Hi Guys,

I'm just curious if there is anything someone can do when bitten by ticks in Africa?

Is there a specfic way to remove them or somethingn you should do or take after the bite that could help prevent tick bite fever?

Rgds,
FB

Take tetracyclin type of antibiotics. You will feel better in a few hours.

As Karls says, any broad spectrum antibiotic such as tetracycline or doxycycline will make you feel marginally better.

For instructions on correct tick removal see the section on ticks halfway down this page: http://www.shakariconnection.c...lth-during-hunt.html

As an anti-tick measure, use dog tick and flea shampoo instead of shower gel....... if you find yourself licking your own balls or chasing cars, you're using too much of it!

Another anti tick measuse is to spray your clothes with Bayticol, which is fairly available in most parts of Africa and readily available in RSA.

When is tick season ?

Starts at 0001 hrs on January 1st of every year and ends 2359 and 61 seconds on December 31st.

I didn't pick up any last Sept or October. Maybe they don't like pickled Aussies.

Maybe the idea of keeping your alcohol levels up so they get drunk and fall off works then?

Steve's advice is excellent. Just keep those tweezers away from the ticks thorax and abdomen.
Buddy body checks are the best and can be fun if you can get the right participants.

Code4, could be ticks don't like you? Some people are more attractive to ticks than others. I've spent a good bit of time working with ticks, and they like me. I get twenty to fifty attachments each year, here in the states. I collect several hundred crawlers on me each year. People I've worked with seldom find any.
On the other hand, the alcohol approach might require extensive field testing, say twenty or thirty years?
Bfly

quote:

...As an anti-tick measure, use dog tick and flea shampoo instead of shower gel....... if you find yourself licking your own balls or chasing cars, you're using too much of it! ...

Steve, I'll be starting an anti-tick regiment today. How much can safely be used to allow one to lick his own balls
I mean, how much it too much?

Black Fly & Jorge

Thank's to you both for the laughs!!

I did get a tick bite in RSA 2006, and ended up with borreliosis.
I knew there was a lot of them around, and paid close attention to getting bitten.

Removed the little bastard as careful as I could. After that I looked for the signs (red ring) around the "bite mark", but there was none. Didn't get any fever either so thought everything was ok.

Two years later I got the diagnose. I had a bad knee and problems with several joints that the doctors couldn't find out about at first.
After a heavy dose of antiobiotics, the infection was removed and I'm slowly getting better.

Do take these ones seroiusly as they can be vicious!

All pretty much covered so far but will add my 2 cents. Wear long pants with gators if possible, this generally stops them at the elastic line. Use deet as well. Most ticks are ok to pull off avoiding the abdomen but Bonte (SP) ticks, if they have been on you for a while should be killed with a poison if possible and left to fall off as they can leave nasty sores that take ages to heal - sometimes called veld sores. Also geneally a tick will take around 8 hours to feed and regurgetate (SP) and this is when you get the fever, if you find them in a few hours you usually will be ok. I'd recommend doxycyclene as it sorts out tick's, malaria and if your lucky to be hunting in Zimbabwe it will sort out most cases of cholera as well. Ok waiting for the comments.

I got the tick bite fever this year already. Horrible! The only enjoyable part of the entire ordeal was getting checked for more ticks.

quote:

Originally posted by Sue:
I got the tick bite fever this year already. Horrible! The only enjoyable part of the entire ordeal was getting checked for more ticks.

Thanks for the replies guys,

I have the deet and gaitors and the gut prevents me from reaching my own nuts so looks like I'm safe ish for now.

The postman better look out though!!

FB

PEMETHRIN is the BEST tick repellent available. Plus, you don't have to use it on your skin. Simply spray all of your hunting clothing before you leave the U.S. and you're set to go. One application will last through several washings.

I'm very allergic to to tetracyclin types of antibiotics, Any other suggestions?

If you don't take antibiotics, the effects last about a week and if you do, they last about 7 days, and either way, you're gonna feel like shit........ Just try to take as many precautions as possible. Use plenty of bayticol on your clothes, tuck your trousers into highish boots and go heavy on the dog shampoo.

You could also ask your doctor if he can maybe prescribe a broad spectrum antibiotic you're not allergic to.

As I advise all of my clients, prevention is the BEST remedy. Tony posted PEMETHRIN and he is 150% correct. In the US, a product called Permanone made by Coulston under the name of Duranon is the best I've found anywhere. It doesn't just repel ticks and all biting insects, it kills them. I have watched many crawl up my pants only to rear up and fall off by the time they reach my knee/thigh area. Other brands only make them sluggish from my personal experience. Follow the directions exactly. It is NOT for skin contact, only clothing. It has helped prevent tick bites here and abroad 100% of the time.
Cheers,
LDK

quote:

Originally posted by L. David Keith:
As I advise all of my clients, prevention is the BEST remedy. Tony posted PEMETHRIN and he is 150% correct. In the US, a product called Permanone made by Coulston under the name of Duranon is the best I've found anywhere. It doesn't just repel ticks and all biting insects, it kills them. I have watched many crawl up my pants only to rear up and fall off by the time they reach my knee/thigh area. Other brands only make them sluggish from my personal experience. Follow the directions exactly. It is NOT for skin contact, only clothing. It has helped prevent tick bites here and abroad 100% of the time.
Cheers,
LDK

Yep, Permanone kills them. In addition to Permethrin, Permanone contains Piperonyl butoxide. The two ingredients act together to make it many times more toxic to insects.

I've noticed that some "Permanone" containing products don't list Piperonyl butoxide in their MSDS only the Permethrin. I don't know why but I pay attention to that now. In my experience, the products that contain both Permethrin and Piperonyl butoxide work noticeably better.

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
If you don't take antibiotics, the effects last about a week and if you do, they last about 7 days, and either way, you're gonna feel like shit........

Not my experience; I felt completely normal within 48 hrs. However I did start taking doxy within 18 hrs of not feeling quite right, so I was very early in the course of the disease.

quote:

As an anti-tick measure, use dog tick and flea shampoo instead of shower gel....... if you find yourself licking your own balls or chasing cars, you're using too much of it!

All the chemicals in the Permethrin family (Aphacypermethrin, cypermethrin, deltamethrin, permethrin etc) are photolabile. That is that they break down when exposed to sunlight as does Piperonyl butoxide which is a chemical synergist. It has no direct insecticidal effect on its own but enhances the activity of other chemicals.
If you are applying these chemicals to outdoor clothing in locations where there is a lot of sunlight or UV light, you will need to re-apply them regularly.

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Maybe the idea of keeping your alcohol levels up so they get drunk and fall off works then?

I'm sure Andrew and 375fanatic will make sure I don't miss a dose in June.

Ah but they're both brandy drinkers...... you need to go for a good civilised drink like a good malt whisky!

Permethrin is a great chemical that will repel and/or kill most any insect or arachnyd. It will last about 20-40 days in direct sunlight or U.V. light. One treatment generally lasts the hunting season.

A trick I learned for removing ticks:

take a standard wooden match and split the non-striking end with a knife or razor blade. What you are looking for is one that will spring back into place instead of staying open or splitting off on the side. This will allow you to lightly clamp it to the abdomen of the tick without smashing it or upsetting it to the point of discharging. Kind of like using a set of hackle pliers while tying flies only with much less gripping force. Most ticks will actually walk themselves around the bite to get the jaws engaged and fully buried in the skin. It seems that, in the Northern Hemisphere anyways, that ticks are naturally right handed and will "thread" themselves in in a right-hand threat pattern. The match allows you to simply unscrew them from the skin. I have yet to have the head separate, have one discharge, or find one that was left-handed.

There is some evidence that the likelihood of acquiring some tick borne illnesses is almost non-existent when the tick is properly removed the first day. The longer it is attached, the greater the risk.

Also, there is evidence that a single 200 mg dose of doxy can prevent Lyme disease. (So for those taking doxy for malaria, you may be getting an added bonus.) Whether this extrapolates to other tick borne diseases, I don't know.

I don't know if this works for African ticks, but it sure does for North American ticks-

When they are attached, instead of pulling them off use your fingertip and roll them in a circle around their bite, first a couple circles in one direction and then a couple circles in the other direction. They will roll right off in less than a minute and with as little skin trauma as possible.

Don't know if this is exactly applicable to Africa, but in North America causative agent of Lyme disease (borrelia burgdorferi) is transmitted by Ixodes scapularis tick. In addition, can transmit Ehrlichiosis and babesiosis. Generally transmission requires minimum of 24 hours adherence (some of the literature quotes up to 72 hours). Recent teaching is to simply pull tick off; no lit matches, etc.
Erythema migrans (red, annular (ringed) rash with plus/minus central clearing) pathognomonic. Single dose of Doxycycline 200mg within 72 hours exposure should be prophylactic. I skimmed the above responses, but advice re DEET and Permethrin are appropriate. Check with your MD before you go. Quite a bit of controversy in the medical arena about post-Lyme syndrome, but there are serious late term potential sequelae including heart rhythm disturbances, neurocognitive deficits, arthralgias so I would take it seriously.
I am an MD, but this doesn't substitute for medical advice from your physician.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/26/2794

Commercially available tick-removal devices include the Sawyer Tick Pliers (B&A Products, Bunch, Okla.), Pro-Tick Remedy (SCS Limited, Stony Point, N.Y.) and Ticked Off (Ticked Off Inc., Dover, N.H.). Although one study17 found that the Pro-Tick Remedy and Ticked Off devices left mouthparts in the skin less often, all three devices listed above were recommended over tweezers for tick removal. Another study2 recommended the Ticked Off device but did not compare it with other devices. There are other commercially available tick-removal devices, but no studies have evaluated their usefulness.


links

http://www.aafp.org/afp/20020815/643.html

Stewart RL, Burgdorfer W, Needham GR. Evaluation of three commercial tick removal tools. Wilderness Environ Med 1998;9:137-42.

quote:

Originally posted by vagrouser:
Don't know if this is exactly applicable to Africa, but in North America causative agent of Lyme disease (borrelia burgdorferi) is transmitted by Ixodes scapularis tick. In addition, can transmit Ehrlichiosis and babesiosis. Generally transmission requires minimum of 24 hours adherence (some of the literature quotes up to 72 hours). Recent teaching is to simply pull tick off; no lit matches, etc.
Erythema migrans (red, annular (ringed) rash with plus/minus central clearing) pathognomonic. Single dose of Doxycycline 200mg within 72 hours exposure should be prophylactic. I skimmed the above responses, but advice re DEET and Permethrin are appropriate. Check with your MD before you go. Quite a bit of controversy in the medical arena about post-Lyme syndrome, but there are serious late term potential sequelae including heart rhythm disturbances, neurocognitive deficits, arthralgias so I would take it seriously.
I am an MD, but this doesn't substitute for medical advice from your physician.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/26/2794

Not only Ixodids but also Amblyomma and rhipicephalid ticks can be problematic:

http://findarticles.com/p/arti.../is_1_5/ai_n6276160/

I heard once that using a flame heated needle made them let go. Tried it one time and it didn't work. I think it may have killed the tick and so it couldn't let go..I don't know.

I wound up having to pull it out, then the area got infected. The infection dragged on for months and finally the area around the bite had to be removed by a dermatologist.

This was on a Spring turkey hunt. My hunting partner got one of the biggest gobblers I've ever seen which he eventually had mounted. And I got the infected tick bite..

RE: Lyme disease

Been there, done that.

I was on a spring turkey hunt n Missouri with Ray Eye in the 1980s. The first day out, I had a tick attach itself to my stomach right at the belt line. I removed it and finished the hunt.

When I returned home, I noticed the tell-tale red oval around the bite and immediately went to my GP.

At the time, the only place testing for Lyme was in NJ. It usually took more than a week to get the results back. So my doc took a blood sample to send off but also wrote me a prescription for Doxycycline so as not to take chances. Sure enough, about 8 days later the test results came back positve.

It's hard to tell whether I have any lingering post-symptoms, though. All the aches and pains might simply be the result of old age.

Sooo....that's why I know a bit about Permethrin; it's like my Amex card -- I don't go anywhere without it since that incident. I usually order 6 cans at a time online and pack one for every trip into places where ticks are prevalent.

When I hunted in Africa in 2003, I brought two cans. Only used one but left the second with my PH. And I'm glad I had it.

The warthog I killed was loaded with them, which I didn't notice until we later stopped for gas in town. In the meantime, I was around it quite a bit for photos, etc. Never had a tick on me that I could see.

Fortunately, here in AZ, they aren't much of a problem, though I have seen a few deer infested with them over the years. We do have dog ticks in town, though. My exterminator takes care of any that may trespass in my yard, however.

quote:

Not only Ixodids but also Amblyomma and rhipicephalid ticks can be problematic:

Interesting article-Thanks, Bill

Do you folks think this is a tick bite?

http://img.photobucket.com/alb...te4.jpg?t=1241058565

That pic is of my ankle. It got worse. The skin around the bite kinda rotted away. I had been to Namibia and RSA. I was home about a week and got sick. Headaches, fever, chills. I had similar bites on all four arms and legs. This one was the worse. I was sick for about 5 days then went to local Doc. He had no idea. He prescribed something, I have no idea what. I got better.
When I hunted I wore long legged pants and gaitors.

Hard to say from the picture. Looks like it was originally some sort of bite. Looks infected. Nasty.
However you could have caused some secondary infection by scratching a mozzie or midge bite and not keeping it clean.
There's plenty of nasty organisms like Staph aureus that we carry around right up our noses that we can easily infect ourselves with by transferring with our fingernails. Once in an open wound, they can cause serioyus problems.

Good wound hygeine is important and if you get a throbbing bite, an ice cube in a plastic bag will help reduce the blood flow to the area and that will reduce the pain and heat a little.
Antihistamine creams aren't I think as effective as the tablets at reducing swelling but the tablets take time to kick in.
I don't personally favour band aids and use an alchohol gel to sterilise the surface. It cools as it evaporates too, providing relief.
If you can resist the temptation to scratch, keep a bite reasonably clean, dry and sterile and open to the air, it usually heals up in a few days.

The pain is your body's way of telling you that your system has been breached and alien proteins introduced that its dealing with by surrounding and engulfing them with its defences.

As Dave say's it's hard to tell from the pic, but it does look big for a tick bite.

That said, I've also seen both tsetse and spider bites go a bit like that occasionally.

Whatever caused it, it looks helluva painful!

You sure its not an own goal scored in the USA?
Brown recluse bites have a tendency to go necrotic. Didn't stop off in some motel on the way home did you?

The variable maybe your skin type not what bit you. The photo is a bit fuzzy for full analysis but it seems from your statement that the doctor prescribed anti-biotics. The infection could have used a scratch or bite as a portal of entry post affliction.

Certainly looks infected and symptoms imply infection, but that's a physician's call. Antibiotics seems to suggest that was Dr's call, as well.
It does not look like a typical tick bite. I'm with Dave on this, necrosis is more typical of some spider bites and secondary infections. If I read your post correctly, you had bites on all limbs, but not on your trunk. Ticks tend to attach where they can get purchase (ie where clothing will hold them, where there are hairs to hold onto, where body parts will hold them in place) and where they won't get rubbed off. Hence you tend to find them in and around creases and hair lines.
Another group of arthropods that gets little attention are the mites. Usually they don't transmit diseases, but bites often get infected. You haven't lived until you've turkey hunted in the SE US and got a good case of chigger bites on your butt and crotch.
Bfly