Do we need to worry about ticks in the UK? How serious are the risks associated with the diseases they can carry? Should we avoid rolling around in long grass à la Charli xcx in the video for her latest single, Wink Wink?
These are questions that have been circulating on social media this week, after the release of the pop star’s video, filmed in Essex, and sightings of celebrity couples Zoë Kravitz and Harry Styles and Sarah Pidgeon and Joe Alwyn lounging in the long grass on Hampstead Heath in London.
Charli xcx responded to one fan’s concerns on her Instagram stories: “i won’t lie i was really stressed about this.” While some social media users were quick to brush off these worries, being alert to the presence of ticks is important, according to Julia Knight, who works for Lyme Disease UK. She says Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease, adding: “We’re at the peak of tick season at the moment.” And while tick populations are generally associated with heathland and forests, Knight says: “They have been found in urban parks and gardens.”
Beware its bite … an Ixodes ricinus tick, commonly found in the UK and mainland Europe. Photograph: fhm/Getty Images
So what is a tick? Despite their insect-like appearance, ticks are arachnids – like spiders and scorpions – and feed on the blood of mammals and birds. When a tick finds something (or someone) to feed on, it will cut into its host’s skin and insert its feeding tube. Depending on its species, it may also secrete a cement-like substance as it feeds, which helps to keep it in place, and makes it harder to remove cleanly. A tick bite will generally cause only minor irritation. The main danger is the risk of contracting the diseases ticks can transmit. If left untreated, Lyme disease can have serious consequences, including heart problems, pain and swelling in joints and nerve pain. The number of ticks has been on the rise in England in recent years, as well as in the rest of the UK, while rates of Lyme disease have risen steadily since the first confirmed case in the UK in 1985.
Infected ticks can be found in every county of the UK, but some areas are known to pose a higher risk, including the Scottish Highlands, south and south-west England, and parts of East Anglia. However, the reason we don’t see the same rates of Lyme disease (the most common tick-borne disease) in the UK as documented in, say, France and Germany, Knight says, is that “we just don’t know how many cases we have each year,” as official figures are based on laboratory-confirmed cases. When the symptoms of the disease are obvious (this usually means a red rash forming a ring around the bite, often referred to as a bull’s eye rash), there is no need for a doctor to take a blood test before prescribing antibiotics. These cases do not get officially counted.
This “uptick” in cases, Knight tells me, groaning at her own pun, can be attributed to a heating climate. Typically, “tick season” would have been between early spring and late autumn, but warmer winters have meant that ticks can stay active all year. Work is being done to create vaccines and drugs to tackle Lyme disease, but for now, the best advice is to take precautions when you are in grassy or wooded areas. This means covering your skin as much as possible, sticking to pathways, using repellant, and checking your skin for ticks after potential exposure.
Knight advises scanning your entire body thoroughly, because, at the “nymph stage”, the creatures can be smaller than poppy seeds and even at their largest after a blood meal are no bigger than a baked bean. Ticks are drawn to the warmest parts of our bodies and can be lodged in hidden crevices, so check between toes, behind knees, under armpits and between your legs. If you have been lying down in long grass, or if you are checking a child whose head may have brushed against grass, check hairlines and behind the ears.
If you do find a tick on you, NHS advice is to remove it as soon as possible, grasping it as close to your skin as you can and pulling slowly upwards with fine-tipped tweezers or a tick-removal tool so as not to squeeze or crush it. Ideally, you want to get it all out in one go. You need to seek medical attention only if you then develop a rash or start to feel unwell: flu-like symptoms can be associated with Lyme disease, even if you don’t have a rash.
While I laughed out loud at a parasite-related meme shared on Reddit of a tick at a computer, typing the popular social media retort “touch grass”, we don’t need to stop spending time in nature. Anyone who wants to canoodle with a loved one in Hampstead Heath’s long grass “definitely can still go and do that,” says ecologist Dr Bethan Purse, who researches tick-borne infections. “They just need to have an eye on it.”
