Ticks in the area - eurgh!

[The Minkey]

In the eight or so years I've been living round here I've never encountered a tick or expected to until today when I found one firmly embedded on my chest. So, is it the case I've been living in a tick free dreamworld or is this a new thing for the area. I know Richmond Park is riddled with them but I thought that was due to the deer.

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

Oh blimey !!! I have never seen one and hope I don't .

How did you remove it ?

[The Minkey]

Slow and gentle tugging using a pair of tweezers. Took a few goes and had my toes curling because I'm a tad phobic but it came off in one piece. It was a tiny one. I thought it looked about the same size as a deer tick but it may have been one of the larger species in a developmental stage. Horrible creatures!

[hpsaucey]

Urgh - poor you! Where do you think you picked it up?

HP

[KidKruger]

they must be in Dulwich woods, i pulled one out of my dog's chest in late March.

[kiera]

Our first encounter with ticks was shortly after my family moved into their house in East Dulwich in the 1960s. As we had never seen ticks before, we didn't know what they were - one of our cats had what looked like lots of lumps on her skin and it was the vet who told us these were ticks. Nowadays it only happens very infrequently, but twice in the last few weeks I have had to remove a tick from the head of one or other of my cats (and they don't go in Dulwich Woods, so I don't know where they pick them up). I'm very glad that I have never had a tick attach itself to me.

[KalamityKel]

I friend of mine not so long a go had one emerge from is stomach (very much like THE alien scene) after he started prodding at what he thought was a skin tag... the video footage is amazing (minus the screaming)... ugly little thing.

He's based in West Dulwich. I blame them - the West Dulwichers :-))

[jacks09]

I really want to see that video.

[PennyDreadful]

Care needs to be taken when pulling ticks out because it's easy to either:

(a) snap them, meaning you pull away the body but the mouthparts stay buried in your skin, causing horrible irritation, or

(b) squeeze them so that they basically vomit their contents into you...which is dangerous, because they can carry awful diseases. (Believe me, Lyme Disease can really mess up your life good and proper.)

There are cheap but brilliant little gadgets you can get which sort of twist the tick out (a bit like taking a cork out of a bottle). If it's getting ticky around here, might be worth tooling up! Here's a link - hope it works, I'm not very good at this - to the official UK Lyme Disease website page which has advice about tick removal with or without these wee gadgets:

http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/about-ticks/tick-removal/

Like they used to say on Hill Street Blues: 'Let's be careful out there'...!

[The Minkey]

I found the tweezers worked fine, they were very fine tipped ones though. It was just a bit of an effort to maintain a gripping pressure sufficient to pull it out but not pull its body away from its head. I got it out on the fifth attempt.

*shudders*

Saw the doc today about something else and she volunteered me a bloodwork form to check for Lymes. Vet assts at Hankinsons said they do see them from time to time, and some friends who walk their dogs on One Tree Hill said they'd found a couple over the years. We both back on to the Aquarius. Reckon mine must have hitched a ride in on the cat - possibly via a fox - as I haven't been out walking anywhere green in a while.

The boob tick

[tiddles]

apparently you are meant to twist them out.

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

Arghhhhh!! I never want to come across a real life one !

[bonniebird]

Ticks are harmful horrid things that can transmit lymes disease, so always seek medical advice, they are in the area, Peckham rye park dogs have been known to have them too, if you do remove the tick yourself don't handle it after, kill it

[Seabag]

I keep my tick muzzled and on a lead, so no danger here

I just wish more tick owners wouldn't let theirs hop about, unsupervised

[JohnL]

Please don't tell me that

I have skin tags :( .... I think.

KalamityKel Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I friend of mine not so long a go had one emerge

> from is stomach (very much like THE alien scene)

> after he started prodding at what he thought was a

> skin tag... the video footage is amazing (minus

> the screaming)... ugly little thing.

> He's based in West Dulwich. I blame them - the

> West Dulwichers :-))

[grabot]

Not entirely relevant, but in the general arachnid field. We have one of these in the front yard at the moment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segestria_florentina (tube web spider). Green fangs, nasty thing! After years of telling my child that there is no need to fear spiders in the UK, I am proven wrong.

[The Minkey]

Eurgh KK, that sounds like an engorged lady tick ready to drop off.

A greyish 'skin tag' that gets fatter over a few days may be suspect.. It's also quite possible to play host to a tick and never notice because they can be so tiny - the males don't inflate like the females - I initially mistook mine for a fleck of dirt on my skin. The distinctive bulls-eye rash is present in about 70% of Lyme infections.

[Mustard]

I had a tick bite and didn't know it until it was spotted by my then GP. I was seeing him about something else and showed him a mark on my upper arm I was worried about. He looked at it with a magnifying glass and confirmed it to be a tick bite. No idea how it got there. Never saw the tick. It was very small though.

[AMFM]

safest way to get a tick out is to rub alcohol or methylated spirits around the area and wait about 5/10 minutes - tick gets drunk, relaxes its legs and hey poresto, easy to pull out. Good old fashioned fly spray works too.

[JohnL]

If you give the horrendous thing alcohol it might be sick :(

[hpsaucey]

We had these in our last flat. Nasty aggressive little buggers unlike your usual spider. Apparently been resident in the south east for a few decades now. There was apparently a colony at Denmark Hill station as well - the big bricked embankment. They like nooks and crannies in brickwork.

HP

grabot Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Not entirely relevant, but in the general arachnid

> field. We have one of these in the front yard at

> the moment

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segestria_florentina

> (tube web spider). Green fangs, nasty thing!

> After years of telling my child that there is no

> need to fear spiders in the UK, I am proven wrong.

[grabot]

Yes, I'm normally live and let live when it comes to spiders. But on reading this, I hit it with a can of Raid. It's dead now...

Mr Hine said: "In spider terms, it has to be said that this is an aggressive spider.

"If you approach it, it raises its legs and bares its fangs.

"Most spiders will back away - this one will jump at you and bite."

[hpsaucey]

grabot Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Yes, I'm normally live and let live when it comes

> to spiders. But on reading this, I hit it with a

> can of Raid. It's dead now...

>

> Mr Hine said: "In spider terms, it has to be said

> that this is an aggressive spider.

> "If you approach it, it raises its legs and bares

> its fangs.

> "Most spiders will back away - this one will jump

> at you and bite."

Sounds about right. The first one we found fell out of my trousers whilst I was putting them on - it wasn't very amused....

Don't like killing bugs and spiders really but I'm afraid these ones we did.

[MCRider]

Tics, in the grass & bushes, wait for a warm blooded creature to walk by, and they drop on you. they are very small and hard to spot.

Best thing to do, after a walk in the woods, is put all yr clothes in the washing machine & have a shower, feeling all over, for something that should not be there.

It takes 24 hrs from finding a spot, like an armpit or between the legs, for the tick to start sucking blood.

Then the tiny lil thing, will swell to the size of a large pea, or even small baked bean.

If it gets to that size, before you discover it, then yes, you should be checked for lyme disease, because it has had time to infect you.

Yes some people say just spray your trouser legs & shoes with OFF or similar products,but as said tics can drop from tree branches and small bushes, so you would have to cover all your clothes and skin with some sort of repellent, for that to be effective.

In the Army, we used to do a buddy buddy tick search, every 24 hrs,or near as possible, while on exercise, to get the ticks before they can infect you.......Ok its Supposedly Only 1 in 4 that carry the Lyme disease, but who wants to risk what amounts to a 6 month Influenza type illness, with lasting effects !!