Real-life ticks are not so cute. Photo: Bob Smith/grough
An unexpected package dropped through grough’s letterbox recently, courtesy of Netherlands-based Care Plus.
The kit was a welcome addition to our outdoor gear as an aid to guard against very unwelcome guests.
Care Plus’s anti-tick kit arrival was a timely reminder that summer is the peak time for increased risk of being attacked by these small but potentially nasty parasites, which latch on to passing walkers and other outdoor fans for a quick feast of human blood.
That’s bad enough, but of even more concern is the possibility that these small arachnids – distant cousins of the spider – can carry bacteria and viruses that cause serious diseases. The best known is Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that cause Lyme disease which, left untreated, can cause debilitating illness. Not all ticks carry the bacteria, but some of Britain’s best walking regions are known to have high incidences. These include the Lake District, North York Moors, Scottish Highlands, New Forest, Exmoor, the South Downs and Thetford Forest, as well as parts of Surrey, West Sussex, Wiltshire and Berkshire.
The Care Plus kit came with two pairs of Bugsox Traveller, which are technical walking socks impregnated with HealthGuard to ward off ticks and insects. The socks are made from bamboo viscose and are low-volume ideal for use with trail shoes.
Accompanying the socks was a bottle of Anti-Tick, a repellent you can apply to exposed areas such as arms and legs, which is DEET free and uses lemon-eucalyptus extracts. Protection lasts for between four and six hours.
The anti-tick kit will help protect against these nasty parasites. Photo: Bob Smith/grough
There’s also a tick remover, a plastic pincer-like contraption that uses a pair of jaws to get under the parasite and lift it from the skin. It’s important not to squeeze a tick that’s on someone as that will just direct the contents of the beast’s digestive system, and any pathogens that it contains, back into the victim’s blood system.
The last piece of the kit is an interesting tick test. Once you’ve removed a tick, place it in the little plastic vial, crush it with the little wooden stick provided, then put 10 drops of the Tick Test fluid on the blighter. Close the tube and give it a shake, then use the kit’s pipette to extract five drops of the resulting tick cocktail into the test cassette and leave for 10 minutes.
If the deceased tick was carrying the Lyme disease, this should be indicated by a line appearing in the cassette.
There’s also a checklist to pass on to medical staff to help further diagnosis.
The Care Plus package also came with a lovely little tick soft toy, complete with bright green body with an engorged red centre and orange legs. If that’s the only tick we ever encounter, we’ll be quite happy.
More details are on the Care Plus Stop the Tick website.
There’s more information on Lyme disease on the NHS Choices website.
