Note: Ticks carry disease. My suggestion of playing a game involving them is a joke.
Ticks and Sticks is the name of a game I came up with one spring day as my family and I were looking for something creative to do outside. I imagine the rules would have involved something like going up to a bush and whacking it with a stick. In the spring, the bushes are loaded with ticks.
We played kickball instead.
Ticks are nasty spidery looking parasites that cling to branches in underbrush while they wait for an animal (or human) to latch onto. They flourish in the spring and can infect a human with Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and other dangerous diseases if they burrow into your skin to feed on your blood.
We eat garlic during tick season as it repels them according to what I’ve read but don’t take my word for it – do some research and protect yourself if they live in your part of the world. If you have animals such as dogs and cats, be sure to treat them appropriately. They will bring ticks into your house – believe me.
I never saw one until we moved to eastern Washington and then I saw way too many. I found several on myself the first spring we lived here. They would appear at the most inopportune times.
There is nothing like the look on someone’s face when they see a tick crawl out of your hair. Imagine this happening on a first date? Once, a guy I was talking to deftly snatched one off of my forehead as if it was nothing and crushed it. He obviously had experience with these things.
I have a theory that they don’t like fluorescent light because they would almost always come out in the library or other public building.
What purpose could such ugly, dangerous pests have in the scheme of things? I’m sure they have their place – just not on my head.
Stories From Off The Grid. 
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