Although biting insects are annoying, most cause no harm to humans or animals. The exceptions are the blood-feeding pests that can vector many etiological pathogens, such as mosquitoes and ticks. In the U.S., the Black Legged tick, also known as the deer tick, can spread the Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi. The related species in Europe is the Castor Bean Tick (sheep tick) and the Taiga tick in Asia. Dog ticks, Lone star ticks, and other types of ticks aren’t able to transmit Lyme disease.
Scientists predict the warming climate will cause an increase in reported cases of tick-borne illnesses in many regions. This is mostly caused by the population explosion of the white-footed mice population, which carry Lyme disease.
Here we discuss what you need to know about the Lyme disease tick and best practices to avoid bites.
Lyme disease does not occur everywhere. In the United States, it is concentrated heavily in the Northeast (Virginia to Maine), the upper Midwest (Wisconsin and Minnesota), and coastal Northern California. When in these areas, be sure to take extra precautions. Generally, you can find deer ticks where the animals they feed on live. This usually includes areas near water, shady areas, and overgrown grassy areas because ticks need high humidity to survive. Ticks may be more common in these areas –
Knowing how to identify a biting tick is important to determine if further action is required. Female ticks readily attack and feed on blood and difficult to identify
Blacklegged ticks have reddish-orange hind bodies with black dorsal markings. It is easier to see these features when the female is unfed. As female ticks feed over the course of several days, their bodies slowly enlarge with blood and will appear gray when engorged. Adult female ticks can feed for several days up to a month. Once it engorges by sucking in as much blood as it can, it’ll drop off.
Male ticks do not transmit Lyme disease, human anaplasmosis, or babesiosis because they do not feed on blood. Males may climb on you, but will not bite.
Ticks change hosts during their life stages (larva, nymph, and adult), which is why they are a vector for disease.
Larval or seed ticks emerge from eggs in May – September to take their first blood meal. They are tiny, about the size of a period at the end of a sentence. Because they are so small, they may show up as a speck of dirt on your skin, and you may not notice them at all. This is okay because seed ticks initially do not carry diseases, such as Lyme disease or babesiosis. It can ingest diseases during its first meal only if the host animal is infected with a disease-causing pathogen. If the seed tick gets infected, it can transmit the disease after the next feeding (the following spring).
Seed ticks typically attach to small animals, such as mice and chipmunks. Once fully engorged on the blood meal, it will drop off the animal host and disperse to nearby plants, where it will become dormant through the winter and emerge into a nymph the following spring.
Nymph ticks emerge from May-July of the second year to take their second blood meal. These are the ones you need to be careful with! They are now the size of a poppy seed on your skin. You won’t realize you’ve been bitten because they are small and their bite painless.
Nymphal ticks cause most cases of Lyme disease. About 25 to 30 percent of U.S. nymphal deer ticks carry the Lyme disease bacterium. If the tick is carrying disease agents from its first feeding in the larval stage, it can transmit them during this second feeding. If the nymph was not already infected, it could become infected from the blood meal of the second animal host.
The nymph-stage deer tick attaches to larger animals such as squirrels, rabbits, dogs, cats, and humans.
Adult ticks molt from nymphs in the fall of the second year to take their third blood meal. They are now the size of a small sesame seed and much easier to see. Adult females infected with disease agents as larvae or nymphs may transmit the disease during this feeding.
The adult ticks feed and mate on large animals, such as deer in the fall or early spring. The female lays her eggs, then dies.
Ticks can’t jump, fly, or drop from trees. Instead, they perch on the tips of grasses and shrubs in a position referred as “questing” with their upper legs outstretched to quickly grasp onto a host. Adult ticks can perch on plants for months waiting for prey to brush up against it. Once the tick climbs aboard an animal or human, it will crawl around to find a suitable spot to dig in and feast.
Blacklegged ticks are most active from April – October. Like all biting insects, ticks find you because you exhale carbon dioxide (CO2), not body heat or odor.
To minimize your chances of a tick attaching –
Lyme disease most often presents a characteristic “bull’s eye” rash at the location of the tick bite, with flu-like symptoms and joint pain, most often the knee. The signs of infection usually occur 7 to 30 days after the appearance of the rash. These symptoms do not occur in all people, however. Lyme disease is a multi-system disease and can impair brain functioning. If you are bitten by a tick in an area with a high rate of Lyme disease, you should contact your doctor.
Additional Info
These 14 states contained 95% of confirmed Lyme disease cases
What the CDC says about ticks.
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Hello,
I hope that you are fine.
I WOULD like to ask for permission to use the first image of Ixodes scapularis
in a paper that I am writing.
Hello,
I would like to ask for permission to use this image of tick in a paper that
I am writing. Thanks for your reply.
Regards,
Tania