[Closed] Tick Count 2010

1 on Friday or Saturday on Rannoch Moor (extracted on Saturday)

Ticks and cycling = pretty unlikely in my experience.
Ticks and sitting around on the grass at the top of climbs = much more likely. 🙄

Found a dead one on me day after a ride in Innerliethen a couple of weeks back.

Went the doc as a precaution and practically had to get down on bended knee to get a course of antibiotics, which I then forgot to finish 😳

this time of year, usually a few a month. with current wet weather probably more if riding usual areas.

Dibbs - agreed if riding open areas, go into damp scottish forests, brush past vegetaion then ticks are to be expected rather than the exception.

just finished yesterday a 3 week course of antibiotics for Lyme's - probably not got it, but fever 4 days after a tick found in groin.

horrible wee blighters 😈

Ticks and cycling = pretty unlikely in my experience.
Ticks and sitting around on the grass at the top of climbs = much more likely.

Not true, I got one this year from riding a narrow trail which had a lot of bracken growing on to it - there was no way to avoid brushing against the bracken and on and one must have got on to me that way.

I hate them.

"Ticks and cycling = pretty unlikely"

You're being very literal, Dibbs! Lounging around is permitted, nee expected 🙂

1 here - 3 weeks ago.
Again on Dartmoor.

I've never had one. I must taste nasty.

one on Exmoor. Little bloodsucking hitch-hiking burrowing opportunistic bugger.

This year so far: 4 (Hexhamshire)
Prior to this year: 0

Scotland and down south seem to be tick infested but strangly never had one of the buggers in 25 years of riding in the sheep infested Yorkshire dales

one on the dog last week 😆

Ticks and cycling = pretty unlikely in my experience.
Ticks and sitting around on the grass at the top of climbs = much more likely

That may make some sense, I've never had one in my whole life, can't believe how many people seem to get them!

I'm supposedly at high risk as a mountain biker and forester, been upto my neck in bracken for the last fortnight, but not a single tick, ever.

I have had 3 bites which have swolen much more than usual...Never found any of the little bliters though, so it could have been those pesky horse flies...

I think I am on 12 this year.
About one per fortnight seems average for our staff, and a guest or two a week, one of my poor staff had 19 in one go after mucking around playing games in some deep bracken this year....!

Picked up 7 in one ride last month (Kinlochleven), didn't find most of them until 24hrs later.

24hrs after removal 6 or so of the bite sites came up red, angry and itchy. Antibiotics after a visit to the docterror.

Normally get 3 or 4 a month (work as a forester) but normally no bad reactions.

1 six weeks ago followed by the bullseye rash. Just finished anti-biotics and have a negative blood test, so fingers crossed

Never had one - I feel left out.
I must cycle to fast for them 😉 <cough>

DavidB: [b]How long before your bullseye appeared? Was your tick gorged?[/b]I only ask because I had/have an itchy, non-bullseye, rash at the bite site at the time I removed the tick (which wasn't gorged)

About 18 so far this year, despite repellent. Most have been nymphs rather than full scale adults. I put it down to my recent (18months) habit of wandering up overgrown badger trails to see if they're worth clearing. Most have been in wet/warm conditions (i.e. summer rain or immediately after) when the foliage is wet - I guess its washing off the repellent, because generally I'm proper soaked.

I always inspect after my shower when I get in, so they have about 4-5 hours and thats if I pick them up at the beginning of the ride.

For advice and info please visit www.bada-uk.org top info and no bullshit!
Feel free to contact me if you have any concerns about ticks and tick borne diseases..
To stay safe the basics are.

1.Avoid tick contact

2.Remove correctly...fine tweezers or tick tool only

3.Be aware that if you are infected it can take up to 5 or 6 weeks for symptoms to manifest themselves (this is how so many people are incorrectly diagnosed and treated at this crucial early stage)

4. Don't Panic

andy (slimy lymey tick magnet)

Do 5 leech bites last year count?

How come is it after having been riding for 10years is it all of a sudden now there's constant talk of ticks and people getting lymes, When in the past I've never heard of anything?

A week ago last Sunday, The Roaches, Roach End.

I've been tramping the hills since my early 20s and I'm only getting ticked walking and cycling in the last five, perhaps 1-4 a year. It's kinda why I started this thread - to start making a rough record.

I think Colin is going for an STW record with 18 so far this year 😉

Only three so far, but the dog had this many;

[IMG] [/IMG]

He got them all in NW Scotland. Seems fine now. I've been scraping ticks off me since I was old enough to do it for myself. I do understand that Lyme's is a pretty horrible disease but wonder if the increased awareness of the disease is causing a bit of an over-reaction? No way would I take anti-bios just because I found a tick on me...

been getting ticks for over 25 years now, lyme has been around for a long time folks, its only now that the disease is getting correctly diagnosed and with a combination of factors...more ticks about...more people active in the outdoors...sheep not dipped as much as they used to be....milder more favourable conditions for ticks.

As far as. I'm aware I've never had one - how would I know if I did?

Never had one in 20 years, although I did brush one off my arm before he got a chance to dig in yesterday. That was the first time I'd seen one in a few years. Strangely my other half, who can't exactly be described as 'outdoorsey', got one with Lyme's last summer.

Never had one in years of scouting riding bivvying camping. I was also surprised by the increase in reporting

3 in the last 2 weeks. On 2 seperate occasions. One was a tiddler, but the others were quite large.

Out of interest what I found was that they were attaching themselves to my clothing and then trying to bite the nice warm juicy skin after I had finished on the bike.

None for many years of riding but had one last year on the Quantocks & one earlier this year on Exmoor.

DavidB: How long before your bullseye appeared? Was your tick gorged?I only ask because I had/have an itchy, non-bullseye, rash at the bite site at the time I removed the tick (which wasn't gorged)

I can't answer that as the tick had dropped off and I only spotted the bullseye by fluke (it was on my back). The bullseye rash did not itch at all and the red rings were raised. It may be you are OK and this is not the lymes rash.

So far this year: One from Purbeck
Lots from NW Scotland: Sunart, Morvern, Glen Coe.
The bites itch, but unless you've got a fever I can't see that antibiotics are appropriate. No wonder Garry's doc was unwilling to prescribe.

Sitting in a van door with my feel on the ground at one parking spot near Bridge of Orchy, I watched 4 of the little evils start crawling up my bare legs. Ugh.

After a ride/ push in Morvern's deer territory I later removed one fat tick from my testicle and another from my armpit. Others were in less remarkable locations.

I think Colin is going for an STW record with 18 so far this year

Maybe. As I said, I don't normally get this many, but, as you know, my attitude to access has changed and that brings with it much more 'brush bashing'. The last bit of cutting back on the Rose Wood Trail left me with 21 on my legs as I checked before I got into the car - I'm pretty sure I got them from walking out via 100 yards of bracken at the very end of my days activities since none of them had fixed themselves.

I'm only counting the ones I've had to extract via tweezers though.

8 foolish souls on a recent stag do chose ride the Coastal route from the Lochranza distillery in Arran to Corrie and 1 guy had 32 ticks removed from some rather unsightly places by what he described as a rather hot Swiss nurse! So maybe there is an upshot to getting bitten by the wee critters.

Had at total of 6 so far this year (dartmoor) never had any before in all my years of cycling.

Begining of June this year I managed to pick up about 100 ticks in one go while wild camping on the Ardagarten Peninsula. Do I win a prize?

Plecostomus:
As said up there it is a combination of things.
Up until 3-4 years ago, Lyme was assumed to have been brought in from Lyme County, USA, and hotspots being the New Forest. Gov't agencies were then asking for all ticks ( small deer type ) to be sent to them for analysis to get a better picture of the spread from New Forest.
Consequently they now realise it has been here all the time, it hasn't been imported in. They also have better ideas of tick populations and infections within the tick population.
Add into this the announcement during this winter ( or maybe the one before ) that the deer population in the country has increased to the most for over 1,000 years, so the tick host is now at a massive high. It all adds up to an explosion of the disease as people actually start looking for it.

I asked my doctor about Lyme 4 summers back follwoing my daughter screaming the place down cos she's got one on her belly! he said he did recognise it but had only possibly one occurance perviously in the practise. The next summer our practise had 4 cases of lads in my village within a week. My neighbour's working practises (from the Environment Ageny) now require them to check themselves after each farm visit and have a leaflet about Lyme.

Worryingly, half of the active outdoorsey types know about it, the other half are totally unaware.

On a positive note: Went out for a quick blast last weekend, ploughing through bridleways overgrown with bracken above me, real Tick territory. Put on some Autan Active plus, which also protects against ticks. None were found, and I would have expected to have picked up at least one.
Seems to fulfil it's promise - try it!
cheers
Q

What's the STW-recommended tick removal tool?

[url] http://www.ticktwister.co.uk/tick-remover-people.html [/url]

Is it obvious if you have removed all of the tick? I have just removed one with tweezers - at most it was on for 3hrs, so still pretty small. Looks like the job went well, but looking for reassurance.

Tick came out, doesn't look like there was anything left behind and the tick that is now in some tupperware in the freezer looks complete.

none this year for me - last year was terrible esp for the dog ( ireckon more ticks are about the last few years -been outdoosey for 20 years )... however i am doing far less mtb miles this year and wearing trousers most of the time and applying liberal repellant... I got real sick last year too and was tested for lyme = negative but I am not so sure...

I carry a tom o twister all the time which are awesome - plus i douse myself in repellant either deet based ( prob give me cancer instead )or neem oil...

dog has had her anti tick stuff dose increased nad seems to be working...

have picked up loads in the q's and exmoor - mid / south wales and also the berwyns... none as yet from lakes / dales / peak but i know people who have.

i know a number of lyme sufferers - it isnt nice.

be careful people

paul

2 in the side of my knee last week

I'll find ticks on me during almost every ride here in SW Scotland. Usually brush them off before the little buggers bite. My riding buddies rarely get them. I must smell nice to them or something.