I agree with David here - what he calls a pinzette, we call tweezers though!

However, ticks are not spider species - what I think David is trying to say is that they are 'Arachnids' a class of invertibrates which must have the following features:

They have to be an invertebrate
Thay need to have an exoskeleton
They need to have jointed legs
And in addition
They have to have 8 legs

The Class Arachnida includes the following species:

Scorpions
Spiders
Ticks
Mites
(information taken from the Wildlifecampus Game Ranging Course)

Hello Elaine,

NEVER try to sufficate a Tick by burning it with a Cigarette, or squeezing the Blood sucked full Body.

While squeezing it, you may squeeze the Bacterias/Virus into the wound.

If you sufficate the Tick (Burning), it will release everything it has also into the wound.
You may be succsessfull having the Tick removed from the skin, but you started a Biochemical Process.

Remove a Tick from your skin: Take a Pinzette and grab it as close to the skin and pull it out. (dont turn it, as the Tick Tools Pliers are not threat shaped).
Out of own experience with Dog and also human, Ticks are very tough, so you dont pull of the abdomen off the head easely
If you are not sure , consult medical support.

Dont fiddle around with it , if you are not sure.

Due to the mild winter, we expect in Europe a Tick Wave, that the Tick gets the status of the most dangerous Animal here. It transmits Meningitis.

BTW a Tick is a Spider Species, count the legs, it has 8. Some species has 6 only in their Nymph Phase.

greets from NJ

Elaine, when we go for a walk in the forests or fields here, we always have to check for that type of ticks too and I know several ppl infected with Lyme's disease. It's best to dress up with long pants and sleeves.
Ppl living near the forest get it in their gardens, that's why I thought they might keep the grass round the Lodge short for that problem as well as a safety measure against fire.
As for head lice, it's still a very real thing in primary schools. I say primary schools, because in Belgium the primary schools and nursery schools are attached, the one goes with the other.

Some confusion might arise from the fact that in USA..we have the Deer Tick..which can cause Lyme Disease in humans. This tick attaches itself to humans and pets in addition to the Deer population. When you go for walks in the wood you might easily come home with ticks on yourself or your pets. This tick gorges itself with blood of its host and increases in size. It then drops off of the host. If you find one attached and attempt to remove it simply by pulling it off..the head will remain attached and that area will become quite infected. One way to remove it is very carefully by burning with a cigarette..etc. In the south i had seen what was once a beautiful collie infected with hundreds of deer ticks...quite ill and no matter what was done to help it or how many we removed , it died shortly thereafter. The owner had ignored the problem for too long.

as for the use of the word lice? ..in the USA...that is commonly thought of as 'head lice'..in the hair of humans..occurring because of unclean conditions. In the past this condition has affected entire schools. Rarely heard of these days as conditions improve as does medication for treatment of the 'head lice' condition.
This is not in any way scientific information re: any of these animals...as you can see, it merely comes from hearing stores of the existence of both and what might occur.

What I meant was what I now presume are ticks. I only know the afrikaans word and that is bosluis, so I translated the word to lice, but I do know what those things look like. I have seen them on our pets when I was a child.
So you won't get tick-fever from these ticks?

Tabs' reply pretty much answers the basic questions here, just a quick clarification on the parasites.

The parasites seen in the 1st photograph are ticks, the ankles of giraffe are favoured investation sites for these small arachnids.

Lice, a group of insects are tiny, generally 0.1mm to 2 mm long as opposed to ticks which may be up to ten times larger before a feed and who become distended after to a feed to twice this size.

The presence of lice may be surmised by poor skin / coat conditions such as mange, but you're only going to see the actual lice if extremely up close.

Doesn't the animal eventually get sick with so many of these lice on them?
Normal healthy medium-sized antelope can easily cope with external parasite loads of up to 5000 and more. It is only when the animal is weakened from a secondary ailment that the parasite will cause a decline in and eventual death of the animal. This is one further way in which nature balances itself. (Information taken from the Wildlifecampus Field Guide Course) wildlifecampus.com

If we humans walk in the veld, will we also get these lice on us and will we become sick?
Possible! If you pick up certain ticks you could get tick-bite fever - however, this is rare. The lice (mites) that live on the animals cannot live on humans and, if you do pick up ticks, they will fall off, if not removed by you, after one blood-feed.

Is the reason why they keep the grass so short around the lodge to keep the ticks and lice at some distance from the lodge?
Not at all! The grass is short either because the animals graze it constantly or, if it is mown by the lodge, it is to prevent grass fires occuring close to habitation or simply for aesthetic reasons - with the resulting benefit that the guests get a better view of the animals that come close!

Do those lice get so big? :shock: I thought those were ticks!

Thats horrid poor impala looks like blackflies though!