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Backpacker Magazine – August 2008
Health News: Get Naked!
And other ways to prevent tick-borne infections
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- Health & First Aid |
Reason number 27 ticks are annoying: They prefer to bite you where you can't see them. A study published last winter in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine found that 20 percent of tick bites occur in places–like the back, thigh, and groin–that are difficult to self-examine. The solution: Ask your spouse or, yes, hiking partner to check for you. "The window of opportunity to remove a tick is 36 hours," says Gary Wormser, an expert on preventing tick-borne diseases. Wormser says that most tick-transmitted parasites take that long to infect a host. If you do find a tick, he says, make sure to pull it out gently with tweezers, rather than burning, squeezing, or suffocating it with petroleum jelly.
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READERS COMMENTS
They are attracted to where your body heat is the highest. The heat is a result of increased blood flow and is usually closer to the surface of your skin making it easier for ticks to drink your blood.
Posted: Sep 30, 2008 Jake
that means that 80 percent of tick bites are in places you can see. with this in mind, I don't think they have a preferance, it just happens where it happens, still a good tip though to have your partner check for you.
Posted: Sep 29, 2008 Eric
Oops! As usual, I hit the wrong key.
My comment:
It seems like no matter how gently I squeze and pull I end up pulling the tick apart. Then I have to get out the camp scaple (A real one, sealed in foil) and dig. I hate that part.
Posted: Sep 27, 2008 Don L. Johnson
Posted: Sep 27, 2008 Don L. Johnson
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