Andy's Mom: Tick Prevention
Hi, I'm Jane Harpenau, Andy's mom (the founder of Soil Dynamics).
I recently retired after 47 years as an RN. Bad timing. With the coronavirus pandemic, I couldn't even celebrate the end of my years in the workforce.
I told Andy I was starting to write again, so here's the first issue of "Jane's Jabber."
With the coronavirus restrictions, I've stayed home … a lot. For my sanity, though, I've found it necessary to cheat once in awhile.
Last week on a warm, but windy day I visited Heather (Andy's wife) and their kids - Redford-4, and twins Fay and Ireland -2. We went on their daily afternoon walk, down to the mailbox (about a mile) and then hiked through a wooded, grassy area by their country home (probably another mile). Just as we decided to go back into the house (whew, Grandma was tired), Heather saw some tiny dark spots on the girls' clothes … Ticks!
Unlike other crawling critters, they were already out for the year. Ticks are tiny, archnoid (spider family) parasites and so have eight legs. They don't care about social distancing and get right up close and personal, embedding their heads into any mammals' skin to feed off their blood.
Tick bites are usually painless and cause only minor swelling and redness, but some ticks can infect their victim with Lyme's Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The dark legged deer tick can carry Lyme's disease.
One of the disease's telltale symptoms is the "bullseye rash" -- a red circle with white center that can grow to 12 inches across. However a person can have Lyme's Disease without developing the rash.
Other symptoms may include fever, chills, body aches, swollen lymph nodes, headache, neck stiffness and severe fatigue. Lyme's Disease can cause lasting physical problems. Normally a deer tick must be embedded 36 hours or longer to infect its victim. A different species of tick causes Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF). Symptoms are high fever, nausea and vomiting, headache, muscle pain, and confusion. It can be fatal. Symptoms of these disease sort of sound like another disease -- Covid-19!
If you get any of these symptoms seek medical treatment immediately. Lyme's Disease and RMSF can be treated with antibiotics since they are bacterial caused.
With social distancing the norm and our usual forms of entertainment (movies, eating out, etc.) on hold, we've taken to the outdoors and renewed our appreciation of Mother Nature, but she's not always so kind.
Take precautions when hiking and enjoying the wilderness:
*Cover-up with long pants, socks and proper hiking shoes.
*Spray exposed skin (avoid your face and hands) with a DEET product or natural product that repels ticks. There's a myriad of products available on Amazon, if you're wanting to stay out of stores and have the product sent to you. But if you're out grocery shopping, many stores have insect repellents available. Always test the product on a small patch of your skin first to check for an allergy.
*Immediately check your clothes and skin after your excursion into nature.
*Shower as soon as possible to remove the repellent and give your body a more thorough examination for ticks.
Here's a few methods to remove an embedded tick head.
Grasp the tick with tweezers and gently pull.
Hold a blown-out match, still hot, against the tick and remove.
Douse the tick with liquid detergent to encourage its exit.
Regardless of the method used, smash the nasty little critter and flush him down the toilet. This is one creature you shouldn't return to the wild. Cleanse the area well and apply antibiotic ointment. After my Nebraska mountain hike (okay, no mountains in Nebraska, but the nature walk was hilly), Grandma Jane went home bone-weary with achy muscles. She's definitely out of shape. She took a long hot shower, soothing her muscles, and checked for ticks.
Next time she visits Heather and the kids, it's going to be on a rainy, stay-in-the-house day!