Different types of ticks can pass on infections like Lyme disease and more. Learn what to watch out for and how to prevent tick bites.
Don’t let their small size and inconspicuous nature fool you: Ticks can give you or your pet harmful infectious diseases, including Lyme disease. And ticks that carry disease appear to be growing in number and covering a wider geographical area as our climate changes, notes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Ticks of concern in the United States include deer, brown dog, American dog, lone star, Rocky Mountain wood, Gulf Coast, and western black-legged ticks, according to the CDC. Not only can these blood-sucking bugs cause Lyme disease but they’re also responsible for infections like Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and ehrlichiosis.
The best way to avoid Lyme disease and other infections is to prevent tick bites. On your skin, use insect repellent containing DEET or other ingredients registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (which offers this search tool to help you find what you need). Treat clothes and gear with products containing 0.5 percent permethrin. Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants, and choose light-colored clothing so you can spot ticks right away. If you’re walking on a trail, stay in the center so that you’re not touching plants or the tips of branches where ticks hide. After being outdoors, carefully inspect your own skin and that of your pets for ticks or tick bites.
If you’ve been bitten by a tick and it’s embedded in your skin, the best way to remove it is with fine-tip tweezers. Get the tweezers as close as possible to your skin, pull the tick steadily upward to remove its body (including its mouth parts), and wash the bite and your hands well. Even if you don’t see a tick, call your doctor if you develop a rash, fever, chills, or headache after you’ve been in an area that could have ticks.
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Deer Ticks and Lyme Disease
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Also called black-legged ticks, deer ticks are common in woods and grassy areas across the eastern United States. Reddish-brown adults like the one shown here are only one-eighth of an inch long. Tiny immature ticks that are about the size of a poppy seed also bite.
Deer ticks infected with the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi can cause Lyme disease in people, dogs, and cats. You might not even notice the tick or its bite. But if you do, remove the tick within 48 hours to limit your chances of getting Lyme disease. For some people who have Lyme disease, the first symptom is often a rash that may look like a bull’s-eye, such as the one shown above at the site of a tick bite. The rash may appear within one or two weeks — but not everyone gets or notices the rash, in part because it doesn’t itch. Other signs include flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, headaches, aches, and swollen lymph nodes.
If you have any of these symptoms and think you may have been bitten by a tick, see your doctor for diagnosis and treatment, as Lyme disease can often be cured. If untreated, long-term infection can cause headaches, stiffness, arthritis, and an irregular heartbeat.
Black-legged ticks can transmit the bacteria that cause anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis. Early signs of infection include fever, headache, muscle aches, and nausea or vomiting. Babesiosis and the Powassan virus can also result from a black-legged tick bite.
Brown Dog Ticks and Pet Diseases
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This type of dog tick is found nearly everywhere in the United States. It likes dogs of every variety but rarely bites people. Adult brown dog ticks are about the size and color of the deer tick. The bites of brown dog ticks can be extremely dangerous to your pet: They can cause diseases like canine ehrlichiosis and bartonellosis (bacterial infections), and babesiosis (a parasite infection of the blood). Symptoms of a tick-borne disease in your dog may include fever, depression, weight loss, and lameness, according to the American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation. Talk to your vet about the warning signs of tick-borne infections.
Brown dog ticks can live in your house and in your dog’s kennel. If your dog has been outside in a kennel or the backyard, check often and thoroughly for ticks. Brown dog ticks hide, so make sure to look under rugs, behind draperies, under radiators, and in cracks if you think you have an infestation. The best way to get rid of them is to hire an exterminator. Remove them in the same way you would from a person: Use fine-tipped tweezers and grab the tick as close to its mouth as you can. Be sure to dispose of the tick, and wash the bite and your hands well.
American Dog Ticks and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
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Also called the wood tick, the American dog tick feeds on people, dogs, and other animals spreading infectious disease. This tick seeks out different hosts as it grows: mice and other rodents in its early stages, and people and pets in its adulthood. The full-grown ticks are reddish brown and about a half-inch long. According to the CDC, the American dog tick’s geographical range extends east of the Rocky Mountains and along parts of the Pacific coast.
The bite of this tick can lead to Rocky Mountain spotted fever, caused by the bacteria Rickettsia rickettsii, in both people and pets. These ticks also spread the bacterial disease tularemia and can cause tick paralysis (loss of muscle function, which is thought to be caused by tick saliva). If you’re bitten, you may see redness around the bite. Rocky Mountain spotted fever symptoms include fever, headache, body aches, swelling around the eyes or the backs of the hands, and nausea and vomiting that come on within 3 to 12 days of the bite. Two or three days after the fever begins, look for a spotty rash that starts on your ankles and wrists and spreads from there (though 10 percent of patients never develop a rash). Rocky Mountain spotted fever can be fatal if treatment is delayed, according to the CDC, but timely treatment with the antibiotic doxycycline is usually effective. Be sure to see your doctor early if you have been exposed to ticks and have any of these symptoms.
Lone Star Ticks and Tularemia
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Found from west-central and east-central Texas up to the coast of Maine, lone star ticks are brown or tan, and about one-third of an inch long. Females have a distinctive white spot on their backs, while males have scattered spots or lines outlining their bodies. They can bite at any stage of their three-year life cycle.
Lone star ticks can spread ehrlichiosis and tularemia, notes the CDC. Tularemia symptoms include skin rash or ulcer, a high fever, and swollen lymph nodes. The infection can be treated with antibiotics, but if left untreated, it can be fatal. Lone star tick bites can also cause southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI), which shares some Lyme disease symptoms. Signs of STARI include a bull’s-eye rash at the bite site, which often appears within a few days of the bite and can expand to three inches across. Though STARI symptoms include body aches, fever, and fatigue just as Lyme disease does, STARI doesn’t carry the long-term effects of Lyme.
Lone star ticks have also transmitted the rare Heartland virus, first identified in 2009 in two men in Missouri. Since then, infections have also occurred in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Tennessee, Indiana, Georgia, and South Carolina, according to a study published in April 2022 in Emerging Infectious Diseases. As of January 2021, more than 50 people have been diagnosed with the virus in the Midwest and southern United States, according to the CDC. Infection causes fever, headaches, and low platelet and white blood cell counts. There is no treatment.
Allergic reactions to consuming red meat have been reported in people bitten by lone star ticks, notes the CDC.
Rocky Mountain Wood Ticks and Colorado Tick Fever
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The mocha-colored Rocky Mountain wood tick lives in the northwestern United States and in Canada. Young Rocky Mountain wood ticks bite small rodents; adult ticks are more likely to latch on to deer, dogs, livestock, and people.
The Rocky Mountain wood tick’s bite can transmit diseases, including a virus that causes Colorado tick fever, as well as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tick paralysis, and tularemia. Colorado tick fever symptoms resemble the flu: They leave you tired, achy, and with chills, according to the CDC. The illness is usually short-lived, but there is no treatment.
Gulf Coast Ticks and Spotted Fever
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The pecan-colored Gulf Coast tick lives along the coast in the southern and mid-Atlantic United States and as far inland as Oklahoma and Texas. The Gulf Coast tick can transmit the bacteria Rickettsia parkeri, which causes a spotted fever that’s a milder type of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Signs of this infection may appear anywhere from 2 to 10 days after the bite. The bite itself might look like a pimple and could be followed by a headache, an overall rash, and fever. Treatment to clear up the infection with antibiotics is usually effective.
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By Christine Bahls Medically Reviewed by
Jane Yoon Scott, MDReviewed: August 5, 2022
Photo by Kamaji Ogino:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/friends-checking-acari-during-hike-in-forest-5064632/
