About a month ago I went out for a long rambling walk in the countryside. Due to lack of rain, the burn at the bottom of the deep gulley was very low, so it’s a good time to take a walk that’s not so possible in wetter parts of the year. There is primeval feel of being in places that humans rarely go to. Some of the walk involves hiking through over grown woodland scrub and braken, to really get to the best and wildest parts of the area.

The next day, glancing at the BBC website I noticed a story about ticks and looking down, realised my legs were covered in the darn things – at least a dozen which I proceeded to remove.

The power of the web – good points; it’s possible to order tick removers and find out all sorts of things about them. The bad points – there is a huge amount of conflicting advice and thoughts about ticks and disease.

However, one thing that occured to me today while walking in a different bit of woodland (and being much more cautious about plunging into the undergrowth) was that there has been a bit increase in the incidence of the diagnosis of Lyme Disease.

Now, is this because there are more ticks, and they are more toxic; or has the web spread more basic knowledge about the risks that ticks bring and encouraged people to visit the doctor if they have a tick, or think they may have had one?