GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — Spring is here, summer is right around the corner, and people are looking to get outdoors…and ticks can’t wait for you to get there.
Prevea Health family medicine physician Dr. Amy Romandine Kratz says there’s plenty you can do to protect yourself from the disease-spreading, blood-sucking insects.
“It can be things as simple as wearing the right clothing,” Dr. Romandine Kratz told WTAQ. “Getting some light fitting but long sleeve pants and shirts, tucking pants into socks.”
Picking the right repellant is also a must.
“Things with DEET, treating your clothes with permethrin,” said Romandine Kratz. “Both [are] very safe ways and very effective ways to keep ticks away.”
And if you check yourself after coming indoors and find one?
“Don’t panic,” she said. “The key is to get the tick off as soon as you can… using a tweezer, grabbing the tech right behind the head, avoiding squeezing the body, and pulling straight out.”
Ticks live in wooded areas and areas with high grass, and crawl on to people and animals as they brush against leaves or grass.
There are two primary species of ticks native to Wisconsin, reddish-brown Deer ticks and white-marked wood ticks. Wisconsin had 3,105 estimated cases of Lyme disease, which is spread by deer ticks, in 2018.
The dreaded Lone Star Tick, which has recieved considerable attention for it’s potential to cause bite victims to develop alpha-gal meat allergy, is not native to Wisconsin, but can be found as close as northern Illinois.
