it's your choice: orchids, or ticks?

Now, what would you choose as topic for today's post: orchids, or ticks?

Ah well, thought so. I suppose there's a point, for some people, when you've seen way too many orchids, I certainly do understand that (even though I can't get enough of them). So now, very well - no orchids, but a short essay on:

How to catch ticks - and how to get rid of the ugly buggers

First and foremost a warning: do not do this at home - under no circumstances! This may cause serious damage to your health. Or at least don't do it without consulting a doctor beforehand, or your parents if you're a minor.

Very well now, here's how you go about it:

• before you begin you first have to go through vaccination against tick-borne meningoencephalits which takes quite some time, therefore you've got to plan months in advance for your tick adventure; also it is very important to ask your doctor if there are other dangers involved with the ticks of your hunting ground
• as soon as your immunisation against TBEV is active you can start to go out hunting: long grass or dense wood should be your preferred hunting grounds, short-cut lawn is not much good at all
• if you want quick success you should not take a shower after your walks through the long grass because ticks take some time to find a cosy, warm place on your skin (preferably one with much hair on it); let them do so for a couple of hours so that they can drill their teeth into you properly

The last point really is very important; it took me almost ten years before I caught my first original Lobau National Park Tick because I always took a shower after returning. Finally however I succeeded, and this is where the second and most important part of tick hunting begins: how to get rid of them.

First you've got to find them - and they are really small, at the beginning. So search yourself carefully, especially on those warm, cosy places with some hair on your skin (apart from your head also armpit, navel, backside of the knee-joint, groin).

Then about removing: if you don't fancy it yourself then go to the doctor - immediately! This is very important as ticks may infect you with serious illnesses (that is, besides TBEV) and the probability of infection is the greater the longer you carry your tick. But removing them yourself really is easy: put some oil on them (any oil will do, personally I prefer olive oil, Italian one of course) - they don't like that and may even let go by themselves, after a while; if they do be sure to catch and kill them. If they don't then use a tweezer, grab the tick as close to your skin as possible, preferably sideways, and screw it out like if it were a screw (it doesn't matter if you do it clockwise or counter-clockwise); that's what I did with mine:

And I'm sorry that I only can offer a picture with the oiled tick; it just wasn't possible to hold my camera and at the same time screw the silly bugger out, I really tried!

Anyway, this is what your skin should look like afterwards:

And the tick has to be killed afterwards, sorry; animal welfare not quite applies here, if you let the tick loose it might just find you again and you'll have to repeat procedure. Enthusiastic tick hunters also may preserve them in alcohol.

Finally again a very important reference to prophylaxis: I hope you've made sure before all this that you were vaccinated. Also in some regions there are, besides tick-borne meningoencephalits, other illnesses which you could get from ticks. In Europe generally there's the danger of catching lyme disease (borreliosis), a nasty illness because you hardly notice it at first. My doctor thought that I've caught it (lyme disease is very difficult to diagnose too) and gave me antibiotics; with them it's easily cured (but you don't become immune against lyme disease, unfortunately).

Now then, good luck with your tick-hunting business, watch out and take care. Don't let the tiny little buggers bring you down. A tick hunter knows to handle his ticks with care!