By Marianne Dalton, RN.

Today we are going to talk about ticks: where they breed, what can be done to reduce the risk of harboring ticks on your property, tick-borne diseases, personal protection for you and your pets against ticks, and how to properly remove a tick.

Ticks are tiny parasites that live in dark, thick vegetation, wooded areas, or places where the grass is not mowed. They cling to people, pets, and even clothing, and often escape detection due to their tiny size.

To maximize a tick-friendly environment in your yard, here are the suggestions:

• Keep your lawn mowed, with no more than 2 inches of growth.

• Do not place games/picnic tables within 3 feet of wooded areas. Create a 3-foot buffer zone between the picnic table and play areas, made up of gravel, mulch, and wood chips.

• Keep leaves raked and weed regularly around trees and shrubs.

• Prune plants, shrubs and bushes to allow more sunlight into the depths of the plant. Ticks do not like dry, sunny places.

• Make your garden tick-friendly: Make sure mice and rodents don’t have piles of wood or rock walls where they can live. Ticks love to attach themselves to rodents.

• Move feeders or birdbaths as far away from the house as possible. Birds are beautiful to look at, but immature ticks ride them. Use binoculars to watch birds from afar.

For more information, follow the links below:

(https://www.mass.gov/service-details/tick-management-around-the-home)

(https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/in_the_yard.html).

I will not attempt an exhaustive list of all tick-borne diseases. However, the blacklegged (deer) tick carries Lyme disease. All diseases transmitted by ticks have common symptoms: fever, headache, fatigue, muscle aches. Since all of these symptoms can be linked to a number of ailments, it is best to consult your health care provider. He or she can assess whether the symptoms are related to ticks.

(https://www.mass.gov/service-details/diseases-spread-by-ticks).

How do you prepare to go out during tick season? It’s not good news to hear “wear long sleeves and long pants” during the summer. However, there are precautions (and trade-offs) one can make when venturing into the great outdoors:

• Wear light-coloured clothing, on which ticks are more visible.

• Wear long-sleeved shirts and pants, with white socks pulled up over the bottom of the pants (bad for fashionistas, good for avoiding ticks).

• Treat clothes with the chemical permethrin (approved by the EPA to repel ticks, on clothes only).

• For any repellent, always read product labels before application, to ensure proper use and effectiveness.

When you return from your excursion outside, check your body for ticks. Also check children and pets. Ticks gravitate to areas of the body that are warm and dark, such as in or around the hair, navel, ears, armpits, groins, waist, etc. Talk to your veterinarian about tick prevention products for your pet.

(https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/index.html).

If you follow all of the above instructions and still find a tick with its jaws attached to your flesh, don’t panic. There are a few things to remember when removing a tick.

Don’t smear it with petroleum jelly or touch a recently blown match head to its body. Ticks have a delicate nervous system, and when stressed by the matchhead suffocation of Vaseline or barbecue, the creatures respond by regurgitating their saliva into your bloodstream. It’s actually the tick that inoculates you against a number of tick-borne diseases. This is to be avoided.

The right way to remove a tick, whether from yourself, a child or your pet:

• Get clean tweezers.

• Catch the tick as close to the skin as possible.

• Pull up slowly and steadily. The twist will decapitate the tick with its jaws still under your skin.

• After removal, wash the area with alcohol, iodine, or soap and water. (https://www.mass.gov/service-details/personal-protection-against-ticks).

You are now equipped with everything you need to know to have a safe and tick-free summer!

Don’t forget the sunscreen!

Marianne Dalton, RN, is a member of the Winthrop Board of Health.