Guest Author - Sarah Meadmore

I have had one tick sucking on my neck so far this year. I hope it was the last. I hate them! But since it is tick season, the little guy inspired me to share some of what I know about ticks and tick prevention.

Ticks are arachnids. They have four pairs of legs and are carnivorous. They live as ectoparasites (living on the surface of an organism) and survive by sucking on their host¡¦s blood.

Animals acquire ticks from long grass, shrubs and old wood fence posts. The ticks wait for their next host to brush through. They then cling to the host, crawling over them until they find an appropriate place to feed. In some unfortunate cases, this can be down one¡¦s pants.

By feeding, ticks transmit many diseases (though not all at once, thank goodness), via either microorganisms or the toxins present in their saliva. The most common diseases that humans can contract from ticks are Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Tularemia, Colorado tick fever and Tick-borne Relapsing Fever.

So how do we prevent ticks from attaching in the first place?

The most commonly used insecticides designed for use on humans contain DEET or N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide. DEET is a highly effective repellant which works by preventing the ticks from smelling a substance found in the breath and sweat of humans. DEET also comes with the following characteristics and warnings:
- DEET is an irritant;
- Manufacturers recommend that it is not used on skin directly, only on clothing;
- 100% DEET can dissolve some plastics, synthetic fibres and leather;
- The American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that DEET is not used on infants less than two months old;
- DEET is toxic to some cold-water fish.

I have used DEET in the past and have watched it melt some of my belongings with glee, without consideration of what it was doing to me.

Luckily, scientists in Germany, have been testing the effects of dodecanoic acid (DDA) - found naturally in coconut oil and palm-kernel oil ¡V as a tick repellent. Published in Parasites and Vectors, they found that a 10% DDA formula is a very effective, natural repellent against I. richinus ticks.

Although the scientists did not compare the repellency of the 10% DDA to that of any of DEET, the 10% DDA effectively repelled 83% of the ticks from a real human leg. In the control study, 94% of the ticks were not repelled from the human leg. That is effective enough for me.

Products with the 10% DDA formula are difficult to find, but the research opens the possibilities of more natural products undergoing scientific studies and becoming increasingly available to the consumer.

Natural alternatives to commercial tick repellent include products containing citronella, rose geranium oil, and garlic. Reports say that all of these substances have tick-repelling properties.

Happy tick season!