an aussie in austria

I am Australian. I come from the land of dangerous animals… of deadly crocodiles and sharks and jellyfish and snakes and spiders… all of which I never really worried much about when I was in Australia.

But here in Austria… the ticks freak me out.

Tiny little creatures, they are. Innocently bumbling around in grass and foliage on the forest floor. Not too smart, not too fast. But since you don’t feel them bite, they just hang out on you for a while… gorging.

Ticks are renowned for carrying Lyme disease, which is a nasty thing. But with its signature target-like rash, it’s at least possible to prevent its effects.

But in coming to Austria I learnt there is another tick disease… the very nasty tick-born encephalitis, found in parts of Europe and Asia. Apparently a third of patients who are bitten by an infected tick (and aren’t vaccinated) experience paralysis of the arms, legs, or facial nerves, leading to permanent disabilities, or death. And once bitten there’s no treatment. You’re just at the whim of the tick and your own immune system.

And winter wasn’t cold enough this year. It wasn’t cold enough to kill them off. So this summer we are swarming with the crazy critters. And this is the year that our unvaccinated son wants to romp around in the grass, preferably nude!

The first time I encountered a tick in Austria was weirdly at work. It was summer, I was working in the office and I looked down and there he was, just chilling on my leg. Once I got him off me I ran panicked into the next office to find out what to do. It’s ok, they all said, not at all perturbed (like this was a daily thing). Just clean the area, you’ll be fine.

So I cleaned the area… like an idiot I CLEANED MY DESK! I did not clean where it had been on my leg. I guess because I was in a panic.

Thankfully Sam is now old enough to be vaccinated so although we are very thorough when it comes to checking him after playing outside, we can relax a little more.

So maybe Australia is full of dangerous terrifying animals, and there were certainly plenty of things I tried to avoid stepping on as a kid (like bees and bindii and bull ants), but with no allergies I did not have to worry about something as crazy as paralysis!

So is Australia really more dangerous than Austria? Well, you tell me!