The little insects that bite you without you realizing it don’t only swarm in forests. Ticks are also found in gardens, both public and private.
We think we know everything about the tick: its favorite habitats, its mode of bite, its consequences, the most feared of which is Lyme disease. But this forgets that there are nearly 900 species of this insect in the world. And the specificity of each depends on the best medical means of treating its effects. This is why the Lorraine center of the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) has launched a research program. Name of the operation: CiTique.
On the edge of Haute-Marne, Artémi55, based in Bar-le-Duc, is an association associated with this program. “We are an association of volunteers, neither doctors nor specialists, who alert the public doing sports or walking”, insists the president, Catherine Bertaux. Its area of intervention within the framework of the program is prevention for the general public. What she did recently, on the occasion of Chasse et nature en fête, in May 2024 in Joinville, where she had a stand.
Grand Est very affected
Artémi55 has distributed small vials in which a person who has been bitten or who has seen a tick on clothing can return the insect and send it to INRAE. The sender will also take care to provide details on the period and locations of discovery. The objective, for INRAE, is to achieve “a map of different ticks”not really intended for the general public but for the medical profession, “in order to guide the doctor towards the best treatment”. According to the CiTique database, more than 83,300 tick bites were reported to Inrae between 2017 and 2024, including nearly 13,000 in the Grand Est, the most affected region – or the best informed.
” Every day “
In this rainy spring of 2024, ticks are very present. Humidity, global warming, but also a large population of deer that ticks are fond of are explanations for this proliferation. “I see them every day”specifies Catherine Bertaux, whose association of “huntresses” proposes to “see and show hunting differently”.
In her prevention mission, the Meuse volunteer provides some details that go against the grain of preconceived ideas. First of all, “Ticks don’t fall from trees, they come back up through grass. » Then, we not only find them in the forest, but also “in public gardens or in one’s own garden”. This is why, whenever you go out into nature, you should inspect yourself – your clothes, your body – immediately, knowing that a tick bite is painless and not necessarily immediately visible.
L.F.
Precious tick remover
Hunters, hikers, athletes, dog owners know it: the tool that has become essential, after a walk in the forest or in tall grass, is the tick remover, which you buy in pharmacies. To remove the tick attached to a part of the body (e.g. the leg), you must place the hook located at the end of the tick remover under the insect, and pull gently while turning. But above all, warns the ARS Grand Est, we must not “press the tick between your fingers, so as not to encourage the passage of the tick’s saliva which contains the infectious agents”. No more than necessary “pull the tick [ou] use tweezers. In addition to the previous risk, the probability of “leaving the head” in the skin is high.” Finally, “do not use alcohol, ether, oil or varnish. » On the other hand, after the “operation”, it is necessary to disinfect the part concerned. A tick bite causing Lyme disease, it is strongly recommended to consult your doctor if a red patch develops in the following month.
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The tick attacks humans and animals. (Photo DR).
