Hiking and picnicking in the park are popular summer activities and there are many amazing places to do it. There are no dangerous snakes or spiders in the Czech Republic. The only dangerous animal in the Czech Republic is much smaller than a bear or wolf: it’s a tick.
Ticks are nothing to be scared of as long as you know how to protect yourself from them. The best thing to do is get vaccinated. With the vaccinations you don’t need to worry at all if they bite you. Ticks can carry the following diseases and some of them can be quite dangerous. – Lyme disease – Rocky Mountain spotted fever – Tularemia – Ehrlichiosis – Relapsing fever – Colorado tick fever – Babesiosis
There are also sprays that you can buy that function similar to the special dog collars – the smell wards off ticks and makes them think twice about drinking your blood. If you’re wearing pants, it’s recommended that you tuck them into your socks. When you get home from a hike, make sure to look everywhere, including your hairline for ticks.
It usually takes ticks several hours to find the perfect spot and take a bite. If they do, don’t panic. You pull them out with tweezers. It’s important that you are careful pulling them out – grab them as close to their head as possible and twist while pulling. If you’re not careful and just jerk it out, the head might stay there and then you’ll need to go to the doctor.
Ticks are tough little critters. You can’t kill a tick by stepping on it, they are extremely hard to squish. So if you find one on you then either flush it down the toilet or burn it.
If you get bitten and you’re not sure if you should go to the doctor, wait a day or two. If you see red marks around the bite or if you feel headaches or any sort of pain then make an appointment or go to the emergency room. Not every tick carries diseases but if it happens then you should get treatment quickly so that it doesn’t spread or get to an advanced stage.
If you’ve never seen a tick, here is how they look. There are almost 900 tick species.
