Avid campers must have experienced the pros and cons of camping in woods.
The main disadvantage of camping in woods is that campers often experience the Lyme disease.
The campers camping in woods are usually prone to Lyme disease than any other camper.
The disease is caused by an insect known as Ticks found in woods.
Ticks are very small bugs found in bushes, tall grass and woods.
These insects carry Lyme disease. If left untreated, these insect bites can be threatening. They do not fly and stick to your skin, but will latch on your skin and byte if you rub touching them.
You cannot avoid the ticks in the woods, but can take some precautions from tick bites. Common types of ticks are dog ticks and deer ticks. The deer ticks carry Lyme disease.
Controlling the ticks bite:
Here are few easy and important steps to make your self safe from ticks bite.
- Always wear light colors when outing in woods: Wearing light clothes help you to recognize the ticks which are on your body to remove them easily. When you are playing an outdoor game, there is a large chance of getting attacked by a tick. So, the light color clothes help you to recognize the ticks on your body to remove them.
- Different pattern in wearing clothes: Always prefer wearing long pants and shirts. Tuck your long pants into the sock and shirt into the pants. This avoids the ticks crawling into the body. Wear a hat and avoid the tick getting into the hair.
- Insect repellent: While hiking, remember to spray insect repellent on the exposed parts of the body. Never wear short dresses. If you are camping in summer and want to wear short pant and a T-shirt, spray an insect repellent on the exposed parts, this avoids the ticks by sticking onto the body. DEET repellent is preferred for ticks; 24% of DEET in the repellents is effective for 5 hours to control them.
- Carefully watch yourself: While going inside the camp, carefully check yourself and make yourself free from ticks. Deer ticks are very small and cannot be recognized easily, so take the help of others to make sure you are free of ticks when going inside. Take extra care and check in the hair, as scalp is the place where deer ticks can easily hide. Also check your pets and make sure they are free from ticks. Long fur pets are usually prone to ticks.
- Make the area free of ticks: Ticks habitats in woods are deer’s, shrubs, long grass and dried leaves and make sure your camping area free of these. Keep your grass short and remove the plants which deer tend to eat. Make your camping ground deer-resistant. Remove the wood debris and dried leaves, which are hiding place for the ticks.
What to do after ticks bite?
Even after proper care sometimes you will be prone to ticks bite. What to do after ticks bite?
- Be calm and don’t get hyper
- Use tweezers from your camping kit and remove the tick and tick’s parts from the body. Some times in tension, you remove the tick and leave the mouth parts in the skin. This is dangerous, remove completely and make sure your skin does not have any tick’s parts.
- Wash the wound with antiseptic liquid or use soap to wash the wound. After washing, apply an antiseptic cream on the wound.
- After removing the tick and washing the wound, make sure you wash your hands.
- Never use petroleum jelly to remove the tick, this will kill the tick and make the wound even more poisonous.
- Never squeeze the tick, the infectious material in the tick may enter into your body through its mouth.
If you are bitten by a tick and proper care is taken within 36 hours, you can avoid Lyme disease. Antibiotics can cure the disease. Do not fear about the ticks and spoil your outdoor camping, taking proper measure can avoid ticks bite and disease.
