It's Tick Talk time when the BC Centre for Disease Control offers tips on how to stay safe from tick bites this summer.
As the weather gets warmer, the ticks that can carry Lyme disease are active. These ticks like grassy areas and short bushes and they can attach to you if brush by them. Not all ticks carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease but there is no way to tell just by looking at them so avoiding all tick bites is your best bet.
Remain safe from tick bites by:
Walking on cleared trails
Wearing long sleeves and pants and light-coloured clothing
Tucking pant legs into socks or boots
Using an insect repellent containing DEET on exposed skin.?
After being in an area that may have ticks, inspect your clothing and your skin as well as that of children and pets for ticks. If you see a tick, remove it yourself by using tweezers but remember to remove the tick whole and avoiding squeezing its body. ?
If a tick has buried itself into your skin, go to your family doctor or a walk-in clinic and have it removed immediately.?
Ticks are small, biting arachnids (related to scorpions, spiders, and mites) that feed on blood. Typically, ticks hang out on the tips of grasses or shrubs and can be transferred to people or animals as they brush past the vegetation.
Lyme disease most often starts with a skin rash that looks like a "bull's eye" and may be quite large. It often spreads out from where the tick bite occurred.
Other Lyme disease symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, fatigue or weakness of the muscles of the face. If you have the symptoms within days or weeks after being bitten by a tick, consult your family doctor or other healthcare professional.
The risk of Lyme disease is low in B.C., but the ticks that can pass it on are found in most of the southern part of the province. There were 18 cases of the disease reported to public health last year and half of these were people who were infected when they travelled to areas where Lyme is much more common like parts of the eastern US and Europe.
Find information easily on-line and learn more about ticks and Lyme disease at www.bccdc.ca/ticktalk.
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