Ticks and Lymes disease

[Graham]

4 hours ago, Mull said:

 

 

 

Just old age ya pair of hypochondriacs!lymes seems to be the new M.E.

 

 

 

Thought it was.  I'll pull myself together :-) 

[tony_t3d]

I keep one of these in my first aid kit.

Whilst away on exercise in Germany with the Army a few years ago I got one on my arm took myself across to the medic who took out his knife and a lighter? He heated the end of his knife until it was glowing then pressed it against the tic [emoji15] [emoji16]

He come back to me that evening with a leaflet for information about tics the second sentence said ' under no circumstances apply heat to a tic'

I still have the scar on my forearm.

[Rough Hewn]

Don't know if it's true but:
We were told as kids "not to pull out ticks as that leaves the hooked legs in".
We used a hot pin or a lit cigarette. When you touched them, they made a "tick" noise. The idea was it shocked the tick making the hooked legs straighten up, so you could pull it out. If you weren't quick it would re grip, and you'd have to start again.
Not all ticks carry the disease fortunately.

[Stubby]

What you should not do is " squeeze " the body of the tick when trying to remove it . This is like a primer bulb and pushes all the blood and the nasty bits from inside the tick back into you .

[Graham]

We used to fish in France a lot and a mate of mine became very adept at removing them.  He used a pair of fine-tipped artery forceps and quickly twisted them out.

Often the tick would attach itself in a warm place adjacent to 'man bits'.  It seems every day he had a new patient outside his bivvy waiting to be called in for a removal!  The ticks were relentless.

[Darrin Turnbull]

I still prefer tweezers like these.

[Gary Prentice]

Don't know if true or not, but I was told that ticks breathing organs were not in the head. So to cause it to relax its grip, coating the body  ( used meths on the dogs dabbed on with cotton bud) to block its breathing apertures helped in removing them without leaving body parts in the victim. 

 

Apply, wait thirty seconds and grasp close to the skin. Very seldom left anything in the dogs.

 

might be a load of cobblers but a gamekeeper told us.

 

 

[openspaceman]

17 hours ago, djbobbins said:

Not sure about ticks but I moved an old concrete coal bunker in my garden over the weekend; pulled it apart into sections and manhandled them. Two days later I am f'in covered in bites, all down the underside of both my arms and across much of my chest and belly. Each bite is about 5mm across and red; most have a hard whitish middle. Any clues what could have have been so keen to feast on my blood?

I'd say spider bite, the hard whitish bit in the middle being a small blister?

[djbobbins]

Still not figured out what the bites were but fortunately they are going down and the itchiness is subsiding, although not yet gone away. I won't scare the world with a picture of my chest, but this is what my left arm is looking like...

[djbobbins]

P.s. Beyond doubling up the dose of over the counter anti-histamines from what it says on the box, the other thing my doctor recommended was a spray called Magicool Plus. They do a few varieties but the one he suggested was the green top one. It is basically a cooling spray with some form of mild local anaesthetic I think, but has been effective in dealing with the itchiness to allow me to get some kip for the last few nights and hopefully not get the bites infected by scratching the tops off them. Not cheap at £8 or so per can, although saying that, £8 for two decent nights sleep maybe is a bargain after all!