How do you check yourself for tics?

[Arden]

Hi;
Being concerned about Lyme disease, I am always wary of hiking during the months when tics are active. The CDC recommends checking your entire body after every day of hiking. I would like to know how you - if traveling solo - would check your entire body for tics?
You're done with 10-20 miles of rough hiking, and just want to eat and go to sleep. But even if you are fully alert, how are you going to check places on your own body that you cannot see or reach?

I have always used DEET when I hike, and I wipe myself down (as best I can) with a moist towlette (which I think is soaked in a solution containing alcohol).
So far I guess I have been lucky - not to have contracted any diseases. But then, I haven't done much multi-day hiking, and always shower thoroughly when I return home.

Your thoughts?

Arden

[Sarcasm the elf]

In order to fully check for ticks at night, Use the camera on your smartphone to take photos of the parts of your body you can't see. Once finished, for the love of everything good in this world, delete said photos.

[Sarcasm the elf]

For what it's worth I sent my clothes out to be professionally permethrin treated by a company called Insectshield. It costs about $10 per piece of clothing, but unlike home applications which have to be done every few washings, the professional treatment lasts the average lifetime of a piece of clothing (70 washings) or so they claim. It was well worth it to me to have it done right once. I have not seen a tick on me when using the clothes I had treated.
https://www.insectshield.com/ISYOC.aspx

[Greenlight]

I use my hands. They're easy to find. Once I locate one, I use my tick removal tool. If you get one on your back or on your scalp, etc., you might enlist the help of someone if you're hiking in a group and you trust them.

[Arden]

Thanks for the advice; Good advice on deleting the photos as well!
I have heard/read about the pro permethrin treatment. I will probably do that when I buy my next set of outdoor clothing. I've also read about clothing you can buy pre-treated.
Now, once you do find a tick on you in a place you cannot reach, how do you reach it to remove it - assuming you are alone?

[Arden]

I use my hands. They're easy to find. Once I locate one, I use my tick removal tool. If you get one on your back or on your scalp, etc., you might enlist the help of someone if you're hiking in a group and you trust them.

I can't say that I've ever hiked with a person who would be willing to do that. Maybe it's time to find some new friends !

[nsherry61]

For me, I look over all the parts of my body that are visible, then I look over all the parts of my body that I can't see directly using a mirror. I use the mirror on my sighting compass if I have it, but I normally don't. So, most often, I bring a signal mirror with me for the purpose. Then, for the parts that I can't see directly and I can't see with my mirror (i.e. middle of my back), I run my fingertips over the area thoroughly and gently feeling every bump, zit, and mole, and on occasion, but rarely, a tick.

The only thing left is then my hair. I don't normally worry about my hair if I'm on my own. If I have a partner, we can check each other's hair.

If I wanted to be completely thorough on a solo trip, I would take a thing called a nit comb used for removing lice from your hair when you or your kids have a lice infestation. The nit comb would readily comb any ticks and other bugs out of your hair quite effectively, although a stiff find-toothed comb would probably still work for most ticks and be easier to pull through hair than a nit comb.

Think of it is a daily self care/love ritual.

Finally, don't think DEET is effective at reducing tick born diseases even if it does repel them somewhat. According to a recent thru-hiker poll people that did nothing and people that used DEET both contracted Lyme at the same rate. People that did daily self inspections and/or used permethrin on their cloths both had drastically reduced rates of Lyme.

Good luck and have fun.

[Arden]

So I guess I'll invest in some pre-treated clothing, and/or have my current set treated. After that, a mirror, and the smart phone camera might do pretty well. I should also invest in a "tick pulling" tweezers - but is that anything different than a "regular" tweezers, which I have in my first-aid kit.
Another thing I might do is limit my hiking to colder months when ticks are much slower, and there isn't all that vegetation to brush against.

Is there any truth at all to the rumoer that the Lyme problem isn't as bad below the M-D line? I live in NJ where I know it's bad, but have read that south of PA it's not nearly so bad.
Reason I ask is that I am hoping to hike the Smoky's and/or Shenandoah sometime soon.

[Which Way]

In order to fully check for ticks at night, Use the camera on your smartphone to take photos of the parts of your body you can't see. Once finished, for the love of everything good in this world, delete said photos.

lol. well WB says that's too short to post, so "laugh out loud"!

[nsherry61]

For ticks you want really fine tipped tweezers.

And, limiting yourself to only low-risk tick seasons is probably not worth the reduction in risk. Hike when your heart says hike, and take reasonable tick precautions whenever you go out. Yeah, you might get Lyme some day and you might not. But as they say, "It is better to have hiked and got Lyme that to never have hiked at all". Or something like than anyway.

[Arden]

Those who say that the insects will inherit the Earth are 100% spot on.

[DownEaster]

Couple of useful purchases:

Coghlan'sFeatherweightMirror.jpg Coghlan'sTickRemover.jpg

Still gotta shop for some lightweight reading glasses for the AT to make use of these tools; my sharp focus otherwise starts at about 5' away these days.

[Leo L.]

The mirror and tweezers tipp is great, I carry both since I had urgent use for both on my very first desert trip 35yrs back, to remove some cactus pins.

Hiking here in the Alps inevitabely involves getting ticks while passing through lower elevations.

As learned here on WB, I started treating my clothes with Permethrin two years ago, and this works really great.
Never had a tick lodged on my body again since.

[Leo L.]

Just to add:
Ticks usually crawl along your clothes and eventually your body for many hours, until they settle on a spot that suits them the best: An area with soft skin, a warm spot where blood vessels are close to the surface.
If you get attacked by a tick during the day, at the time you get to camp the tick most likely just has setteled in and will be easily removed, even without a special tool, just using the fingernails.
If you wear long trousers (highly recommended in tick area) they will most likely sit between ankle and knee, or in the belt area.
If you wear Permethrin treated trousers, every now and then you can watch a tick you strived off some tall grass, getting extremely uncomfortable on your treated trousers and finally its simply gone.
As long as you carfully select the spot for the bathroom break (i.e. no tall grass) they most likely will not lodge in areas where you dont like to ask a foreigner to pick them out.

In general, ticks mass in places where many warm-blooded animals, including humans, gather. In pure nature this is typically places where wild animals water: Springs, puddles, deer trails near creek crossings.
We also see a lot of ticks in places where many tourists with dogs are around.

[rhjanes]

On the phone camera photo idea.....While at home, take photo's of your back, backside etc....Then out in the forest, when you snap the same photo, you don't panic over some freckle or mole....since most of us don't see our backsides that often....
Keep those "base" photo's. Once home, delete all of it. And if you are using something like Google Photos or other Cloud based storage....delete there also.

[nsherry61]

Those who say that the insects will inherit the Earth are 100% spot on.

My questions is what you mean by "will" . . .

In 2012, scientists estimated the global human biomass (i.e., how much we all weigh) at 287 million metric tons.² Five years later, a different group of scientists set out to estimate how much the world’s spiders were eating. They came up with a horrifying (if somewhat inexact) estimate of 400 million to 800 million metric tons’ worth of prey each year. In other words, just the subset of bugs eaten by spiders last year probably outweighs all the humans on Earth.

[axmdr40]

Bend and spread with strangers...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[reppans]

I'm at high risk here in CT, we have a serious deer infestation and I do my own lawn/gardening work. I just check for ticks immediately following exposure - ie, bushwhacking through taller vegetation which contacts my legs. I can see 360-degrees around my legs - but wait too long and who knows where they'll crawl up to. I'm less concerned about taller vegetation (considering the path a tick would have to climb to get there), but even then, I block taller foliage with my trekking pole and arms, and then eyeball my arms right away.

The hiking trails are well beaten down around here, so boot sole on dirt/rock trails doesn't concern me at all. It's really only getting off-trail to set-up camp, fetch water, or dig cathole latrines that exposes me. I even dislike collecting firewood or hanging bear bags, as those entail more/unnecessary bushwhacking.

Also not too worried about fallen leaves (esp fresh fall leaves) or decaying ground leaves. I lay a white Tyvek groundsheet and footprint down for sitting on, laying gear out, and pitching my mid on - super easy to spot bugs/ticks on the white Tyvek, it's like my little portable island of safety.

My greatest tick risk is probably my 30lbs Chocolate Cocker Spaniel since he's a good lap dog at home. Wish I could take him backpacking but he's a serious tick mop, and haven't found a foolproof tick treatment for him yet. I take him day hiking only when it gets below 40F.

[nsherry61]

. . . My greatest tick risk is probably my 30lbs Chocolate Cocker Spaniel since he's a good lap dog at home. Wish I could take him backpacking but he's a serious tick mop, and haven't found a foolproof tick treatment for him yet. I take him day hiking only when it gets below 40F.

Seresto collar. $60 - $80 every 8 months. Problem 99% solved. Only ever pulled one dead tick off my very active forest dwelling dog in the three years we've been living in the New England forest. One hike last year my friend pulled 11 ticks off his dog on a 12 mile hike. I found none on mine.

Apparently, you can also treat your dog's fur directly with the Sawyer permethrin spray and it's supposed to be good for two weeks. I haven't tried that yet, but might try it to see if it helps keep the mosquitoes away from my short haired dog that loves the outdoors, except when there are mosquitoes around that drive her completely nuts.

[nsherry61]

. . . Still gotta shop for some lightweight reading glasses for the AT to make use of these tools; my sharp focus otherwise starts at about 5' away these days.

I love the Zoom Sliimvision reading glasses and highly recommend them. Super light. Super resilient. Super affordable. Perfectly adequate optics.

Let's see:
1) $6-$12 each depending on when and where you buy them.
2) 0.5 oz (13 g)
3) Three fun color options (okay maybe not all that fun - black, tortoise, green digital cammo)
4) Almost unbreakable with reasonable use and care.
5) I often carry two pair, one slightly higher power for closeup and detailed work and one for normal reading/computer type work.
6) Flat side pieces so you can read while laying on your side without undue discomfort.
7) Slightly textured side pieces so they stay on your face and don't slide off when you bend over.
8) They come with a nifty little case that can easily be duck-taped to your pack straps for carrying.