Share:
Especially many ticks are on the way this year
© Patrick Daxenbichler - fotolia TBE and Lyme Disease: Already threatened by tick bites, not just in midsummer.
In the wood and bushes
Ticks, which also infest humans, are in Germany the pigeon ticks, the Auwaldzecke, the hedgehog ticks, the sheep ticks - above all however the common wooden buck. He not only sucks on people frequently, but also transmits dangerous diseases.
The common wood buck loves to spend the cold season between wood or in the undergrowth. If you "mop up" the garden in the spring, shift the compost or burn the pile of rice, you are at an increased risk of these ticks stinging you.
In nature, the wood buck loves ground-level plants near the forest and near the forest, more rarely in treeless grasslands. But we weigh ourselves in false safety, if we suspect him only in the forest. He is, as far as can be said by a spider relatives, just as a cultural successor as the blackbird and lurking in the allotment garden as well as in the wild.
Tick-borne encephalitis
The trunks of the woodbuck are particularly risky because they transmit the tick-borne encephalitis (TBE).
TBE is often unproblematic and then runs like a flu infection, but can also damage the spinal cord, lead to paralysis and even death. However, FSME infections caused by the woodblock are very rare.
There is a vaccine against TBE. This is recommended for risk groups: foresters, forest workers, farmers and generally people living in a risk area. A three-time vaccination runs for over a year and protects up to 99%.
Hot humid regions in Bavaria, Baden-Würtemberg and Austria offer the Holzbock a better terrain than northern Germany; therefore the risk is higher there.
The severe form of FSME is not curable, and every second to tenth sufferer never fully recovers from it.
Lyme disease
FSME penetrates quickly into the organism and is often transmitted through short contact with the bloodsucker. In Borrelia, bacteria that cause Lyme disease, it looks different: they are in the colon of the woodbucket and only reach the human body when the tick has been soaked for hours.
In Lyme disease, it is usually sufficient to strip a tick early - in contrast to FSME.
When the first signs appear, the doctor should use more antibiotics. In later stages, the disease can hardly be stemmed and often years later leads to severe joint damage and nerve disorders.
Myths and facts
Myth 1)
Many people think that only the common woodbuck infects us with Lyme disease. But not only ticks carry dangerous borreliosis: Bacterial pathogens also in mosquitoes.
Myth 2)
Ticks also do not sit on trees and fall down like parachutists, but the bloodsuckers lurk near the ground: Between grasses, leaves or ferns, in the bushes and on perennials. Rarely do they crawl higher than a meter. This is also logical, because the warm-blooded animals to which they are stuck, rarely have a shoulder height that extends over one meter.
The common wood buck has no eyes, but finds his victim with the Hallerśchen organ and hair on the legs - he recognizes exhaled carbon dioxide, smell and body heat. Wooden buckets claw in their feet, socks or pants.
Myth 3)
Anyone who wears sturdy shoes and long trousers will not be attacked by ticks. This is a partial truth. Clothes that cover the skin actually protect well because the wooden bucks can not pierce them.
However, the pests crawl around until they find a free and at the same time perfused spot. If you sweat in a jogging suit, you should make sure that the ticks have found their way into the decolette.
Wooden trestles look for places that are warm and moist: arm bends, armpits, hollows of the knees or the genital area.
In any case, after a warm day we should have a good shower outdoors - no matter if we rode a bicycle, lay around a quarry or walked in the woods. Most ticks are rinsed off before they can bite. At the bathing pond we protect ourselves by rubbing our body while swimming.
Myth 4)
TBE affects only the South Germans? That's another half-truth. In fact, most cases of this brain infection by tick bites from Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg are known. But also in northern and eastern Germany FSME finds occasional victims.
The Robert Koch Institute informs about the risk areas.
Although Lyme disease is more common in the south and east, it is also rife in northern Germany.
Myth 5)
Ticks are best removed in a clockwise direction if they have been drizzled with oil.
Oil is unsuitable because the tick stifles it. We should always remove them alive. When the woodblock dies while its absorbent device is in the skin, it often releases its intestinal contents - and thus the bacteria that cause the Lyme disease.
Instead we take a tick sling, ticks or tweezers, if necessary also thumb and forefinger, take the animal directly at the puncture, pull carefully, without crushing the wooden buck. Then we wait a moment. Usually, the tick dissolves when we hold it.
The ticks of the tick are barbed. If she does not let go, we gently turn her back and forth to release the barbs. Then we count: A tick has eight legs like a spider. Ideally, none of them will remain in the skin - otherwise they could become infected.
prevention
1) Take a repellent with you. Although almost all of these defenses were inadequate in tests, they are better than no protection at all. Apply the repellent to clothing and skin.
2) Wear long pants, put your legs in your socks and your shirt in your pants.
3) Take with you a "tick remover", a sling, pliers or tweezers, as well as a disinfectant and a patch for the sting site.
4) Treat your dogs and cats with an anti-tick drug during the hot months. First, they prevent their animals from getting sick. Second, the female lizards can not fully suck and lay eggs.
Disease symptoms
A new test to speed up the early detection of Lyme disease serves to combat this dangerous first-stage disease.
You can also check for yourself if the tick bite has transmitted a Lyme disease. When the bacteria penetrate the skin, 4 out of 5 cases cause the so-called wandering redness. The skin in the stitching point reddened, so there is also a reddish inflamed hem, in the form of a "target" or an "eye", with the stitch as a "pupil".
Often sufferers already suffer from the symptoms such as a flu, so head and body aches, and fever. If you detect such symptoms, go to the doctor immediately.
There is no need to panic, but careful caution is advised to avoid tick bites. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)