Q & A: Tick Safety with CanLyme President Janet Sperling
Spring has sprung!
Soon, the bears will be coming out of hibernation, the elk will be calving, and the ticks will be crawling about. We hear lots about how to prevent and handle potential encounters with large wildlife, but not so much about doing so with the littler ones. So we’ve reached out to Janet Sperling, the President of the CanLyme organization, to ask a few questions about tick safety.
When exactly is tick season in the Bow Valley? What is their ideal habitat?
There are 3 main types of ticks you should know about, as a parent living in Alberta.
The Rocky Mountain Wood tick (Dermacentor andersoni). It’s sometimes found in the winter months on warm days, but the adults are most commonly found on south-facing slopes during the spring months.
The Blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis). Although less common, this species is important to identify from the standpoint of illness. We usually find the adults in the fall, but the younger stage (the nymph or teenage stage) of this species tends to transmit more illness since it’s harder to spot and remove.
Ixodes angustus (a small rodent tick). It’s a sneaky tick that kids seem to find when they’re poking around in the bush or admiring burrows of animals.
How should we dress ourselves and our children to prevent tick bites?
If we’re hiking in the spring and we know we’re going into tick habitat, it’s a good idea to cover up in light-coloured long-sleeved shirts and long leggings (since it’s easier to spot the tick moving against lighter colours). Closed-toe shoes and tall socks are also helpful! Some people even wrap double-sided tape around the tops of their boots to keep ticks from climbing up and over. Be sure to tuck both you and your child’s shirts into pants, and pants into socks so that ticks can’t access skin. Lastly, apply DEET and/or picaridin/icaridin from head to toe.
In Canada, permethrin-treated clothing is only approved for people over the age of 16 years, which means that parents have an option that kids don’t have.
What other actions should we take to prevent tick bites?
Aside from wearing light-coloured clothing and applying repellent before going outside, you can:
Ensure the outdoor play areas surrounding your house are mowed. This reduces tick habitat on your property. That said, remember that ticks have been around longer than humans have, so we need to learn to respect them.
Be vigilant during outdoor play. Unlike mosquitoes, ticks will walk on a person to choose a good place to feed, giving us time to detect and remove them. We have sensitive fingers and sharp eyes, so we can usually see the tick before it attaches.
Do “tick checks” once outdoor play is over. You can undress the kids on your porch before stepping back into your home, or place the kids in the tub to carefully examine them before resuming indoor activities.
Keep a lint roller handy. Ensure it’s sticky, and have the kids run it up and down their outdoor clothes to see if they can catch any ticks.
Teach your kids to tell you when they see a tick. Kids are usually quite interested in the way ticks look, since they have exoskeletons.
If a tick does bite, what are the steps we should take to remove it?
If the tick is attached, carefully remove it. Keep in mind that Rocky Mountain Wood ticks have short mouths and will generally come off easily, while Black-Legged ticks have longer mouths that require more patience. A pair of sharp, pointed tweezers works well, but a tick removal spoon might work best on squirmy children. Make sure to grasp the mouthparts as close to the skin as possible and slowly pull it straight up.
If you catch a tick walking on you or remove it from your/your child’s skin, keep the tick in a ziplock (labelled with the date and time) in the freezer so you can test the tick if any symptoms show up later on. Clean the site of the bite with soap and water or an alcohol swab.
Some people like to draw a circle around the bite with a Sharpie marker. Most tick bites will clear up on their own, but if the site of the bite shows a usually-painless rash that continues to expand, be sure to seek medical attention. Have the tick on-hand to show your doctor, in order to get a correct diagnosis.
We’re still learning about Lyme disease and how to best diagnose it, so if you’re convinced that your child has an illness that dates back to the tick bite, make sure your doctor is aware.
What are the next steps we should take post-bite?
Pay attention to strange flu-like symptoms and consider testing the tick to gauge the risk of disease. If the tick tests positive for Lyme disease, you’ll want to start treatment early since Lyme disease is easily treated if it’s found early. On the contrary, it can be very difficult to treat if it’s caught late.
There are very few places that test the Rocky Mountain Wood ticks for diseases. Additionally, you can browse the Geneticks Statistics Centre to see if people have been submitting ticks that test positive for diseases in your area. Just remember that we still have a lot to learn about ticks and tick-borne diseases.
How can we start educating our kids about the importance of tick safety without creating fear?
When educating kids about ticks, you might like to check out the Looking at Lyme Educator’s Resource by the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation. Some people think it’s too “advanced” for little kids, but I think they’re underestimating them. My experience is that kids find ticks interesting when you connect them with the time of the dinosaurs. Ticks are amazing creatures… And kids are amazing junior scientists!
I have complete confidence that we can keep kids safe and help them enjoy the outdoors. Who knows? One of our junior scientists may well end up teaching us what we need to know to keep ticks away.
When you find a tick, I suggest asking the kid where they found the tick, why they think the tick was there and how they think they can avoid the tick the next time. Songs are also a great way to demystify ticks!