Written by NatureNerd

It’s that time of year again. Tick season. Here at CRD Parks we have received recent reports of ticks in the Highlands.

Recommendations for avoiding ticks are:

• wear light coloured clothing,
• tuck pants into socks and tops into pants,
• use a 5% Permethrin insect repellent on clothing, and wear a repellent containing DEET on uncovered skin.

Ticks must be removed either by you, someone else, or a doctor if the tick is buried deep in the skin.

Remove all parts of the tick with tweezers, clean the wound thoroughly, disinfect and apply antiseptic cream. See a doctor immediately if you have any signs of a rash up to 10 days after the bite. If a rash appears, you need an antibiotic immediately to ward off Lyme disease.

The Ministry of Health has an excellent pamphlet called “Tick Bites and Disease”, available at www.hlth.gov.bc.ca or by calling the recorded message line at 1-877-660-2628 (select ID#1010).

So there you have it. Happy geocaching and ‘be careful out there’.