Ticks (and other parasitic creatures) are one of my two phobias. Nothing perturbs me more than finding a tick (or several! D: ), which gives me great reason not to go outside. Nature hikes are nice and all, but... Nooooo.
I think I had mites on my hands once when I was younger after my siblings and I went on a hike with my dad. We got home, I looked at my hands, and I flipped biscuits, screaming and hollering towards the bathroom. I don't remember what happened after I got to the sink, now that I think back to it.
Ah, childhood.
External parasites aren't that bad.
Imagine white, featureless worms, making their way into your lungs to shed their skin, then returning the way they came - meaning through your own fucking VEINS, into the intensine to screw and make more of themselves.
Imagine a sac filled with babby parasites, sitting somewhere in your body, waiting for the right - or wrong - moment to burst and release tonnes of them like some kind of a baby-boomer chestburster. And that's assuming the sac isn't lodged in your brain, in which case... well...
Those aren't completely random examples -
I've had both. And to the latter I owe a foot-long scar just under my ribcage.
Oh yeah, @ticks, Vaseline and booze is not really a good idea, guys. Unlike some people here said, when the tick vants to suck your bhlood, he generally doesn't do it on an equivalent exchange 'here, have some of my crap' basis. Even if some of it gets to your bloodstream, you still have a good chance of not getting an infection.
On the other hand, when you apply alcohol, Vaseline, butter, and whatever else people came up with, they panic and vomit. Into your bloodstream. Along with all the other blood they happened to have in themselves. That's how the infection generally transmits.