Ticks. They freak me the freak out.

5 tips to prevent ticks jumping on for a ride and a meal…

There’s truly nothing I hate more than ticks.  (Well, mosquitoes are right up there, too.)

These little blood-sucking suckers are freaky-looking disease-carrying freaks that carry toxins, secretions and even organisms in their freakish saliva that can do, and does, incredibly dangerous bodily harm to humans and animals.

Can you tell how much I hate ticks?

Around my grandchildren and granddogs… I’m a vigilant tick-(and mosquito) freak.

Freak.

I’m annoying.

“Do the kids have repellent on?”

“Why are the kids wearing shorts?”

“Get out of that tall grass!”

“Walk around those bushes!”

“NO, you can’t play in the woods!”

So you can imagine my horror… freakish, freakout freaking horror when last Wednesday night, I found a tick on ME.

It was the night of my MC Hammer pants.  I had forgotten my insect repellent.  This is like forgetting my keys.  I actually keep a container of it in my car at all times, but I had used it in my back yard and did not replace it.

I panicked a little, because I wanted to protect Ben and Henry as they raced around the outdoor facility while watching their brothers William and Alex play baseball. Oh, well.  I’m careful, I thought.

I had cautiously walked through a little path of brambles to get to the baseball field.  I had taken Henry to the gray bathroom (Port-o-John), across a field of fairly tall grass, literally high-stepping as we walked.

Yes, I’m that much of a tick freak.

I had checked the boys’ shoes, socks, legs, arms, heads a dozen times throughout the game.

When Barry and I arrived home, we had a yogurt, watched some TV on our 2 folding chairs,  la-la-la, never dreaming that a tick was freaking its way into my very own body.

FREAKISH VIOLATION.

I got undressed to get ready for bed AND THERE IT WAS.

A TICK.  Already beginning its freakish little embedding into my upper thigh.

Did you hear me scream from where you live?

Barry came running, thinking I had… I don’t know… witnessed a murder, seen a ghost, found a TICK not only ON, but IN my skin.

Barry ran to our computer to google “tick removal” while I trembled, screamed, maybe even cried.  Freaking me out… that thing in my body. 

OK.  Tweezers.  Remove from head.  Don’t squeeze.  Pull gently.  Don’t cover with petroleum jelly because that increases risk of toxins being injected.  Great.  I already did the petroleum jelly thing. 

Trembling.  Pulling.  Gently?  I wanted to cut it out with a knife. 

OUT.  Save the tick for testing in case infection occurs.  Drop the freak into a plastic bag to freeze.  Ewww.  In my freezer…

The insidious little freak in a plastic bag, ready for the freezer. Ewww.

Wash thoroughly with warm water.  Wash again.  Sterilize tweezers.  Wash again.  Wash hands.  Wash anything that touched the freak.  OH, and then watch for infection, redness or swelling over the next few days.

Good times.

I’m getting freaked now just thinking the freak about it.

Barry called Matt to let him know about my freakish tick and to check the boys.

Matt’s response?  If anyone was going to get an embedded tick, it had to be the prevention freak.  Yes?  Yes.

When I calmed down, I thought to myself… that little freak had hopped a ride on my sneaker, crawled up my sock, under the ankle-hugging MC Hammer pants and all the way up my leg, to my upper thigh, and started sucking a meal without me knowing.

Insidious.

Freakish.

SO, back to Tick Prevention 101 I went.  I never want this to happen again, not to me or any child or anyone.  It’s simply too dangerous to overlook.  Here goes:

1.  Avoid grassy areas, shrubs and woodlands, where ticks thrive. (I will never walk through the little bramble path to the ball field again; rather, I’ll park in the paved lot and walk a bit further.)

2. Wear light-colored clothing to see ticks more easily. (My black MC Hammer pants are officially retired, except maybe for a 90’s Halloween costume.)

3. Apply insect repellent. (I will never again be caught without insect repellent or a natural insect repellent remedy in my car or home.  Check instructions carefully when applying to kids/pets.  I will be bathing in it.)

4. Tuck pants bottoms into socks/shoes to avoid tick travel onto skin. (See #2 regarding MC Hammer pants, which have nothing to tuck.)

5. Frequently check for ticks on clothing and skin. (No, I won’t be taking off my pants in public to check for ticks who prefer women’s upper thighs, but I will be checking for ticks everywhere else.)

There’s also the stay-inside-for-the-entire-summer remedy, but that’s not going to be happening.

TICKS.  They freak me the freak out.

Now, more than ever…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Audrey

Audrey McClelland has been a digital influencer since 2005. She’s a mom of 5 and shares tips on her three favorite things: parenting, fashion and beauty. She’s also a Contemporary Romance Author.

Sign Up To The Ultimate Style Newsletter for Moms

Categories

ShopStyle “List” Of all Things I Like and Blog About

Pinterest

3 Comments

  1. 6.6.12

    Uggh! Glad you saved it in the freezer too. The good news is you know you were bitten…. I’ve got Lyme now and starting antibiotics – old case of it too so hoping meds work easily. Just pulled one off Kyle last week – we’re also saving it in the freezer just in case….

  2. 6.7.12
    marcella said:

    soak the tick in rubbing alcohol before removing with tweezers. The alcohol sort of numbs the tick, which makes it easier to pull of your skin.

  3. 6.11.12
    Peggy said:

    I laughed thru your whole article because I am equally phobic of ticks. We almost got into a car accident last week when I noticed a huge black tick crawling on my lap…I was able to get it onto a piece of plastic and all of a sudden it vanished….my husband pulled over on a busy highway for me to jump out and shake off my clothes….never finding the tick…and completing the next one and a half hour car trip freaking out that it was going to crawl back on me and imbed its ugly little head…you probably heard me scream too! Lol

Comments are closed.