Ticks are small arachnids in the order Parasitiformes. Along with mites, they constitute the subclass Acarina. Ticks are ectoparasites (external parasites), living by hematophagy on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. Ticks are vectors of a number of diseases, including Lyme disease, Q fever (rare; more commonly transmitted by infected excreta), Colorado tick fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, African tick bite fever, tularemia, tick-borne relapsing fever, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, Tick paralysis, and tick-borne meningoencephalitis, as well as bovine anaplasmosis and probably the Heartland virus. – Wikipedia
And again they are common in Romania too.
The Lyme disease (infectious disease produced by a bacterial species called Borellia Burgdorferi) can be transmitted by ticks, although not all are carriers. Also called the disease with 1000 faces, mimicking a lot of other diseases, symptoms can imitate: multiple sclerosis, rheumathoid arthritis, Haschimoto thyroiditis, Sjorgen Syndrom, fibromegaly, Bell paralysis, fibromyalgia, Parkinson disease, anxiety psychosis, autism, dyslexia, bipolarity, etc. The variety of symptoms is astonishing.
Avoiding ticks when traveling and fishing in the mountains or remote areas with a lot of forest and wild animals is like avoiding getting wet in a storm.
Eventually you will get one!
Now here comes the fun part. Since we established that you can’t avoid them (except wrapping yourself in plastic foil or wearing some sort of giant condom – condoms have a failure rate of 12%, remember?), you need again to keep your eyes open.
A thorough body-check every evening after fishing can reduce the chances of serious infection. It also helps if you have someone to help you doing that, or you might find yourself placed in comical positions holding a mirror and a headlamp in each hand in the bathtub.
Don’t be ashamed to check everywhere. By that I really mean everywhere! You don’t want to find 2 weeks later something like this hanging on your family jewels.
Once you found it (or them), remember it’s very difficult to extract them correctly without leaving their head buried deep inside you skin. They have a fantastic feeding apparatus that would make Aliens be ashamed!
No matter what kind of instrument you use, remember: first of all, disinfect the area.
Disinfect the instrument you are going to use. Have a very good light source.
Have somebody helping you.
Don’t break the tick (usually happens in the thorax/neck region, the head and the feeding apparatus remains buried in the skin). If this happens, you need a physician to remove it, including small surgery procedures.
If you don’t have the right tools, if you don’t know HOW to extract the ticks, do NOT take chances. Either let a physician do it for you or take a trip to the nearest ER.
Don’t use alcohol, petrol, nail polish remover (including fragranced ones) in order to make a tick dizzy. The risk is that the tick will actually PUKE (medically speaking – regurgitate) all the crap and containing bacteria into the connected feeding blood vessel (believe me, try holding yourself a cloth soaked in your wife’s Rose or Almond fragranced nail polish remover above your nose and mouth for a while, I can guarantee you you’ll have to do it above a bucket or toilet seat!)
Check some of these videos and keep safe! Tight lines!