With tick season in full swing, there's an app that's extremely useful in understanding where they are lurking.

An app called eTick allows Airdronians to see where reported sightings of ticks are throughout the city.

With that being said, it's important to understand exactly what ticks have the capacity of doing to you or your pet and the possible long-term ramifications that can arise from not being diligent. 

Rosie Numan, who has had Lyme disease her entire life and has had two tick bites herself understands what to keep an eye out for and what to do if you find a tick on you or your pet.

"We're always recommending that if you're going to be outside in any sort of vegetation, even in your own backyard when you're gardening, that you wear a repellent for mosquitoes and ticks that contains 20 per cent picaridin. It is the safest product out there and is able to be used on children as young as six months old."

She also recommends wearing light colours and tucking in your pants to your socks when outside.

TickScreenshot from the tick map in Airdrie.

"The most important is to do is tick checks when you come in from these areas. Even your own yards, you should be doing tick checks every day that you're outside. Head to toe, every nook and cranny.  You're looking for things that can be as small as a poppy seed, so it can look like a speck of dirt on your body. But if you touched it, it would be a bump and it would move."

Ticks can be found anywhere that there is vegetation. She has heard multiple people have found them in their own backyards in Airdrie and on their pets.

"I haven't had any calls yet about attachments on people in town, but there are multiple reports in people's yards this year."

If you do find ticks, the first thing a person should do is stay calm, according to Numan. She goes on to explain using needlenose tweezers, forceps and tick kits is the best way to get rid of them if they have bitten you.

"Grab the tick as close to the skin as possible. You pull straight out gently but firmly in the direction that it's gone into the person or the animal and then save that tick in a plastic bag or a little bottle so that it can be tested."

If a tick is found on a pet, the tick can be tested at the vet to see if the tick contains bacteria that could cause Lyme disease. For humans, Numan recommends a company called Genetiks as they test any type of tick for multiple pathogens.

"The symptoms for Lyme disease are quite varied. They can include a rash, often in a bullseye form, and that is confirmed transmission of Lyme disease.  Symptoms can include headaches, fatigue, flu-like symptoms, respiratory issues, you can get gastrointestinal symptoms, swelling or pain in the joints and can also cause paralysis."

In Airdrie, according to Numan, The most common ticks are the black-legged ticks, woods ticks and dog ticks.

"There are 12 different species of ticks that have been found in Canada."

Numan does think the app is a useful tool but wants Airdronians to know not every tick is being reported.

To download the app from the google play store, click HERE. To download the app from the app store, click HERE.

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