Tick Attachment Sites

As tick season approaches here's some information from an article entitled "Tick Attachment Sites," ( Journal of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine) via Medicine for the Outdoors

Abdulkadir Gunduz and his colleagues looked at the location of attached ticks in 67 patients who presented to their emergency department with a history of tick bites. They noted that 20% of the ticks were attached to regions of the body that patients could not themselves visualize. Since it is important to remove attached ticks before they become embedded, and as soon as possible to minimize the transfer of infectious agents or toxic (salivary) fluids, this highlights the need for a full body inspection of any person who has recently traveled in endemic (for ticks) country.

In this particular study, the most common tick attachment sites were the lower limbs, followed by the lower abdomen and genital region, then the back (at the level of the chest), and the buttocks. Given that most people would not be able to spot a tick, which may be very tiny if in a juvenile form, in some of these (and other) locations, it is prudent if traveling through tick country to have someone you trust perform a "tick check," or use a mirror if one is available. If a tick appears to be attached and cannot be removed by the human host in its entirely, then he or she should get assistance for its removal.

This means (according to the study) 80% of ticks are visible. Tick inspections raise some privacy and youth protection issues - the use of a mirror is probably a good solution.

Associated resources at Scoutmaster
Ixodes Scapularis or Tick Season
Tick Twister
Treatment for Bites and Stings
Ultrathon
Tick Lasso

Comments

[Dan]

While I was on staff at a Maryland Scout camp in the '90s, a young man on a Wilderness Survival MB overnight I was leading discovered a tick attached to ... an extremely sensitive area of his personal anatomy, shall we say.

I instantly loaded him (along with another Scout who'd forgotten to take his medication) into a canoe, paddled back to the main camp and marched them both to the first aider's lodge.

At hearing the location of the tick, the first aider blanched, handed the Scout a pair of tweezers and pointed him in the direction of the bathroom. Thankfully, the tick was removed with no problems, and none of his fellow survivors was none the wiser when we returned to the outpost.