They aren’t Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, but if you—like me—need to perform tasks in natural areas, get ready! Your annual meeting with ticks is guaranteed. With these arachnids, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been good all year, behaved yourself, or tried to protect yourself from their attack. The ending is always the same: itching. And look, I don’t give up easily; I try putting my pants inside soccer socks, using repellent, adhesive tape, Bolfo (I stopped with that one), taking ivermectin (stopped that too), or any other panacea you can think of. The fact is, it doesn’t help: ticks always find a gap in my defenses, and the itching is certain.

As I write this, I’ve been dealing with intense and generalized itching for over five days. The cause was a field activity in the municipality of Jeceaba, MG, where I was inventorying isolated trees for the Environmental Intervention Project (PIA) of a sand dredging operation. The future project is located on the banks of the Paraopeba River.

Field Activities Performed

My activity in this field consisted of delimiting the proposed Directly Affected Area (ADA), inventorying isolated arboreal individuals, and marking passage points for the dredge, piping, and water return. We looked for points where the piping could reach the watercourse without the need for tree vegetation suppression.

The activity went well; the day was pleasant and seemed tick-free. The data I collected in the field will support my Environmental Intervention Project (PIA). Therefore, the information I gathered serves to build the polygons for the project maps, achieve a more accurate area definition using handheld GPS, and perform a vegetation assessment on-site. This preliminary analysis before drafting the studies is fundamental to obtaining better results in an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process. That is why you must visit the site where the entrepreneur intends to intervene. Often, images from Google Earth can be misleading and prevent a broad understanding of the area we are working on.

We finished the activities, had lunch, and my field partner, Alexandre Rocha, and I went to another site owned by the same client: another sand dredging area on the banks of the Paraopeba River. That’s when the trouble began…

Arriving at the area, I encountered horses grazing (a bad sign and a powerful indication of what awaited us) and immediately felt a sense of dread. The activity at this new location was supposed to be very quick (marking a point for a pipe passage) and then leaving. The entrepreneur already operates at this site. I focused on what I had to do, and we left very quickly. I felt a slight itch here and there but didn’t give it much thought. When I got home and took off my boots… Honestly, I’ll be sincere: there were few adult ticks, but micuins (seed ticks, the early stages of tick development)… there were many on me!

Field Work Never Ends: The Post-Field Phase

A biologist’s life isn’t just about data storage and analysis. I spent a long time removing these “hellish animals” (laughs). They are worse than adult ticks because they pass through the gaps in the fabric of your clothes and socks and are always present in large numbers. The itch caused by seed ticks is worse than that of a normal tick (which is already strong). I did everything I could to mitigate the problem: I removed the seed ticks, showered, took an antihistamine, and applied ointment. Even so, I had great difficulty sleeping that night and throughout the following days.

To you, the biologist, environmental consultant, or nature lover: be very careful during this time of year. Ticks are dangerous to our health as they can transmit Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (Febre Maculosa), a very dangerous disease that can lead to death. Therefore, you can’t be too careful.

To minimize the risks, here are some tips based on my experience and that of friends and colleagues:

• Use bandages on your legs and arms (wrap them many times) to prevent seed ticks from passing through the fabric gaps (this tip was given to me by my partner Rodrigo Chaves, who knows a lot about field activities).
• Use two pairs of socks (one being a long soccer sock) and tuck your pants inside them.
• Apply adhesive tape over the sock at the point where the pants are tucked in to seal the gap.
• In addition, wear your shirt inside your pants and try to cover the back of your neck with a cloth.
• During field activities, stay alert to your clothes to check for the presence of ticks so you can remove them before they bite. In the case of seed ticks, they form whitish “smudges” on your clothing.

By following these tips, you will be able to avoid some of the distress caused by these little creatures and protect yourself, at least a little, against Spotted Fever.

And you, what do you do to protect yourself from these critters? Share it in the comments on my LinkedIn profile!