TICKS / BOSLUIS

BE WARNED – CHECK YOURSELF AFTER EVERY NIGHT OUT!

This large jackal had many ticks on it, I actually hate having to handle them to much, and if I do I make no contact at all, only with my hands.

Afterwards I inspect my hands PROPERLY and if I have any open cuts on my hands I wear a glove, these animals are full of ticks, fleas, rabies, worms etc, they are very very unhealthy to handle if truth be told, and make sure if you skin these animals for his fur to always wear a glove!- if you have an open cut and it gets infected you are in trouble and you can contract a disease.

Here are a few things you can do that may help, I try do them as much as possible.

This photo shows how I personally like to wear my shoes, I wear them and prop up the tubes at the bottom like in the army, then cover them with a sock. Then no tick can get on my skin, after every stand I do I use a torch and check my pants and boots. I check my hands, cuffs all the time. While I sit and wait for jackals to come in I often shine a tiny red torch over my legs and feet, I am always checking.

If we hang up jackals at the back I do not allow any part of myself to make contact with that section of the truck. I do my most to keep away from any contact at all. Walking in the bush and brushing up against grass etc, makes it easy for ticks to grip onto you.

When I get home, I take a few minutes to go over myself and clothes well, and at night I bath in warm water with DETTOL. I check my boots well and the more you check the better!

My friend has a white sheet he takes on hunts, and puts his clothes on that over night and the next morning he can see if any crawlies have walked off he never saw.

BUT I don’t take chances, in the field I always have extra water, I wash my hands after any contact, call me a chicken I don’t care, BUT I don’t want tick fever and lie in a hospital!

GENERAL

Ticks like to climb up a tall piece of Karoo bush, stubble or long grass, they then hang on the end with the body positioned to grab, and when cattle or so walk past and brush against the grass they hook onto it, so be warned you walk through tons of grass at night so check yourself! I am shit scared of a tick!

Ticks lay up to 8000 eggs, and carry Typhus, Congo fever, cattle red water fever and heart water disease; also they have the fatal dog disease biliary.

Female ticks look somewhat ballooned - really blown up, males have a hard shell and cannot expand.

If you get a tick that has bitten you, take a sharp pointed pliers or tweezers, grab the tick, and at a 90 degree angle gentle pull it off. If it leaves the head behind DO NOT burn it or put slimy stuff on it, but take a tweezers and pull it off, if you cant get medical help, BUT DON’T burn that area. The head should come away after a little manipulation.  Then use Dettol or another germ killer like 100% alcohol to that area. If in doubt get medical help

When the tick bites a human, the bacterium is transmitted in the saliva, the bite looks like a small ulcer with a black inside, You may also have a rash and/or an eschar (scab), and enlarged lymph nodes near the eschar. Severe headaches and feeling bad after 7 days is common. If you start getting symptoms of tick fever seek help immediately.


 

This was another jackal that had severe ticks on it, after a night out I spend as long as it takes looking over my body in search of ticks, I then bath in water with Dettol in it, I make 100% SURE that I carry NO TICKS.

CHECK YOURSELF CAREFULLY!