UKH

I’m just back from a couple of nights working in the mountains and the tick numbers seem to be next level, be on the look out!

https://www.facebook.com/484572948324828/posts/3868511646597591/?d=n

I am usually the first to get them, but so far I have been lucky this year. Here's hoping we don't have the same levels as you! Maybe I have just been lucky so far.

Cheers for the heads-up.

I did a first aid course on Dartmoor this week and caught a tick wriggling across my calf before it bit me. It's definitely going to be a busy tick season!

Well, thank you for upping my anxiety levels about yet another disease

Thanks for the warning, though!

Anywhere specific?

Still never had one and only ever seen one once.  I get the impression they don't like me!

You're lucky! They love me

We were in the Snowdon & South side of the Glyders area and I saw lots all over there, but Cwm Tregallen was especially bad.

Haha, sorry!

No problem! Wait, did I tell you yet about the Hyalomma hunter ticks invading the Continent thanks to climate change?  

You didn't mention Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus for the full effect!

Got one in Leigh Woods last week. They're out!

Treat your clothes with permethrin!

Iv so far managed to get a couple of ticks in the North of scotland too, so assuming uk wide 

Never had one either. On another thread it was suggested that people like me simply don't notice they have them. My son often picks them up, even in the small "eco" area of the school he teaches at in London.

In summer I frequently scramble up vegetated slopes frequented by deer. I always wear long Craghopper style trousers or tracksuit type bottoms but don't tuck them into socks. Usually move quite quickly. Probably not relevant. Conversely in one thread someone said they wore shorts so they could quickly spot the ticks.

Yes, I found one on me whilst walking on Romney Marsh yesterday. Unsurprising as the lambing season is in full swing. Keep safe everyone and check your skin regularly, particularly if you are wearing shorts.

Found one on my left calf on Thursday morning. Little bigger was well attached.😡

Got one today. Saltoun Big Wood.

Hate the blighters. I pick up a few most years on Dartmoor. Not likely to cause a problem, as long as you find them quickly and remove them carefully.  Just got to be pedantic about checking after any time out on the moors.

I just go permethrin all the way nowadays, trousers and shoes (although be very careful with it if you have cats at home, they can't metabolise it so it's quite toxic for them!). Probably not the best for environment, but what else? I have seen the long term damage from some tick-borne diseases with friends, and I fervently wish for the Lyme vaccine that's currently in trials (one that might have been available ten years ago and saved a few people I know from severe complications, weren't it for rabid US anti-vaxxers).

It seems that removing one ASAP does help with the risk of long term lingering Lyme (the bacteria might need a bit of time to adjust to the immune system to hide from it after a bite), but that doesn't help that much with the nymphs and larvae, which are harder to spot. And could be possibly infected as well, according to some sources.

I want to second the claim that just checking for ticks isn't very effective.  The nymphs are tiny and easily missed, and the bigger ones can get places you might not notice.  Shorts are just asking for trouble, long pants with some ability to seal at the bottom or with gaitors are a much better bet.  Rab used to make some trail-running tights that had abrasion patches on the knees and seat and seal snugly around the ankles and so are pretty tick-proof as well as decently robust, but I don't see them in their current online offerings.  Tights might not be a look everyone wants to rock though.

In any case, treatment with permethrin is the way to go.

Do not minimize the effects of long-term Lyme.  It can happen pretty easily that you get a bite you aren't aware of (the bulls-eye rash is not a reliable symptom), and by the time you and the docs figure out what's wrong with you, months can have gone by and everything is potentially much more serious. Speaking from personal experience here.  I'm fine, but it can be life-changing in the worst possible way.

Hi, Yes, but permethrin is expensive and not easy to find over here. Next time I’m your way I’ll be bringing some back. Dog had his first tick of the season yesterday.

cheers, David

Does a warm spell to bring them out, then a short sharp shock (tomorrow morning is -3C) do anything to thwart them?

In the last 10 years or so that I've been in this country I've never managed to get a tick, but last summer I managed to get two on me and that was even with the general lack of outdoorsy adventures due to all the Covid-19 restrictions. Not having gotten any in the UK for such a long time has certainly made me complacent, and the two I got last year were only found due to itching whilst sleeping. Certainly not the ideal way to discover you've got a tick.

So thank you for bringing this up, I've personally been more thorough in checking this year since I saw your post. Good reminder!

(Offtopic but also thanks for your awesome instructional videos, they've been very helpful during all the lockdowns.)

Having never caught a tick on me, I have had Lyme's. Fortunately caught early from the bullseye rash.

I can honestly say that it was the worse month of my life dealing with Lyme's. It then took at least another month or 2 before I was kinda back to normal. Feeling really lucky that I don't have any long term affects.

Be careful and can't wait for a vaccine against Lyme's.

It seems you either do, or you don't get them biting, my husband is a good indicator! The latest, 2 weeks ago, was an attached tick following a visit to Christmas crag, Borrowdale. Armathwaite is also a hot spot - both with a healthy deer population.

I very rarely go walking in the Scottish hills without bring a few ticks home! It has always been this way.

I usually find them a day or two later when then start to itch and are beginning to bite in.

I'd guess I have a 50/50 success rate for clean removal of the whole thing. Often itch for a few days afterward.

Judging by the chat on here, I guess I should be a lot more concerned.???

Thanks for the warning Jez, I've seen lots of ticks on land that deer graze but until recently much less so on sheep country like Glyders. Owning a dog you'll seem the first, you're our early warning system!!

I do wear long trousers and spray near boots at start of each day but pretty half heartedly. Will start to take it more seriously now.

Thank you!

       The risk from illness due to a tick bite shouldn't be taken lightly. I was bitten by one last year when in Austria where I live for part of the year and and got encephalitis. It's not really known about in the UK and the chances of getting it here are very small but it can be very very serious if you do. I was in hospital for a month and part of that time was in intensive care. It is a virus that attacks the brain through the spinal cord. It can cause various degrees of paralysis and my arms were paralyzed. Through constant exercise I have got a lot of movement back but they are still very very weak and I can still only lift around a kilo above my head with each arm and even just pushing a door open can be hard and painful. It's going to be a long time before I can get back to climbing. It can also cause mental health problems and I now carry a card in my wallet that indicates I have had a brain injury in case I find myself getting into trouble due to irrational behavior. You can get a vaccination and it's something I would seriously recommend especially if you are going to be spending any time in southern Europe where it's more common. 

Yeah, 50/50 for a clean removal has been my personal experience. But that is only from a recent sample size of 2, so not really significant. I'd expect the more of them you need to remove the easier it should get. Practice makes perfect, as they say.

Probably not worth worrying over it too much as it's only a small proportion of ticks carrying Lyme, but applying DEET before heading out and more importantly having a check after changing clothes at the earliest convenience (and/or while having a shower at the end of the day, etc) doesn't take much time so definitely worth doing! Gaiters should also help.

Lifesystems EX4 spray, for instance, has Permetrin in it. I have seen it on sale for £9 per bottle.

That price is equivalent to 7.5 litres of Petrol at my local supermarket or approximately two and a half pints. If you avoid a Lyme infection, that is probably not too expensive !

Removed my first tick of the season this morning after detecting something itchy on the back of my knee. I was running in the Pentlands on Saturday (3days earlier) and was the last time I can think of being exposed to them. It was having a right good meal - engorged with blood. In over thirty years of the Scottish hills, I've come to expect them as passengers after every outing (Apr-Sep/Oct). I once found 20+ on one leg after doing the LAMM in Harris. 

Sawyers Permethrin

I was hoping that this year's cold Winter might have knocked the bastards back a bit - but evidently not.

Interestingly as with a huge range of skin based issues, the majority of guidelines for finding ticks or diagnosing Lyme disease doesn’t work, or is much harder on Black skin. I think a few doctors are working on changing it thankfully. 
 

‘look for yellowing, look for redness, bullseye rash’ etc. Unfortunately the percentage of serious issues for those with Black skin is much higher due to the general guidance for what to look out for. It often doesn’t really work unless you’re white. 

Thanks Tim. I wasn't aware the Sawyer Permethrin was available in the UK.

I haven't picked up a single tick while wearing shorts, since I've started putting Chrysanthemum aromatherapy oil into my sun cream. Using a dropper bottle, I put ten drops per 100ml of sun cream, into a partially used bottle. You need to be able to shake it so it mixes well.

If you try this mix a small amount and test it on a small area of skin first, to make sure you don't get any reaction.

I've seen the maximum % of ticks infected quoted as 20 to 50 and varies regionally. Even with the lower value Jack Frost, who found 20+ ticks on them in a reply in this thread, could easily have had 4 ticks with Lyme.

Assuming the probability of an infected tick is independent from tick to tick of course. Is this the case? Naively, I would have thought that it's not. You're likely to have entire populations of infected ticks in one area and hardly any infections in ticks from another area.

I'm another who caught Lyme's. Got it at Cheddar where the place is infested. Ended up on heavy dose of antibiotics for 2 years and even then I occasionally get flare ups. Best avoided by taking as many precautions as you can.

It seems that way. Anecdotally I've heard Glen Nevis is Lyme free and Glen Finnan there is loads. Forestry works are probably good sources of info

Not really sure the basis of a claim like that? The only real way to know would be to catch loads of ticks in a given area and test them, which isn’t really possible in any meaningful way.

Given mice are the main reservoir of the bacteria I would assume that anywhere with mice and other small rodents has a decent chance of having Lyme infected ticks? I’m also guessing that pretty much everywhere in Scotland has loads of mice and other small rodents.

Probably best to always be wary of symptoms after a tick bite than assuming some areas don’t have it.

I've heard anecdotally that there are ticks in glen nevis.

Since I've been living in Scotland I flatly refuse to wear shorts in summer when walking or climbing (It's rare that a lightweight pair of walking trousers becomes unbearable for me in the highlands), all clothes go straight in the washer when I get home, and I often keep a spare set in the car with a bin liner so I can change /seal the clothes and then chuck them in the washer when I get in if we've been to a crag that is particularly bad.

Rucksacks seem to be the worst offenders for picking up ticks and them finding their way into various crevices (Yes, found them there....) a couple of days later especially if we've been at a sport crag or whatever leaving bags at the bottom.

I appreciate how batshit crazy this sounds but friends and I have had far too many near misses with the nasties ticks carry it's not worth being complacent!

Edit to add: I've never really had much of a problem when just walking. As with all of Scotland's nasties like midges or worse, the fcking cleggs, staying in one place for a few minutes belaying/bouldering or leaving kit somewhere seems to be the problem or when camping obviously

Agree totally that all areas may have infected ticks. I'm SW London suburbia and two neighbours  have had it: one probably from walking dog in park (he's internet geek, looked it up, insisted his doctor take it seriously, and got early antibiotic treatmen); the other was a non-outdoorsy lady, suffered badly and ages before it was diagnosed.

There have been various surveys of % ticks infected presumably from samples in various areas....I think some figures for various areas may have been bandied about in other threads but my memory may be at fault. Lyme Disease Action website states "Not all ticks are infected – infection rate in any place in the UK varies from zero to about 20% ....it gives some refs where they use eg PCR to check samples of tick populations for Lyme bacteria. I've seen the figure of 50% somewhere, but possibly on USA website

Been lucky enough to never have had one get me or even see one. My old dear got Lymes Disease a couple years back and it floored her though so since then I've always carried a Lifesystems card style tick tweezer in my wallet just to be on the safe side. Only cost a couple quid.

https://valneva.com/press-release/valneva-and-pfizer-announce-initiation-of...

Not one for the anti vaxxers, but of interest for the rest of us, especially hairy tick magnets like me.

Pureley anecdotal from members of the forestry through the numbers of people who have got infected while working in what locations.. 

I wouldn't use the data as "I'm safe in Glen Nevis" more of contradicting the thinking that "I've been bit loads and never got it so must be immune..." No. You might just live somewhere with a low incidence of Lyme, babesiosis, etc.. 

 

As far as I heard from some friends doing tick research in the academia, that's one of the way it's done - flagging ticks en masse (most un-enviable field job!) and testing them (you can even mail your removed tick to the uni to have it tested for a small fee here). Another less accurate way is collating data from doctors (obviously only the diagnosed cases).

I think both are used, but in any case, I wouldn't count on the Lyme maps to see if your area is "safe" or not. They are certainly helpful for policy and research, but it's a nasty disease (not only the Lyme, the other diseases you mentioned as well!).

You can't always count on the telltale bullseye mark if infected (it doesn't always show even on caucasian skin) and it can have quite bad consequences if left untreated. The bacteria are quite expert on messing with the immune system, remaining hidden for years, with associated health problems later.

And don't get me started on tick-borne encephalitis that we have here, UK is so lucky that it's so rare there - while there is a vaccine to it, I have seen a few cases of of people catching it, and it can be quite a life-changing experience, unfortunately. Any Lyme map is bound to have some inaccuracies, and you don't want to be in the unlucky percentile.

All the worse for permethrin being a generic (and somewhat persistent) insecticide toxic to aquatic animals as well. I do use it, but I am really looking forward to the Lyme vaccine currently in development and trials! 

Despite the current extreme cold and the early nature of the season, perhaps incidence of ticks is related to the massive number of dogs currently in the UK compared to the past??

DC

Reading through this thread is just horrendous!

As a youngster in England I romped through heather and bracken, shorts and t-shirt. As an adult, I wore shorts May to October, still romping; also bivvying or just siesta in the hills. Never a tick.

I haven't romped in the UK since the 90s and this thread makes for disheartening reading indeed.

Stay safe everyone!

Although Lyme's disease and encephalitis are very serious, I don't think you need to be unduly concerned about walking in the UK. I walk almost every day of the year, and in the summer months still wear shorts. One only picks up ticks by walking through vegetation (e.g., long grass) or from things one has put down in the grass. I check the top of my shoes or boots, and my legs every few minutes if I am walking through grass. (Ticks like to work their way up your body, so you have to check the whole way up your legs including behind the knees.) This only takes a few seconds and I do this without stopping. This way I have been able to field every tick that has got onto me before it has got stuck in. I got very good practice at this in Texas, where the tick problem was very bad some years. I had two Golder Retrievers and they would pick up multiple tick every time I went walking through grass with them. Combing out the ticks from their hair, when I got home, was pretty tedious. 

When the tick problem is very bad, one can often spot the ticks hanging on blades of grass, once one has got one's eye in - waiting for a host!

We have remarkably few nasties in the UK , compared with many parts of the world. The last nasties I encountered here, was when I sat down on a bench a couple of years ago and a False Widow spider got under my t-shirt and bit my back three times. Those bites came up as big red lumps. (Hopefully, those spiders don't carry diseases.)

That seems a little relaxed - some awareness is a good thing. A colleague working in anatomy was spotted with a bulleyes rash on her leg by another in medicine - she had only been to a normal park in Derby - they sent her for treatment. Ticks are more widely distributed than commonly thought. I remember dealing with a patient where the only possible source of the many ticks was the rural garden. 

Data derived from a study looking at race volunteers in a 2 day event in Scotland had an infestation rate of about 30% and about 7.5% of those ticks carried Lyme disease on PCR (not exact figures as I haven't checked the paper, so I may had misremembered a little).

I had three ticks across my belt line on a South African trip a few years ago. Having just revised the tick borne disease and tick species of the world for an exam - I was quite worried, but nothing came of it luckily.

In dogs consistent use of the isoxazolines makes tick borne diseases that need blood-feeding and some incubation time unlikely, but of course nothing will stop diseases that are directly transferred such as Babessia apart from avoidance.

Those Texan ticks must be big! The ones I pick up are smaller than a pin head and I only ever see them once they are taking a chunk out of my leg.

Not quite as high a percentage of competitors as that, thankfully. It was around 10% who found ticks, and 10% of those ticks had the Lyme-causing organism. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5382723/

I'd agree to a certain extent. Worth bearing in mind that it’s only in certain stages of the tick that Lymes is carried anyways.

To all - best to avoid getting one attached in the first place (prevention) but if you do carry a tick twizler and remove properly when you can.
 

Don’t be blasé about getting them attached but also don’t assume EVERY tick at every stage of its life IS carrying lymes and ‘WE’RE ALL GUNNA DIE!’ as I often find the tone of the OP’s ‘tick alert’ posts (FB in particular) 

Prevention, do a bit of research, carry a tick remover, simple really. 

Thank you for the correction. Should have gone and found the paper. 

Checking oneself every few minutes when going through grassy terrain is hardly being relaxed about the risk of ticks! 

The ones I have seen in Texas and elsewhere look to my eyes very much the same as the ones in the UK. All the ones I have removed from myself have been larger than a pin head. And the ones that have attached themselves to me have got their heads buried in - they've never taken out a chunk!

Agreed a proper check at the end of the day, is better than multiple quick checks and is proportionate.

I like to do both. If one does the multiple quick checks, one hardly ever finds any at the end of the day. (Those one does find tend to be hiding in sneaky places, such as among the laces of ones boots of shoes.)

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/bite-from-noble-false-widow-spider-t...

Thanks for the information.