the following disease to man:

– Babesiosis

– Rocky mountain spotted fever

– Lyme disease

– Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis (HGE)

– Human Monocytic Ehrlichiosis (HME)

– Colorado tick fever

– Relapsing fever

– Q fever

– Tick paralysis

– Tularemia

The type of disease contracted depends on the location, type of tick, duration of the tick’s attachment to the host’s skin and season of the year.

How To Remove Ticks On Your Own

1. Use some antiseptic like isopropyl alcohol to clean the tick bite area.

2. Wear a pair of PVC gloves if possible and use a pair of forceps or tweezers to clench the tick close to the skin of it’s head. Be careful not to wriggle, jolt or crush the tick.

3. Pull the tick straight out and apply a steady amount of pressure until the tick lets go.

4. Use a disinfected needle to extract the tick’s head or any other body part that was broken off in the skin.

5. Apply some antibiotic cream onto the bite wound and area around it.

6. Wash your hands thoroughly with antiseptic soap like Dettol to kill any traces of germs on your hands and fingers.

7. If possible, insert the abstracted tick into a container and bring it to a doctor for identification.

When Should You Get A Doctor?

– You fail to remove the tick or part of the tick from the skin.

– You develop a fever, rash, headache, muscle pains, joint pains or flu-like symptoms 2 to 14 days after the tick bite.

– You develop widespread rashes 2 to 14 days after the tick bite.

– You develop redness, pus, swelling or yellow drainage from the tick bite wound 1 to 2 days after the tick bite.

– You develop a red-ring or a bull’s eye rash around the tick bite wound 3 to 30 days after the tick bite.

– You have trouble moving your legs.

– You feel sickly and want to make sure your sickness is not related to your tick bite.

About the Author: Visit Natalie’s

Skin Disease Archive

for more tips on how to deal with a variety of skin diseases.

Source:

isnare.com

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