Forest Safety: Ticks and Lyme Disease

Forest Safety: Ticks and Lyme Disease
by J. Zimmerman, Ph.D.

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Ticks are a significant hazard in hiking. What are seven ways to protect yourself from ticks and possible exposure to Lyme Disease? What three things should you do if bitten by a tick while hiking? And what five things should you do after a visit to an environment that has ticks?

Ticks: the basics.

• Ticks give little bites and big diseases.
• Many ticks carry Lyme Disease (discovered 1975).
• A tick is a flat, leathery, bloodsucking arachnid.
• Eight legs and two body segments.
• Ticks often rest on low-lying brushes, waiting to attach themselves to a passing animal or person.
• Wooded areas have a specially high risk of tick infestation. (Ticks are also found in grassland and at the seashore.)
• Ticks are only one of many hazards encountered by explorers of California forests. See also the General Safety Rules for Visiting Forests.

Seven ways to protect yourself from ticks.

Exercise caution. Protections include:

1. Avoidance. Avoid tick-infested areas, when possible. Don't bushwhack or make a short-cut through a heavily wooded, tick-infested areas.
2. Check your body frequently while hiking. See advice from Lyme Disease Foundation, Inc., etc., for how to recognize ticks. A tick check includes:
   • Visual inspection of clothes and exposed skin.
   • Special attention to the scalp, behind and in the ears, and behind joints.
   • Ideally (where practical) a naked, full-body examination in a private location.
3. Insect repellent. Use appropriate, EPA-approved insect repellent. Check its label to see if it works for ticks. Adults should apply the repellent for children.
4. Reduce the exposure of your skin. Wear boots, long pants, long-sleeved shirt, a hat. Tuck shirt into pants and pants into socks.
5. Stay off the ground. Avoid sitting on the ground.
6. Stay centered. Stay in the center of paths.
7. Wear light-colored clothing. This increases your potential to see ticks on your clothes, where you can brush them off before they can attach to your skin and bite you.

Three things to do if bitten by a tick while hiking.

1. Remove with tweezers.
2. Save in a plastic bag for later analysis if you suspect you are in an area with Lyme Disease.
3. Clean the bite with antiseptic.

Five things to do after a visit to an environment that has ticks.

1. Shower. While showering, check your body for ticks. If you find one: remove it; clean the place you found it with antiseptic; save the tick for possible analysis.
2. While you shower, be sure to wash off all insect repellents you applied.
3. Bitten by a tick? If you were bitten, follow the guidelines from Lyme Disease Foundation, Inc.
4. Wash clothes.
5. If you took a pet with you (on a leash, of course): check it for ticks; remove what you find; wash your pet. A pet that brings a tick into your home can threaten you and your family with infection.

Where is Lyme Disease most common?

In 1997 (Charles A. Sutherland in Sea Kayaker (June 1999)), states in the USA with over 1000 reported Lyme Disease cases were:

1. CT.
2. NJ.
3. NY.
4. PA.

1. CA.
2. MN.
3. WI.

Naming names

Charles A. Sutherland (Sea Kayaker, June 1999), reports these agents of Lyme Disease:

1. Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, a spirochete bacterium.
2. On Pacific coast, B. burgdorferi is carried by Ixodes pacificus (western black-legged tick).
3. In the northeast, the upper Midwest, and in Florida, B. burgdorferi is carried by I. scapularis (black-legged tick aka deer tick aka bear tick).
4. Transfer of Lyme Disease to humans is most common in late spring through mid-summer, via pin-head-sized tick lavae.

Symptoms

Symptoms of Lyme Disease (after Charles A. Sutherland (Sea Kayaker, June 1999)):

1. 3 to 30 days after the bite, bull's-eye rash (a red rash-like ring around the original bite) appears in half of victims.
2. Ring spreads up to 6" in diameter.
3. Weeks or months later, flu-like symptoms (muscle and joint pain, fatigue, headache, etc.)
4. Advanced cases may cause severe arthritis or serious neurological or cardiac symptoms.

John J. Kelley (winner of 1957 Boston Marathon) reported shortness of breath. Fortunately his Lyme Disease was cured by antibiotics.

Book Choice.

• Take a hike. Some recommendations from George Wuerthner's California's Wilderness Areas: Mountains and Coastal Ranges.
• Ronald M. Lanner's Conifers of California

Related pages.

• Home and List of Articles.
• General Safety Rules on how to explore the forests more safely.
• Tree Rings: What They Are and Why They Vary.
• (off-site) CDC Foundation, Inc. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). At publication of this article, CDC Lyme Disease.
• (off-site) Lyme Disease Foundation, Inc. Recipient of the NIH Award for increasing public awareness of Lyme Disease.
• (off-site) LymeNet. Includes information on diagnosing and treating Lyme Disease.

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[Thanks for visiting.]

Copyright © 2001-2006 by J. Zimmerman.