To the editor:
It’s that time of year again when the ticks become very active and apparent in this area. Here are some suggestions to keep them at bay:
For you:
- Wear long pants and tuck them into socks when you are in a “tick habitat.”
- Treat your clothing with a tick repellent. Look for 25 to 30 percent DEET.
- Treat your skin that is exposed with a tick repellent.
- Consider buying clothing that has a built in tick repellent. They are about 60 percent effective.
To remove a tick:
- Use fine-tipped tweezers to grab the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible. Don’t grab it in the middle and squeeze; this can push their stomach contents into your body!
- Pull upwards with steady, even pressure to remove the tick.
- Clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.
- If the tick has been on your body for over 24 hours, put it in a jar of alcohol and save for two weeks in case you get an illness. This can aid in identifying what you could have been exposed to. Call your doctor if you get a rash or a fever after a tick bite.
For your yard:
- Remove all leaf litter. Don’t just blow it toward the woods. Ticks can live well and overwinter in leaf litter.
- Create a mulched barrier or a wood chip barrier about 3 feet wide at the edge of your lawn and the woods.
- Mulch under foundation plantings.
Some tick facts:
- Three species of ticks in Indiana carry diseases and viruses: American dog tick, black-legged tick and Lone Star tick. The Lone Star is responsible for 90 to 95 percent of tick bites and it can carry Erlichiosis, Heartland Virus, Southern Rash Illness, Tularemia and Bourbon Virus. It can also cause the Alpha Gal meat allergy. It likes grassy areas and will quest to get onto a host.
- Ticks do not jump, fly or drop onto you; they climb onto you.
- Exotic invasive plants like honeysuckle have higher tick counts and also attract deer, which carry ticks.
- Pesticides that kill ticks also kill beneficial insects like bees. There is a product called Metarhizium Anisopliae that is fungal, kills ticks and doesn’t harm bees.
- A warmer climate means a larger tick population, with earlier activity, which increases the risk of human exposures.
For more tick information, see www.in.gov/isdh/27792.html.
Jennifer Heller, Brown County Health Department
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