JSランゲージスクールブログ | Ticks
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Since it is summer, I wanted to talk about something that I always worry about during summer in the US but I don’t have to worry about while living in Tokyo. That thing is ticks (ダニ）. Ticks are small bugs that live in the woods. Their food is blood, so they bite animals and people. When they bite you, they dig their head into your skin and drink until they can’t anymore. Since I lived in the countryside in America, ticks were everywhere. I couldn’t escape them. Any time I went outside, I would come back in with at least one tick crawling on my skin. In the US, ticks are a very huge problem. They get all over people and also animals, so if you have a dog or cat that lives in your house, they can pick up lots of ticks when they go outside to use the bathroom.
Ticks carry many diseases. There are two kinds of ticks I want to tell you about today. One tick carries Lyme disease. You can get this disease after getting bit by a tick. Some signs of Lyme disease are fever, tiredness, and headaches. If you don’t get Lyme disease treated, it can make you sick for a very long time. Some of the more serious symptoms are paralysis in the face, joint pain, and even heart palpitations. You cannot give the disease to anyone else if you get it. It only affects the person who the tick bites.
Another disease that ticks carry is one that makes you allergic to red meat. This sounds very strange, but it is real. My older brother was bitten by one of these ticks, and he is now unable to eat steak or hamburgers. This is transmitted by a Lone Star tick. These ticks only live in certain areas of the US, and not everyone will become allergic to meat if they are bitten. It only affects a small amount of people. It is really interesting to me that a bite from an animal can change your allergies.
In Japan, I don’t think there are as many ticks. I have not been to the countryside much, so I have never seen a tick in Japan. Are ticks as dangerous and prominent in Japan as they are in the US? Have you ever been bitten by a tick?
