The Sunshine Coast Region is likely not alone in suffering from a recent plague of ticks. Many people have been reporting them and doctors surgeries have been noting an increase in tick complaints.
FACT: We just had the record warmest, and a wetter than normal May-July 2019 period EVER – Climate Change may be a culprit, creating a more ideal environment for these insidious and sometimes life-threatening bugs. One consequence is ecosystems become imbalanced, and we will get more unexpected things like plagues.
Removing a tick is not so simple – the typical method of pulling it out is the worst thing you can do – by doing this you may inadvertently squeeze its guts into your bloodstream passing on viruses or bacteria that can potentially leave you chronically fatigued for years with “Lymes Disease-like” symptoms, like a flu that never goes away.
While we may not have Lymes in Australia, we certainly have a potpourri of similar viruses like from the Ricksetia family that will have similar symptoms.
Again, friends of our have been rendered sick for long periods of sometimes inexplicable fatigue. Fatigue is not only from viruses but anything, even poor mental health, so don’t get stuck and google doctor a single cause. Chronic fatigue can change your lifestyle, your personality, your energy levels. There is not always one single cause. It can be several working in concert, or seeding a fatigued state.
Certain tick bites can also target the body’s organs and turn into things like a heart condition, which nearly killed a good friend of ours recently, their heart condition rendered them incapacitated with a long recovery ahead; a bite can set off a simple allergy that can turn into anaphylactic shock and hospitalisation which may need to be treated with an epi-pen or antihistamines almost immediately.
Tick bites can also manifest as the “red meat allergy” which over time your body builds an allergic reaction to red meat that can kill you (yay for the vegans?). This was particularly reported around the Hawkesbury Region north of Sydney but it’s been reported all along the eastern coast of Australia and beyond.
It gets even more complicated: not just one tick bite, but a series of tick bites can often empower viruses to merge or converge with other viruses, mutating, create a cascading multiple virus attack, or strengthen the effect of the virus in your body over time so the symptoms creep up on you, like the red meat tick allergy virus.
Overall, it’s best to avoid tick and various insect bites at all costs when it can be done safely and within reason.
Ticks often hang around on plants and grasses waiting to attach to passers by at any height and crawl around your clothes and skin until they find a place to dig in. They can get stuck in your hair. I had two tick bites recently, one on my shoulder blade and another almost inside my eye (that a doctor has to remove). They can also drop from trees.
Bandicoots, wallabies, kangaroos, possums, are among many popular marsupials that harbor ticks.
Guinea fowl, possums, and even chickens eat bugs like ticks and can help keep them down in your backyard.
The focus for us was Maleny recently, a country town up on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland notorious for high rainfall, leeches, rainforest bugs, and some even say, for having among the highest incidences of tick bites in Australia. I don’t think Maleny would be alone somehow. Even in now this cooler drier season of August 2019, there is a continuing surge of tick bites.
In Maleny, I checked in with a local doctor with decades of experience and learned of the local critters:
- Shellback Tick – is spotted by its half moon shaped shell.
- Cattle Ticks – larger. Can be leftover from old dairies and cattle farms.
- Scrub Tick.
- Paralysis Ticks – paralyze animals, livestock like sheep and goats and cattle, and even people, by really jamming your veins, among many other nasty consequences.
*Some is these labels may describe the same tick. Large ticks all start out as small ticks anyway.
Springtime brings about “nymphs” – “midgies” are also in this camp – they can be very tiny, and you can brush them off – they often leave little itchy lumps. They are not believed to pass on viruses and are not deemed any great risk. Just annoying.
Maleny has a grass tick – it is a mite – also known as a grass midge – it is Very itchy. Not technically the same diseases are passed on by them.
The month of November is often very big for tick season.
Other insects that can receive a worthy mention include Sandflies and mosquitoes which can pass on Ross River Fever, Dengue Fever and Bharma Forrest Fever. Symptoms are usually strong headache that won’t go away, incredible tiredness and fatigue that lasts a week or more that won’t go away.
Scrub Typhus – is a bacteria – and the Ricksetia family of viruses is ever present.
Doctors can authorize a free blood test to have you tested to find out if you’ve contracted any of these diseases or viruses. There is a Ricksetia Lab in Geelong Victoria, but most labs are set up to test for the same tick issues.
There is a case of the “Tewantin Flu” that Doctors around the Noosa-Doonan region have had no other label to give it. It is often thought to be tied in with local tick bites.
There was one doctor (Noosa/Maleny) that trialed treating patients with strong doses of antibiotics, with some promising results; this extreme move is akin to say detonating a nuclear explosive to remove a bathroom mould issue… and they have been reportedly expelled from the medical profession for taking this extreme action. Desperate people will try desperate measures to “cure” themselves of any major ailment which debilitates their ability to live. Antibiotics are increasingly losing favor from the public and the medical profession for being over-used and over-prescribed. Not only that, but can cascade into a myriad of side-effects that may be hidden from view. Our bodies are complex and made up of bacteria and viruses all working in “balance” or a concert to keep us alive. Mess with that and we can send our health reeling to hitherto unknown and extreme territory. Antiobiotical resistance and superbugs are other issues that come up when prescribing these solutions.
Tetanus is an ever-present risk from any insect bites like ticks/leeches or wounds, and is present in all soils. It becomes a problem when a wound is closed or sealed – or “anaerobic” – and if you’re ever spooked you can always update your tetanus/lockjaw vaccination. They last 10 years to be effective, and if you’re diligent and you’re not an anti-vaxxer, they could use updating from time to time.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU GET A TICK BITE
This is the WORST thing you can do.
*** DO NOT PULL IT STRAIGHT OUT !!!
Let’s say this one more time clearly – and – slowly – and vertically –
DO –
NOT –
PULL –
IT –
STRAIGHT –
OUT.
AVOID SCRATCHING, PULLING, TOUCHING at all costs. Using standard tweezers is a dangerous way to remove them. This will potentially squeeze it’s blood and toxic contents into your body.
… And unless you want to take a long holiday from life and spend a couple of years in your bedroom… or worse still, it may even kill you.
The first thing you want to do is:
KILL THE TICK 💀
You can always check in to your local doctor as soon as conveniently possible, you don’t need an ambulance unless you are having an extreme allergic reaction (which is less frequent), and bulk billed (free), and hope they attempt the best method to remove it.
If you’re unsure, here’s the lowdown of ways you can check with them – or do yourself if you’re confident:
Methods:
A) POISON IT
FIRSTLY GRAB A BAND-AID TO APPLY OVER THE AREA.
Once you’ve dabbed the tick with a substance listed below, cover it gently with a bandaid, (and not too tightly or you may press its contents inside of you) and leave it for a little while as described below depending what you choose.
i) LYCLEAR is popular and is just $15 a tube from most chemists – it is used to treat scabies. It will suffocate a tick and also poison it, killing it, anytime from 15mins to five hours away – best to leave it on a long time to be safe. It’s a good idea to have some handy if you’re in a tick bite area and doing gardening, bushwalking, camping, outdoors activity etc.
ii) AEROSTART or START YA BASTARD are auto products (from Supercheap Auto etc) for starting sluggish car engines, and both will kill the tick WITHIN SECONDS. They both contain “Ether” which is a absolute poison to ticks – a CSIRO study felt this was the most effective method in killing them.
iii) if you don’t have any of these around, a dab of methylated spirits, petrol, tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil or a similarly noxious liquid may kill it as well – even perfume/aftershave has been used for its alcohol and chemical mix. The best method for applying all of these solutions is to first dab the small tick area with tissue or cotton wool dipped in these substances.
Bear in mind that apart from Lyclear, these substances are poisonous to us humans as well. Use your head and don’t spray chemicals near sensitive areas like your eyes, genitals, inside ears, etc. You may have landed yourself another reason to go to hospital. Later, after the tick has been removed, wash the areas clean.
B) SUFFOCATE IT
Lyclear, Vaseline, moisturizer, most creams, even cooking oil will help you suffocate it. They breathe through holes on the sides of their bodies. It still needs to breathe (like us). After a while it will suffocate then the theory goes it will fall out.
C) FREEZE IT
Chemists also sell a freezing kit that uses a spray of compressed gas that instantly freezes the tick and kills it. They also sell special tick removal tweezers.
REMOVING A TICK
*** What you absolutely want to avoid at all times is squeezing the contents of an alive/dead tick into your body ***
You also want to avoid leaving a part of its body like the head or pincers inside your skin.
*** You want to wait until your method has killed the tick.
Then it will be easier to remove its limp body and it’s own pincers from strongly holding on to your body. You can also wait for it to “fall out” sometimes or let your body shed it naturally, but we’ve rarely struck anyone who would be so patient to rid themselves of this deadly alien. And by keeping it on your body, any brushing or sleeping on it will also risk squirting its contents inside you.
Doctors have also applied hot needles or pins on their bodies to coax them to come out. You can do this having someone use a cigarette lighter on a metal instrument and being careful not to injure or burn yourself.
WRAPPING UP
If you feel immediately extremely unwell call an Ambulance. You may be having an allergic reaction. Some people are exclusively allergic to insect bites like ticks and bees.
Once you find a tick, consider seeing your local doctor to remove it. If they are not aware of removal methods please feel free to show them this information and discuss with them the best method of removal.
If you remove the tick yourself take heed of all the information above and ensure you feel confident you know what you are doing.
There are a range of preventative measure you can take. Avoidance. Insect repellents. Even smothering areas with oil is thought to create a slippery surface for insects to find difficult to navigate. If you ever feel something odd, investigate it straight away. A tingling sensation. A pain. An itchy area. Get a friend to help conduct a thorough search of your body, and be aware of what your body feels like and if you detect any strange lumps when showering. Often it requires a magnifying glass to identify some of the smaller ticks.
For pets and animals there are poisonous collars and medications that can be swallowed or put into their food. Do the research and only apply solutions if your local area is known for these kinds of insects.
Tick the boxes 🙂
