I hate to repeat myself but I must, sorry.
Today I found out that a very close friend and adventure buddy is being treated for a tick bite. I am disappointed that he never had the discussion with me or read the pages on this site about ticks and what to do. He is extremely intelligent and an expert in the wilderness not to mention many other areas. But a simple tick could be a game changer.
A clear message about preparedness and being forearmed with knowledge is obvious. But to me the story is another one. Survival, no matter how you define that is not an individual “sport”. It requires a team .. or at least two. Now, anyone who knows me would use the word loner in the top ten to describe me, even though my clients and acquaintances think that I am very social. I am not antisocial I just tend to be a super type A individualist. So where does that have anything to do with my friend’s tick dilemma? Well, that is simple. If he had a close buddy they would have checked each other every few hours or at least at the end of the trek each day for ticks. If one was found a simple act with the Pro-Tick Remedy tool would have reliably removed it prior to it being “set” and nearly eliminating the threat of disease.
It is not unusual that we tend to strive for the peaceful alone time in the wilderness or where ever we decide to find some peace. Unfortunately, most of us tend to be very self sufficient and rarely if ever ask for help. When it comes to survival, especially in the outdoors you need a partner, period. Yes you can survive, yes you are tough and knowledgeable but, you can not check your head or back for ticks. You cannot remove one if you have one. I remember one time in a certain Central American country when trekking through the dense forest on a protection job I felt something weird but I could not see… I even tried scratching it off on a tree.. one of my team looked and I had a big fat leach!!! He scraped it off with a knife. I bled for hours. If it had stayed on I would have been in big trouble. Check back I am adding leaches to the Predators Parasite section.
So before you go out the next time take a little time to protect yourself. Whether it is in the parking lot (as I wrote about in the parking lot survival article) or in the wilderness prepare, be alert and have a buddy to back you up. Check yourself every time that you go out, this is a bad year for ticks and more because of the warm winter.
Have fun, be safe and visit us often.
