What is a Tick?
Ticks are small, bloodsucking Arachnids, Arthropods, or part of the Spider family. Ticks life cycle (about 3 years) consists of three stages once they are born with 2-3000 other eggs. The first stage is the larva where their first blood meal is normally a white footed mouse (see below video) which is where they become infected with lyme and other diseases. That fall and winter they molt into the nymph stage and grow two more legs for a total of eight. The following spring they look for their next blood meal (from small animals and humans) and then molt into the final adult stage. After the final blood meal as an adult (normally on a deer) they will breed and then die the following summer after giving birth. Ticks are the leading carriers of disease in the United States and are second to only mosquitoes worldwide. The disease is transferred not from the bite alone, but instead from the toxins, secretions, or organisms in the saliva of the tick. Below are some examples of the different types of ticks and what each means.
Most Common North American Ticks
Deer Tick
Deer Ticks are also known as black-legged ticks. These ticks are often mistaken for brown dog ticks. Named for their propensity to feed on white-tailed deer, these ticks may also feed on other large mammals as hosts, including humans. Humans, considered accidental hosts of deer ticks, may contract Lyme disease from bites. Livestock and domestic animals can also be hosts. They are primarily found in the eastern half of the U.S.
Lone Star Tick
Lone star ticks, Amblyomma americanum, are one of the more easily recognized ticks since the female adult has an easily noticed white dot on the center of her back. Males of the species have white lines or streaks around the edges of the top of their body, but these markings are not as noticeable as the markings on the female. Often, lone star ticks are mistaken for blacklegged ticks, one of two tick vectors of Lyme disease. However, lone star ticks are not known to transmit Lyme disease.
American Dog Tick
The American dog tick or wood tick is a rather colorful tick and is commonly found in highly wooded, shrubby, and long grass areas. It is also one of the most well known ticks covering more than half of the United States. Thankfully it is not known to carry the Borrelia agent that causes Lyme disease.
How deer ticks become infected with Lyme disease
Best way to remove a Tick!
If you get bit- What next?
If this tick bite has transmitted Lyme disease, the redness may expand over the next few days or weeks and form a round or oval red rash. It may resemble the classic bull’s eye, with a red ring surrounding a clear area and a red center. This rash, called erythema migrans, is a hallmark of Lyme disease but it only appears in maybe 50% of infected people. Now the million dollar question is… What do you do next? Test the tick or Test yourself or both? That depends, if you have the bullseye or if you experience flu like symptoms, achey joints, and just not normal you should see a “Lyme Literate Dr” or a Dr who is very familiar with lyme so you can get started on antibiotics right away. Quick treatment is the most important thing before weeks and months pass by and the lyme has had a chance to really get in your system. If just bitten save the tick and you can have it tested (see below tick testing labs) to see if it has lyme or any other tick-borne diseases.
TickCheck.com is a university-affiliated lab based in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania that is dedicated to providing fast, highly rated, laboratory-quality tick testing to people in high-risk areas for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases nationwide.
We offer PCR-based tick testing that is 99.9% accurate and can detect the presence of 18 pathogens that cause diseases such as Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesia, bartonella, ehrlichiosis, tularemia, B. miyamotoi, mycoplasmosis, southern tick-associated rash illness, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
Unlike traditional laboratories’ complicated test requisition forms, TickCheck.com has a simple, easy to use interface for ordering tick tests. Just order your tests, mail your tick to our East Stroudsburg laboratory, and your results will be ready within 24-48 hours of lab receipt – guaranteed. Got a tick? Get started now!
For over 25 years, IGeneX has been the global leader in the research and development of tests that accurately detect Lyme disease, Relapsing Fever, and other tick-borne diseases. Tick-borne illnesses can affect every part of your life, and without effective diagnosis and treatment, symptoms can often worsen and progress into severe and even life-threatening health issues. And when you can’t find the cause or a way to get better, your quality of life suffers. At IGeneX, we make it our singular mission to offer best-in-class testing for tick-borne diseases that delivers the most comprehensive and accurate results possible, so you can find the right treatment path to restore your health and get back to enjoying your life. Starting now.
Our Mission is to provide to a professional tick testing service to public individuals and agencies seeking more information about the risk of dangerous pathogens.
We’ve developed a battery of tests through years of research on disease-causing microbes in ticks. Since 2006, we’ve offered this expertise as service to the general public and health agency partners. Since that time, we’ve endeavored to keep costs of this testing to a minimum to allow us to serve the greatest number of subscribers. As the popularity of the service grew, the amount of data collected also grew and we now share that data as part of Tick-Borne Disease Network passive surveillance that we hope will continue to grow and provide unprecedented insights to who is being bitten by ticks, when they get bitten, and what pathogens those ticks are carrying. We welcome feedback on our web page (www.tickdiseases.org) and encourage everyone to SAVE THE TICKS!
Phone: 413-545-1057
The best way to avoid Lyme Disease is to avoid ticks. The best way to avoid ticks starts with great prevention. The best prevention starts with the best repellent known as Permethrin. The best Permethrin is Duration. Why is Duration the best?
- Kills and Repels ticks, chiggers, mites and mosquitoes…
- Helps protect against Lyme and other tick borne diseases, also Yellow Fever Mosquito, which could transmit the Zika Virus etc.
- Duration 10% is the only Permethrin clothing grade concentrate registered by the EPA and is the most economical clothing repellant on the market.
- One 8 oz container of Duration 10% (as shone here can make one gallon 128 oz) can treat many sets of clothes depending on how long protection is needed. One set of clothes is 1 shirt, 1 pair of pants, and 1 pair of socks.
- Protection can last from 3-24 weeks or 3-24 washings; will not stain or damage clothing, fabrics, plastics, or outdoor gear.
- Odorless after drying; ideal for hunting.
- Duration is a must for anyone who goes outdoors !
If you were in a tick area and did Not treat your Clothes with Permethrin-Read Below!
Tick-Killing Tip: Dry Then Wash, Brief Dryer Spin Could Do It.
It sounds so odd, like being told, “Put on your shoes, and then your socks.” But indeed, one useful tip for killing the ticks that carry Lyme disease is to put the clothes you were wearing outside into the dryer for a few minutes before you wash them — the better to kill the ticks, you see.
He confirmed that a fairly quick spin in the dryer can kill nymphal deer ticks that carry Lyme disease, as the TickEncounter Resource Center has been recommending:
TickSmart™ Tip #1: DRY CLOTHES FIRST – THEN WASH
Most ticks are VERY sensitive to dryness. The very first action to take after working in the yard is to strip clothing off and throw it in the dryer. Deer ticks are most susceptible, while American dog ticks, Lone Star ticks and other Amblyomma species are more robust. To be sure that each species achieves fatal crispiness, leave clothes in the dryer on high for 15 minutes.
In our study, gas dryers got hotter than electric dryers, so you might want to add 5 minutes if you own an electric dryer. Believe it or not, ticks were not killed by washing, even in hot water. Clothing just left in the hamper or on the floor may put the next person to touch it at risk. Dry first – then wash.
Excerpts from April 1, 2013 | 1:52 PM | Carey Goldberg 90.9 wbur’s FILED UNDER: Medicine/Science, Personal Health, lyme disease
Facts and Myths About Ticks
The tick population is alarmingly flourishing. The existence of these unpleasant creatures has resulted to different facts about ticks. Along with the truthful information are some known myths about ticks, too. Meaning, it is not only the number of ticks that is growing but as well as what people think, believe and know about them. The reason could be pointed to the fact that ticks have existed for the longest time that the facts, having been passed from one generation to the next, have been given different versions.
It was said that in their earlier existence, various ticks were not known to be carriers of so much virus and infections. Today, however, with new tick species existing, new kinds of tick-borne diseases have been introduced. Still, it does not follow that all ticks are disease carriers.
Some Popular Facts about Ticks
- Summer is tick prime time; a season when new batch of ticks seek their first blood feast as May and June are the months when a great number of ticks are born.
- There are in excess of 800 tick species worldwide. Each type feeds on blood of humans or animals.
- Multiple diseases may be transmitted by a single tick bite but is not always the case. Serious infections could result the longer a tick remains attached to its host.
- Diseases are not innate to ticks; they are acquired from different sources and passed along.
- There are two tick types namely: Ixodidae (hard ticks) which has a hard back cover, and Argasidae (soft ticks). Facts about ticks also reveal that the potent saliva of the hard tick has an anesthetic effect, allowing it to bite without its host noticing. It also has the ability to keep the blood from clotting so it can feed ceaselessly.
- Ticks have 8 legs and 2 body parts, making them part of the arachnid family not insects, contrary to what most people believe.
The Truth on Myths about Ticks
- Most people believe that ticks can’t survive below freezing temperatures but some species like deer ticks actually start their feeding season at this time. Only an extensive below 10 °F temperature can possibly kill ticks.
- A tick bite would surely lead to sickness is another myth most people mistake to be a fact. While there are microorganisms that can be transmitted by ticks to their hosts, they have to be attached for over 24 hours to do that. The germs come from deep down in their stomach which travels up to their saliva before they can be passed along during a bite; a process that take some time where ticks are concerned.
- Another myth about ticks that people have believed for some time is that one will be able to feel if a tick is biting and therefore can immediately detach it. As mentioned above, because tick saliva can make a bite painless, you will not feel it nibbling on your skin, hence, it can remain attached for some time and cause health-related troubles.
- The old folks say that to remove a tick, you can use alcohol, perfume, Vaseline or even draw a lit match stick towards the attached tick. These steps have no solid basis and could even be dangerous. Even showering under a spray of hot water will not remove ticks. A pair of tweezers will do a better job by grabbing the tick on its head, as close to the host’s skin as you can then pull gently. See that you disinfect your hands and the skin part where the tick came off.
- You must have heard this myth about ticks that they can grow their body back should the head stay intact after trying to kill one. There is no truth to that just as it is false that digging the head out that stay buried in the skin after an attempt to disengage it can prevent Lyme disease. On the other hand, detaching a tick within 24 hours reduces the chances of acquiring tick-borne infections.
Ticks are annoying creatures but we have to learn how to deal with them if we want to avoid the dangers they can bring about. Skilled at patiently hunting for their blood supply, they can locate their victim using their senses. They lurk somewhere concealed and while they cannot fly or jump, they easily find a way to get to their hosts whether person or animal.
If you find yourself confused on what the real facts about ticks are and you know you have been exposed to these pesky critters, your doctor can give you the best advice and proper treatments. Armed with knowledge and how you can take care of yourself against ticks will certainly let you enjoy a tick-borne-disease-free life.
Info by Tickbites.net