SIMPLE TICK REMEDY
Paul Donovan’s article on the perils of tick bites (Jan/feb ’21 edition) was interesting. I had tick-bite fever when I was 16, and can attest to its inconvenience – burning fever and heavy sweating, alternating with bouts of shivering with cold and terrible headaches, especially if I looked upward. I had just returned from a hunt in far northern Zululand, so the doctor assumed I had malaria and treated me accordingly. By the time he realised it was tick-bite fever, I felt pretty poorly.
This was 60 years ago, when medical practice did not have today’s advanced blood tests. The doctor – encouraging sort of chap – told me that tick-bite fever could cause blindness and death if not timeously treated with drugs. He ordered me to remain in bed for six weeks, which was the way of those times. However, I got up after two weeks with no apparent ill-effects.
Paul’s article gave helpful advice on keeping ticks off you and removing individual ticks once attached. In Kwazulu-natal, however, we get what are known locally as “pepper ticks” as they are so small as to be almost unrecognizable as ticks. After pushing your way through a patch of bush or long grass, your clothes will look as though you have spilled some finely-ground red pepper down your front. Unless peering very closely, the uninitiated assume these are fine grass-seeds or dust and pay no mind to it. The pepper ticks then work their way into your clothes and attach themselves to your skin unbeknown to you. The maddening itch will come later – all over your body – and is out of all proportion to the size of the ticks. It can spoil a weekend hunt. Showering will not rid you of them, nor will scratching.
During my years at Magnum, I have received several phone calls from anguished readers asking what they can do about this. The answer usually surprises them – being so simple and obvious. Take a bath with doggy shampoo in the water. It is formulated for this very purpose, works on all types of ticks, and just one bath does it. Purchase at any supermarket or pet shop – check the label to ensure it has anti-tick and flea properties – and apply liberally. It is quite harmless to humans but, as with any shampoo, if it gets in your eyes it may sting. Any side-effects, such as a sudden desire to gnaw on your braai-chop bone, or scratch behind your ear with your foot, can be ignored – these soon recede. – Gregor Woods