Boy picks up 30 ticks after trip to park

A three-year-old picked up ticks all over his body after a trip to the park, as experts warn warm weather means more people are enjoying the outdoors during egg hatching season.

Mum Lisa with Finn, 3, and baby Louie, who suffered tick bites.

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WHEN Lisa Evans noticed lots of little red marks all over her little boy, she thought he had been bitten by a mosquito.

It was only later in the day she realised they were not bites but a reaction to tiny ticks burrowing into three-year-old Finn’s skin.

“At first I thought he had been attacked by a mozzie, but later, when I was changing him, I noticed there was a little body on his skin,” said Mrs Evans, of Bilgola.

“I looked closer at the other marks and realised they were all ticks. I thought, ‘Oh my goodness’.

Finn Evans was bitten by more than 30 ticks when playing at the park.

“They were all over his torso, behind his ears, in his groin area and on his arms and legs and in his hair.”

In a panic, Mrs Evans checked her baby boy Louie, 11 months, and found four ticks on him.

But Mrs Evans’ boys are not alone. People across the northern beaches are reporting multiple tick bites this autumn.

Experts blame the warmer than average weather, which is extending the time the eggs can hatch and the fact people are still out and about enjoying the sunshine.

“Autumn is the time when tick eggs hatch,” said Simon Harvey, who set up a new business Tick Safe and the Mozzie Team, with neighbour Aaron Wagner, dedicated to eradicating these pests.

Mum Lisa with Finn, 3, and baby Louie, 11 months, who suffered tick bites.

“The adult female ticks lay about 2000 to 3000 eggs in the ground, in dark, grassy areas, and they’re all hatching now.

“People are still enjoying the outdoors and their gardens, which is why they are getting covered in all these tiny ticks.

“We’ve had eight jobs in five days on the northern beaches.

“It’s a hot spot for ticks.”

Mrs Evans took her boys to Manly Hospital where a doctor pulled out the ones behind Finn’s ears and around the groin and told her to go home and apply a bicarbonate of soda paste and paint them on each tick, or put the boys in a bath with the bicarbonate of soda, until the ticks fell off.

“He still has the marks on his body several weeks after it happened,” Mrs Evans said.

Now she avoids parks after rain, when ticks are more likely to be around, which is where she thinks the boys picked them up.

For advice on ticks go to health.nsw.gov.au/environment/factsheets/Pages/ticks