ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS: SPRAY TICKS OFF SMALL PARASITE

There are creatures out there with a taste for you -- ticks

Most wildlife wants to be left alone, but there are animals who'd like nothing better than the chance to bite you.

Not lions, tigers or bears. Oh, my, no. Not even mutant killer opossums. Thinking in much smaller terms, out there in the long grass lurk countless blood-thirsty ticks who'd love to quench themselves with your bodily fluids.

Tick bites don't hurt. That's the good part. The bad part, however, is that some ticks can transmit nasty illnesses.

Lyme disease, a sneaky, potentially disabling illness, has gotten much press in recent years, and the potential for that is real, although not rampant. There's also Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a potential killer if untreated, which is rare, but not out of the question by any means.

Another tick-borne condition about which we're just learning is ehrlichiosis, which is similar in symptoms to Lyme disease: high fever, sever headache, aches, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. It's generally not a good time and warrants avoiding for anyone who's not inclined toward misery.

All these tick-passed diseases, incidentally, are treatable with antibiotics and are fairly easily defeated with quick treatment.

Better yet, don't get infected in the first place. Avoid that by not letting the nasty little, boogers bite you.

This is a high point in the year for tick activity. They seem especially abundant in late spring. With many people getting outdoors for warm weather recreation, the chances of humans and ticks getting together are increased substantially. Wooded areas are high-odds places for contacting ticks, but they'll show up right in the yard in many instances.

DEET-based insect repellents are much better than no repellent, but the absolute best thing found thus far for keeping ticks off is a repellent based on permethrin -- a synthetic insecticide replicating the properties of natural pyrethrin, a compound found in plants of the chrysanthemum family.

Permethrin insecticides, which are used safely by spraying them on your clothing, have been marketed under the names of Duranon and Permanone.

Permetherin doesn't actually shoo ticks away. Rather, it kills them quickly as soon as they make contact with clothing which has been sprayed with it. Permethrin is said to be safe on human skin, but it doesn't remain there effectively. It only works as it should when infused in fibers of garments.

For maximum protection in tick country, spray clothing with permethrin insecticide, then apply DEET-based repellent to exposed skin.

After a foray outside, check all over to be sure some tick didn't get aboard you anyway.

If a tick does hop on and digs in, don't panic. Odds for disease transmission are low. Nevertheless, remove it as soon as possible by grasping the head of the tick with thin-tipped tweezers and pulling it loose. Squeezing the body of the tick while trying to remove it actually could pump potentially infecting fluids into the human.

Transmission of any potential diseases takes a while, so a tick plucked off fairly soon after it bites has little chance of creating a real victim. And remember, not every tick has the potential to inflict serious disease anyway.

If every tick that bit inflicted doom upon us, many of us who are still alive and kicking would have been gone long ago.

~Steve Vantreese is outdoors editor of The Paducah Sun.