Ticks, is it game over for shorts?

Slight drift anyone seen any horse flies yet?

Posted 1 month ago

One found me in Montgomery 3 weeks ago - hand swelled like an inflated rubber gloves, Welshpool MIU saw me within an hour of me phoning them and gave me some antibiotics and a lecture about needing an alcohol free holiday.

Slight drift anyone seen any horse flies yet?

I've had a surprisingly bug-lsss summer so far - been working in the Western Isles for a couple of weeks, often in dead-calm conditions, out pretty much dawn til dusk - no midges, no clegs, no nothing.

Just back from a week in Argyll  - Argyll of the Argyll Midge Festival. Calm, warm, damp conditions, around the lochs amongst the woods and ferns - no midges. My GF who attracts them like a magnet - not one bite.

I was pondering this on a ride yesterday, post rain, warm and muggy and midgeless in ayrshire- and deep in though-  drifted off the sustrans path and crashed spreadeagled into a bank of nettles. So finally got that histamine 'buzz' that I must have been subconsciously craving

I am a proper magnet.

We went camping on one of the islands on Loch Lomond a few years ago, from what I remember it was quite neatly groomed unless you went off the main path or area, which I don't think I really did. Me and my wife pulled 31 of them off me over a few days where she had 3 or something. I've had similar incidents over the last year or so and I don't even wear shorts that much. Statistically Lyme disease is probably in the post for me but I have been lucky so far.

How do we remove/kill any that may be lingering on clothing, shoes, rucksacks, etc. ? I'd rather not set it all on fire.

I've read about 54 degree hot wash (bit much for some kit), tumble drying (don't have one).

Also read they'll die in a day or two. I have two tiny ones (1mm) removed same day (after attaching but not engorged), they are now dead after 18 hours in a small plastic sample bag.

I swear if I come to power I'll shoot all the deer in Scotland from the door of a helicopter.

A study by Oxford University's Tick Research Group "The deliberate release of a non-native species amplifies zoonotic disease risk via spillback" suggested that a reduction in the number of pheasants in the environment would significantly reduce Lyme disease in the UK.’
‘In conclusion, we show that the release of non-native pheasants for recreational shooting is associated with almost 2.5 times greater odds of ticks carrying Borrelia sp., the causative agent of Lyme disease’. https://www.authorea.com/users/846585/articles/1234703-the-deliberate-release-of-a-non-native-species-amplifies-zoonotic-disease-risk-via-spillback

A study by Oxford University’s Tick Research Group.....

Literally, rich people making everyone else sick. 😀

That post reads much better if you swap pheasant for peasant...

You mean "Bloody foreigners coming over here giving us diseases."?

Thats certainly going to be the take by the Mail and Express.