By: Blonde Two

I have to confess that as I sat and listened to Blonde One giving her ‘tick talk’ to our Bronze DofE youngsters earlier this month I did find myself thinking that the season was still too young for them to be an issue.

I was mistaken!

When I got home I followed Blonde One’s excellent advice and in the shower checked all of my ‘dark places’. This was slightly problematic as Mr Blonde Two was away cycling and I thought I might scare our lodger off for ever if I asked her to help. Once dressed (obviously in pyjamas after a two day expedition) I was eating my tea when I felt a tickle in my nose. Being alone I felt it acceptable to have a bit of a delve around (this is not recommended in polite company) but on an initial sweep failed to remove the source of the tickle and gave up. I quickly shoved my finger back up my nose when I realised that the tickle had turned into definite evidence of something moving around in there. There surely can’t be many people who have panicked because something is up their nose but I am now one of them.

I eventually removed the offending article and discovered that it wasn’t any usual substance, neither was it the sunflower seed that I shoved up there in my formative years and never found again, nope, this nasal infraction was definitely a tick.

To be honest I think it is just plain rude to crawl around up somebody’s nose without first at least asking permission. I wouldn’t do it and I don’t think you would either. Ticks however are far more disrespectful than even this, I know of at least two young men who have had to remove them from far more delicate body parts. One of these was Six-Foot-Blonde who was canoeing in Scotland at the time and had an number I won’t repeat because it is too scary, all attached to a particular boy-place.

Ticks are in reality no laughing matter and anybody who walks in the countryside or in towns needs to be aware of them. The incidents of Lyme Disease from ticks in the UK is rising and it is a serious prospect that requires medical attention. You can find out more about ticks from Lyme Disease Action here. Next time I go walking I may take a clothes peg because my nose is still doing phantom itching!