Present everywhere in France between April and November, the tick is feared for the infections it can transmit to pets. Its bites can also transmit Lyme disease to humans. 60,000 people are diagnosed each year in France.
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Spring often rhymes with a walk in the forest, picnic and nap in the grass … But it is also the breeding season for ticks which proliferate in hot and humid weather. Be careful, therefore, because ticks carry pathogens responsible for infectious diseases.
How to avoid them?
Ticks are present in the undergrowth, at the edge of the forest and along the path in tall grass, up to 1.5 meters above the ground. They attach themselves to animals and human beings who pass them by.
Ticks feed on the blood of animals or humans. They can then become infected. They can then retransmit these pathogens. Ticks are therefore “vectors” of pathogenic agents responsible for animal and human diseases. Transmission is mainly through their saliva.
Spring, tick reproduction period
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© ANSES, national agency for food, environmental and occupational health safety
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Occitania relatively spared
To draw up a “map” of the presence of ticks in the territory, a participatory research program coordinated by INRAE, “CiTIC”, involves citizens to better understand the ecology of ticks and associated diseases, including Lyme disease, in order to improve the prevention of risks associated with tick bites.
Ticks in France
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© FTV
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ANSES recommendations
To protect you from tick bites, ANSES, the national food, environmental and occupational health safety agency, publishes on its website a list of recommendations :
- Use repellents, favoring those with marketing authorization and respecting their conditions of use.
- Wear closed-toe shoes and light-colored covering clothing (to better spot ticks on the surface of the fabric).
- Avoid walking in the middle of tall grass, bushes and low branches and prefer marked paths.
- Inspect yourself when you return from your walks.
- In the event of a bite, immediately detach the attached ticks using a tick puller, fine forceps or, failing that, your nails (do not use ether or any other product) and disinfect the wound.
- Monitor the sting area for several days and see your doctor in case of symptoms.
Consult your doctor immediately after a tick bite if any unexplained symptoms or erythema migrans appear.
How do you recognize Lyme disease?
A few days after a tick bite, in case of infection, an erythema, a characteristic red halo on the skin, appears around the point of the bite and spreads in a circular fashion. At this stage, an antibiotic treatment makes it possible to stop the disease.
Left untreated, the disease can cause skin, muscle, neurological and joint damage that can be very disabling. Antibiotic treatment exists, effective if administered quickly, hence the importance of a rapid diagnosis after a tick bite.
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