To prevent diseases such as TBE or Lyme disease, it is advisable to carefully protect yourself from ticks when spending time in nature. What helps to protect against ticks and how to remove ticks properly, we explain below.
How can I protect myself from ticks?
When staying in tick areas, it is best to wear clothing that does not give ticks access to bare skin. That is:
- Wear outerwear with long sleeves and long pants, as well as closed shoes.
- Pull the socks over the pants so that the ticks can not crawl into the pant leg.
- Light-colored clothing can help to detect ticks in time.
- Also, avoid high grass and undergrowth, as ticks like to stay there.
- Insect repellents against ticks (so-called repellents) can help to repel ticks.
- Whether home remedies such as black cumin oil or coconut oil can help to protect against ticks, is not yet scientifically clear – so rather reach for additional protective measures.
Since ticks still crawl around for a long time on the clothes and look for a suitable “bite site”, it is recommended to once again examine the skin at home, whether not yet somewhere a tick sits. Pay particular attention to regions with thin skin, for example under the armpits, in the back of the knees or in the pubic area.
Do ticks fall from the trees?
There is a widespread belief that ticks drop from trees onto people. However, this is not true: ticks do not drop from trees, but wait in the grass, undergrowth, and brush for humans or animals to brush the ticks off as they pass.
At risk here, in addition to forest workers and forestry officials, are all hikers, campers and recreational athletes, because 90 percent of TBE infections are transmitted during recreational activities.
What is the proper way to remove ticks?
TBE viruses can be transmitted immediately after a bite. Lyme disease pathogens are thought to be transmitted only after prolonged sucking. This is why it is so important to remove ticks as soon as possible. To do this, carefully remove the tick with fine tweezers.
It is important to use the correct technique:
- Place the tick card or tweezers close to the skin to ensure that the head of the tick is also removed. If the head of the tick remains stuck, the skin can become inflamed.
- Gently lever or push the tick out backwards. Be absolutely sure not to squeeze or twist the tick. Otherwise, you risk that the head of the tick breaks off and gets stuck in the wound.
- Make sure – using a magnifying glass if necessary – that the removed tick is complete and that no parts of the tick are stuck in the skin. If you discover remnants of the tick in the wound, consult a doctor to remove the remains.
- Clean the bite wound with alcohol or disinfectant to prevent inflammation.
Dripping oil or nail polish or squeezing the tick will do more harm than good. The reason: with the saliva, which the tick then gives off more, often even more pathogens are released into the wound.
Send in ticks – useful or not?
It is possible to send in a removed tick and have it analyzed for pathogens such as Lyme disease or TBE. The analysis is intended to help simplify the diagnosis if symptoms occur after the tick bite.
However, the costs for this examination are not covered, as the procedure is controversial: Even if a tick carries the pathogens, this does not mean that transmission also occurred during the bite. Conversely, a tick bite can also go unnoticed, so that the tick sent in is free of pathogens, but an infection nevertheless occurred.
Furthermore, the detection methods for pathogens in ticks are not equally reliable: An existing pathogen in a tick may not be detected by the test. All in all, experts rate the significance of such analyses of ticks as low, which is why the procedure is not considered useful.
