When my kids were little this was one of the songs we would sing to them. “If you go out in the woods today you’re in for a big surprise”. That surprise was a teddy bears picnic. Today your surprise could be a tick bite. Not a picnic! I never got the bullseye rash that you hear about. I don’t remember being bit at all. However, we spend our summers at a cottage in Ontario and I get bug bites on a regular basis. I just ignore them.
I used to be in the woods by the hour cutting dead trees down with my little chain saw and pruning trees and raking. I was sometimes in there in my bathing suit on a hot day. It’s easy to get a tick bite that way. I still venture into the forest but I wear a long light colored shirt. I tuck the shirt into a pair of light colored pants and tuck the pants into a long pair of boots. I check for ticks when I come out and try to go for a swim or shower right away to get rid of anything I can’t see. I haven’t seen any ticks but I’m not taking any chances. You can spray deet all over too.
It’s important not to be bitten by a tick or to deal with it as soon as you are aware of it. I missed seeing that little tick and it pains me to think that I could have been treated with just two weeks of drugs, instead of the very lengthy course of antibiotics I’m now on.