Warm winters are terrific for ticks: they breed like rabbits. Ticks will remain active even if the temperature is only hovering around +5 degrees, but since people rarely get back to nature in winter, infections just as rarely present themselves.Now is nevertheless a good time to think of immunisation, getting your first shots in February or March. “Ticks are getting more infectious every year, which is why more people are getting sick,” explained someone from some hospital (etc).
The article goes on to say that on the plus side, warm winters mean there will be enough oxygen for fish (?) and that wild pigs will have plenty to forage for. Better yet, less people are likely to top themselves - something that is more common than you might think:
Thoughts frequently turn to suicide [at this time of year] – the majority of us have contemplated it at some point. This generally never develops into a concrete plan, however, and nothing comes of it.
Life in the country must really be hard with all these rampaging ticks and oxygen-starved fish.
4 comments:
Ticks are big deal in Estonia, with good reasons. In case of venturing out to forests areas attention should be paid, especially if one has kids.
Why, do these maruading Estonian ticks target children?
I think this is because unlike parents kids just run around in high grass, where the insects hide.
I'd say anyone who lived in Estonia for long enough time know somebody personally who was infected with one of the two diseases. I did.
Keep the grass mown, wear light colored clothes so you can spot an unwanted hitchhiker, use lots of bug spray when you're off the lawn or road, and you should be fine.
Ironically, tick-borne diseases had almost died out by the end of the Russian occupation. But with the lack of human life in the countryside, allowing farmland to become overgrown, tick activity has skyrocketed to make Estonia down to Poland the deadliest region in the world for Lime's disease and encephalitis in just under 20 years.
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