How to protect yourself from ticks: useful tips

With the advent of warm days, more and more people are striving for nature - to warm up, breathe fresh air, spend time with good company. Especially during the May holidays. For this long weekend, people plan picnics with barbecue, trips to cottages, hiking in the forest. Before such events, it is very important to ensure that you are not bitten by ticks. As a rule, they live in dense grass, easily move to a person’s clothes, and then look for a site with open skin to dig in with their thin proboscis. A person does not feel a bite, since a tick together with saliva lets painkillers into the wound. An insect needs blood to feed, but why can a tick be dangerous? How does his bite affect the human body?

The danger of ticks to humans

The wound itself after a tick bite is insignificant, it usually heals quickly. But penetrating under the skin with a proboscis, a tick can infect a person with serious infectious diseases. Among them are tick-borne paralysis, tick-borne encephalitis, typhus, viral fever, Lyme disease, etc. Most diseases affect the functioning of the nervous system, inhibition may occur, nonspecific reactions to external pathogens. Often, such diseases lead to serious consequences and even death. That is why tick bites must be protected. Indeed, not all insects are infected - some of them are absolutely safe. But we will not take risks and allow ourselves to be bitten to check whether the tick is sick? One way or another, going out into nature, you need to be able to protect yourself from these dangerous insects.

How to dress in nature

If you are going to work at the cottage, for mushrooms, for a picnic or for berries, it is very important to get dressed correctly. Proper clothing will protect you from ticks by 90%.

Clothing should be completely covered. Be sure to wear closed shoes - no slippers and sandals. Pants should be tucked into socks or have tight fitting cuffs so that the tick does not penetrate under the leg. The upper part of the clothes is tucked into the pants so that the tick does not have access to the skin. Jackets and sweatshirts should be locked and not buttons - the tick easily penetrates into the gap between them. Choose clothes in bright colors, so that in which case the tick was easy to detect on the fabric.

Ticks fall on a person from grass and shrubs, but this does not mean that the head does not need to be covered. Wear caps, hats, and hair while you need to collect under a hat. A tick creeps up on clothes, looking for an open area of ​​skin. In addition, ticks usually bite the body in the place where the skin is the thinnest. This is the groin area, the area behind the ears, the chest, the internal fold of the elbow. These areas should also be especially protected. Fasten the collar of the shirt so that the tick could not reach you from above. Thin gauze can be hung around the neck to protect this area of ​​the skin.

When walking, it is important to regularly examine yourself and your comrades for ticks on clothing. Often an insect can be caught even before it finds food.

How to protect yourself from ticks

Here are some tips to help you protect yourself from the bite of this harmful insect.

1. If this is your first trip to the country this season, the first thing you need to do is get rid of all the tall grass - mites live in it most often.
2. Be sure to treat the skin and clothing surface with repellents - special substances that repel ticks and other insects. They are also effective against mosquitoes. They can be sold in the form of creams, but the most convenient to use are sprays.
3. Repellents dissolve in water, so after bathing, apply them again on the skin.The same should be done after exposure to rain. Be sure to pay attention to the packaging - for how long does the product last. After the specified time, repeat the application.
4. Blood-sucking insects do not like pungent smells of cinnamon, camphor, cloves. You can prepare a strong decoction on these spices and spray them with clothes using a spray bottle. If you don’t have time for such events, just put a handful of spices in your outerwear pocket. They are afraid of ticks and the pungent smell of Zvezdochka balm. It contains many essential oils that repel the insect. It is possible to apply the balm on some areas of the skin, for example, behind the ears, on the wrist, in the neck and ankles.
5. It often happens that the ticks, not finding another open area on the skin, bite behind the neck, ears, face. In this case, you need to make a special mask. Boil a piece of gauze in a cinnamon broth or just sprinkle it with cologne. Tie cheesecloth over your face and ticks will not come close to you.
6. If you intend to set up camp in nature, choose an open area without tall grass and shrubs nearby. It is better to choose the edge or elevation away from the trees. If possible, stop in the coniferous forests. The special smell of resin drives away ticks, in such places they are practically absent. In addition, the smell of needles is very beneficial for the body.
7. After you set up camp, cover this place around tansy, wormwood, or other pungent grass. Blooming bird cherry is also suitable.
8. While walking through the forest, try to go in the middle of the path, do not climb into the bushes and tall grass. Most often, the tick sits on clothes if you collect rose hips and berries from tall bushes.
9. I would also like to say about pets. If you go outdoors, the dog will probably begin to explore everything around. To protect it from insects, treat the wool with mite sprays. If you live in a country house, regularly inspect your pet to protect your pet from ticks.
10. Returning home from outdoor recreation, it is very important not to bring ticks to your apartment. This is very dangerous, especially if you have small children. Often a tick gets into a city apartment with wildflowers or brooms that you have collected for a bath.
11. Arriving home, undress and examine yourself completely. Especially in places with thin and delicate skin. Carefully comb your hair with a fine-tooth comb. Shake clothes well and wash them at 90 degrees. If you find a tick, do not crush it with your hands - the infected blood of an insect can enter your body even through a small wound. Press down the insect with something hard, because regular cotton may not be enough - ticks have a thick shell.
12. If you often go to nature or your work is associated with being in hazardous areas, it makes sense to be vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis. Vaccination is done in three stages and protects a person completely.

These simple tips and rules will help you make your vacation easy and carefree.

First aid for tick bites

If you find on the body of a sucking tick - do not rush to pluck it. The fact is that his proboscis is a screw with a thin thread. When a tick is pulled out, the proboscis may come off and remain in your body. To avoid this, the tick must be carefully removed by scrolling it around its own axis. The easiest way to do this is with a special plastic device that looks like a fork with two teeth. The tick is faked so that it is between these teeth and gently scroll. If the tool is not at hand, you can make a small loop of thread and throw it on an insect. When the loop drags on, in the same way to extract a tick from a wound.

Never fill the insect with oil. Deprived of air, the tick can burp into the wound and infect it with pathogenic microbes.After removing the tick, it is very important to treat the wound with antiseptic compounds, in extreme cases, vodka. Take the tick to the lab to check for disease. If the tick is infected, you will need a vaccination against a particular disease. If an immunoglobulin is vaccinated on the first day after a tick bite, the encephalitis virus will be suppressed.

Camping, a fun company, active games, fresh air and barbecue are the event that we have been waiting for all long and cold winters. In order not to spoil the rest and enjoy nature, you need to take care of protective measures against ticks in advance. And then you will not think about this insidious insect. Let thoughts be occupied with something more important!

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