Tick-Borne Supremacy

There are no more predators left in Europe. Aside from tourists…and ticks. What is it with all the tick-borne disease out there these days? Some people say that the tick epidemic is directly related to the over-population of deer, which is directly related to the lack of real predators. Seems like people are very good at hunting down the real big predators but very bad at eliminating the little ones.

Adrianne blogged about Lyme disease in the US last year and included stats from all the different states. This article talks about the number of people affected by tick-borne disease soaring in the UK.

The map shows the areas of Europe most affected by tick-borne disease. Yellow for encephalitis, blue for Lyme disease (in the UK only?) Click on the map for a bigger picture.

The map doesn’t seem entirely accurate. Although the Czech Republic is in a yellow zone, a few of my friends got Lyme disease there in the last few months. All of them are OK now after being treated with antibiotics. I do, however, know other people who are in very bad shape as a result of Lyme disease.

Tools for Removing Ticks

Anytime I go camping, I inevitably find myself traipsing through dense woods in a search for firewood. Camping season is, unfortunately, also tick season, and it’s rare to get back to the tent and not find a few of those nasty buggers latched onto my skin. Typically I spend some time hunting about my body, picking them off with varied success. They’re pretty tough to get off!

Kevin Kelly’s got a few good recommendations when it comes to tick removal: the Tick Twister and the Trix Tick Remover. The Tick Twister works by getting between your skin (or your dog’s) and the tick, and twisting it out of its death grip, while the Trix Tick uses a lasso to wrangle the tick off of your skin (seriously).

Check out KK’s reviews: