The Life-Changing Disease Hiding Everywhere Outdoors

I have never seen another person freak

out so much over something so small.

>> I wasn't eating. I was losing weight. Um

I was also was even using the mobile

phone. Um it just was making me really

really sick.

>> Few days later I took very very sick.

>> I had aching joints. I was shivery. I

was cold. I was weak.

>> I contacted the doctor um sent

photographs.

>> They took it quite serious

>> and he's like it's probably just a viral

infection. But I pushed him and says,

"Look, this can happen." So he went to

Google.

>> I was put on a prolonged

um antibiotic.

>> Hello, Steven.

>> Probably about 3 or 4 months to actually

feel strong enough to be able to

>> felt unwell, fatigued, and not great

energy-wise. Probably for several months

after

>> I wanted to be in your YouTube video.

>> I'm your number one song.

>> He is

>> not her. as the time my running buddy,

should I mention his name? N we'll leave

him out of it. Persian um found one of

these unwelcome visitors

lodged on attached to

>> Shane got his tick.

I'll tell you where Shane got his tick,

but put it this way. You don't want a

tick there. A very personal part of his

body. Let's leave it at that. And he was

in a total panic. He ran off to the f

first aid station to get a pair of

tweezers to get this thing removed. And

that was about six years ago. And that

was my very first introduction to the

horror and disgust that these things can

create. Since then, I've personally been

bitten by dozens of them and I've killed

hundreds of them as well. But I'm now

starting to realize that maybe I haven't

quite been taking them as seriously as I

should have. You can probably figure out

where this is going. I am, of course,

talking about ticks. Those tiny little

blood sucking insect. No, they're not

insects. They're not insects. They're

actually an arachnid. So, they're kind

of a type of spider in a way. They've

got eight legs, but their numbers are

increasing in Ireland and in the UK year

on year. And with that increase in their

numbers comes an increase in the

disease, the infection, the bacterial

infection that they can spread or

transmit known as Lyme disease.

This is a condition that most people

recover fully from with treatment. But a

percentage of people end up suffering

from chronic conditions over maybe

months or in some cases years or in a

small percentage of very unfortunate

cases, some people end up dealing with

the symptoms and the after effects of of

of uh Lyme disease for the rest of their

life. So in this video, I'm going to

talk through some tips how to avoid

ticks and what to do if you get bitten.

But I think crucially, I'm also going to

talk about why this is something you

should be aware of and you should take

precautions about. You've got a bigger

risk for making a questionable choice

for lunch. And I'll explain that later.

But first of all, let's discuss what

actually are ticks. Because ticks,

they're kind of weird and in a really

kind of twisted way, a little bit

adorable.

I could have picked a better day to make

this video. This is a topic for spring

and winter has decided to return.

Okay, story time. Let's find somewhere

to sit down.

Well, that was embarrassing. I thought

that would just

There we go. Right, I want to introduce

you to somebody. Say hello to my little

friend. This Oh, actually, that's a

little bit scary for the kids watching.

Hang on.

This

This is Rick the tick. Scientific name

Isoti's

Rickus. I think Rick the tick is easier

to pronounce. Although

Rick the tick here is actually female

which makes this somewhat confusing.

Rick might be a she, but she ain't no

lady. Rick is born around this time of

year, around spring, and begins life as

a teeny tiny little larvae, which is

about the size of a poppy seed. And the

very first thing that every baby tick

needs to do in life is go on an

adventure, a quest, a quest for blood.

Hello, give me your blood. It could be

from a sheep, a goat, a deer, a cow, a

lizard, a mouse, a squirrel, a bat, or

even a trail runner called Steven. But

unfortunately for poor little laral Rick

the tick. Can she fly? No. No. Can she

jump? No. No. So, what's she gonna do?

I'm not quite sure how this turned into

a bedtime story, but I'm gonna roll with

it. Rick the Laral tick is clever. Rick

the laral tick is smart and Rick the

laral tick has a plan. She demands a

shrubbery.

>> A shrubbery

or grass or a tree. Any kind of plant

will do. She crawls right out to the end

of that branch,

grips on with her rear six legs and

sticks her two front legs out with a

like a pair of arms and waves them in

the air.

It's actually kind of adorable in a

really sick and twisted way. And this

behavior,

this behavior is literally known as

questing. And that leaf, that twig, just

happens to be sticking out on a trail. A

trail along which a trail runner, a

hless trail runner named Steven is

running. And as he passes by, Rick

reaches out with her little arms and a

little bit like if you ever seen the

Dune movies, the way the Fman jump onto

the giant sandworms and kind of hook on.

She just grabs onto Steven's ankle as it

brushes past and

is dragged along for the ride. But

Steven's magnificent shins and calves

are not what she's looking for. or

they're too tough uh from years of ow

barbwire in front of me and a gor bush

behind me.

So she climbs further north and finds a

nice soft bit of skin maybe in behind

the knee, up in the thigh or in the

groin. And once she gets there, she

deploys her most deplorable action

because she has a pair of jaws a little

bit like this. these little jaws here.

And these are basically like two saws.

She takes those saws and starts

macheteing her way down through the

flesh. Now, you might think, well,

Steven's going to feel that, but no,

he's not because this diabolical little

creature injects a fluid from her saliva

which contains antiqu coagulants so the

blood doesn't clot, but also

painkillers. So, if you get bitten by a

tick, most people never feel it. Once

she's macheted her way through the flesh

comes the gross part. If you didn't

think that was gross enough, see this?

This thing here? That is like a little

straw, but it's a barbed straw. And she

jams that barbed straw right into the

hole she's just cut on Steven's leg. And

over several days, she becomes engorged

with blood and swells up,

which is a phrase I never thought I'd be

saying in a YouTube video. And

eventually, after Rick the tick's

abdomen has swollen to about 100 times

its original size, she drops off and

starts to grow, mol, sheds a layer of

skin, and then emerges, no longer a

larvae, but now a nymph, which is

slightly bigger. And then the cycle

repeats again. She goes off. She finds

another host. She latches on. She drinks

the blood. She engorges and swells up.

Drops off. And this time when she sheds

her outer layer, she emerges as an adult

tick. And there is just one final

feeding left. But this time it's

different because she doesn't just have

blood on her mind, she's also got love

because now it's time for Rick the tick