Everything Else

Avoid Ticks – How to “Suit Up” for the Outdoors

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NJ is home to several species of ticks who’d love nothing more than to latch on to your skin and feast. Some of these ticks can carry diseases which will make you very ill (not just Lyme). A few simple steps can help prevent you from becoming a tick buffet.

  • Dress for Battle:
    • Tall socks
    • Long pants tucked into your socks
    • Long-sleeved shirt tucked into your pants
    • Hat
    • (Light-colored clothing is better for spotting the dark ticks)
  • Hose Yourself Down:
    • Apply an insect repellant with 20-30% DEET to any exposed skin (adults will want to do this onto your kids. Careful not to get it into their eyes, nose, mouth or on hands.)
    • Awesome tool to search for repellants: cfpub.epa.gov/oppref/insect/
  • Hike the Trails:
    • Walk only on maintained trails
    • Avoid walking through tall grass or brush
    • Ticks don’t jump; they only transfer to you when you brush up against them
    • Try to sit on your camping chair; ticks crawl from ground up (the ground, logs, rocks are good spots to find them)
  • Check & Wash:
    • After your hike, do a Tick Check
    • Check your boots, they could be hiding there too
    • Wash your skin to remove the repellant
    • Wash your clothes and use the dryer (some ticks survive the washer but most die in the hot dryer)

And if you’re interested, the CDC published a list of all the diseases you can get from ticks. You can learn about them on their website: www.cdc.gov/ticks/diseases/

Are Ticks Lurking on Your Skin? How to do a Tick Check

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You’ve dressed properly then went on a hike so you’re pretty sure you don’t have any ticks. But the ticks are clever and sometimes really tiny. See the period at the end of this sentence; that’s how small a tick can be. You NEED to do a tick check after you hike. You can even do them periodically DURING your hike. The sooner you can get them off you, the better.

Here’s how:

  • Ideally, you want to be in your bathroom (the floor tiles will prevent them from hiding – you don’t want a tick living in your carpet).  Start from the ground up. 
    • Before you take off your clothes, check them.  If you were wearing light-colored clothing, maybe you can spot them easily.
    • Take off the shoes and check them.
    • Roll down your socks a couple inches and check your legs.
    • Unzip your pants and check around your waistband.
    • Roll up your sleeves and check your arms.
    • Check around the color of your shirt.
    • Check your hair.
  • Take off the clothes.  Start again from the ground and move upwards.
    • Check your feet and between your toes.
    • Check your legs and behind your knees.
    • Check the groin (between, inside, outside, everywhere).
    • Check your body, your belly button, your arms, your armpits.
    • Check your neck, ears, and hair thoroughly.
    • Use a hand mirror or a magnifying mirror if you have to.
    • This may seem excessive but ticks love warm places.
  • After you are done checking, take a shower.
    • While you are washing, feel for any hard bumps indicating a tick that you may have missed.
    • If you feel something that shouldn’t be there, look at it again.
  • Each day for the next few days, do the tick check.
    • If you picked one up, they will be bigger since they are attached and feeding on your blood.
    • If you see any red rashes, if your skin feels inflamed or you get a fever, call your doctor immediately, even if you don’t see the tick.

What to do if you find a tick:

  • Don’t panic! Yea, I know that’s hard when you first see one but it’s really important not to freak out your kids. Just remain calm. (If bugs scare you, call your doctor and have him/her remove it for you.)
  • The tick attaches to the skin using his mouth.
    • With your tweezers, gently put them around the tick as close to the skin as possible.
    • Firmly pull the tick straight back (in the direction of the tick’s butt). Removing a Tick with Tweezers
    • Be careful not to squeeze the tweezers too hard; the goal is to get all of the tick in one piece, not squish him.
    • Also, do not twist the tick or you may leave mouth parts inside your skin. (If that happens, try to remove the rest of the tick with your tweezers.)
  • Place the tick into a plastic bag and seal it. Wash the area with rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide or other type of disinfectant.
  • Monitor the area for the next few days to see if a red bulls-eye type rash (or any type of rash) develops. If the area seems inflamed or has a rash or you develop a fever, see your doctor immediately and don’t forget to bring the tick.

Side Note:

If the thought of your tweezers around the body of a tick sends shivers down your spine, for less than $5 you can invest in a tick remover (also called a tick spoon or tick key). Directions for using them are on the package. Tick removers are found in most stores that sell camping equipment or on their websites. Here’s a list of online places:

Games – Scavenger Hunt

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Since we try to teach our scouts the “Leave No Trace” principles while they are outdoors, scavenger hunts can be challenging. Here is a “scavenger” hunt we use periodically. While there are natural items on this list, we stress to the boys that they can only pick up the stuff on the ground (never off of a living plant).

We also paired a Webelos scout with a Tiger scout so that the older boy can read the list and make sure the younger boy stays safe. We gave each team a paper bag (“lunchbag”), the list, and little pencils (the kind you use for golf). It’s really fun to see the reaction from the dads and moms when the scouts ask them for “items”.

This hunt can satisfy the following:

  • Bear Achievement 15b
  • Wolf Achievement 10b
  • Tiger Elective 35

Cub Scout World Conservation Award

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According to the BSA website, the World Conservation Award “provides an opportunity for individual Cub Scouts . . . to ‘think globally’ and ’act locally’ to preserve and improve our environment”.

This award is earned only once while a Cub Scout. Below are the requirements for each rank.

Outdoor Ethics Awards

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Outdoor Ethics are one of the core principles in scouting and I believe it’s important to teach them to the boys. The BSA website has all the information you will need to help your cub scout earn both Outdoor Ethics awards (Outdoor Ethics Awareness & Outdoor Ethics Action). www.scouting.org/scoutsource/OutdoorProgram/OutdoorEthics/Awards/CubScout.aspx

 

For the Outdoor Ethics Action Award, here are some ideas you can use to satisfy this requirement:

Earth Day: How to play in mud with friends & help the neighborhood!

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I love scouting because it teaches kids about the outdoors — how to survive in it, how to respect it, how to maintain it. Every Cub Scout rank has a requirement where the boys participate in a volunteer or clean-up activity. Over the years, I’ve become a champion for Earth Day as a way to show how one scout can make a difference on a global scale.

By participating in an Earth Day event, the boys can learn responsibility to their environment while working towards a badge. They make a direct impact on their neighborhood. They also learn that people around the world are doing the same thing on the same day.

Of course, it always seemed to rain on our Pack’s clean-up day. It was cold so we’d have urns filled with hot chocolate and coffee. The adults would grumble about the weather but not the boys. Playing with friends for a couple of hours in the mud was awesome! When the kids having fun, cleaning up the litter on Earth Day didn’t seem like a chore.  The boys were always shocked when we piled up all the bags into a “Trash Mountain” at the end of our day.

The NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has a terrific website and there’s a program devoted to the annual Earth Day.   It’s called “NJ SEEDS” – NJ State Environmental Education Directory Site.

If you’re searching for volunteer hours, you can find local opportunities on the SEEDS site. There’s info and contact information to help you get started.

Is your Pack (or your hometown) having an Earth Day event? Submit your details to SEEDS and it’ll be included on their Events calendar (for the months of April and May).   By listing your event, you can find people to join you. Maybe you bribe them with hot drinks, mud pies and Trash Mountain!

BSA Councils of NJ

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Here is a list of the BSA Councils in New Jersey.