Dr. Maura Finn

And they inject a tiny bit of very mild painkiller and blood clotting substance that actually anti blood clotting substance that actually allows them to feed without you feeling it at all.

And as they feed, the warmth of the blood that they're taking from you can actually trigger kind of any dormant bacteria that they may have in their system to kind of go into you.

And they carry a lot of diseases, not just Lyme disease, but Lyme disease is the one that will be most prevalent in Ireland.

No, because they have this little painkiller, you don't actually feel it.

So you have to really go looking for it.

And this would be, you know, I suppose the advice of what the HSE was trying to alert people to.

You need to look.

So if you've been in a woodland area, if you've been out and about, and this is for your children and pets as well, look in areas that are kind of the warmer areas usually.

So sometimes behind the ears, around your neck, in your head.

And between your toes, it's going to freak people out a little bit if you're walking barefoot and you're growing under your arms and you need to look for them and you will see them.

They're tiny, but they're little black things and they're hard.

And as they feed, they get bigger.

And if you find them, it's very important that you remove them carefully.

You don't squash them.

You don't twist them.

You don't want to kind of push what they've been feeding into your body.

So you use tweezers and take it from the kind of as close to the skin as possible and just pull them gently out and just get rid of them then.

And if you have been bitten by them, if you find them,

If it's within a couple of hours, you really don't have any risk.

Okay.