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Summary
What are ticks?
Ticks are small parasites. They may look like insects, but they have eight legs and are related to spiders. Ticks feed on the blood of people and warm-blooded animals. There are many types of ticks in the United States, and they live in different parts of the country.
Ticks can be different colors and sizes. They can be light-colored, reddish brown, or dark brown. Some ticks are so small that they can be difficult to see. Ticks may get on you if you walk though areas where they live, such as tall grass, leaf litter or shrubs.
Why do I need to be worried about tick bites?
If you spend time outdoors or have pets that go outdoors, you need to beware of ticks. When they bite, certain types of ticks can pass on germs that cause different diseases. Sometimes the symptoms can be mild. In other cases, you can have serious, long-lasting health problems. Some of the diseases you can get from a tick bite (called tickborne diseases) include:
- Lyme disease
- Alpha-gal syndrome (tick bite red meat allergy)
- Babesiosis
- Ehrlichiosis
- Rocky Mountain spotted fever
- Tularemia
What happens if I get bitten by a tick?
You may not feel it when a tick bites you. The tick can stay attached to your body for several days. If that tick is infected, it can pass along any germs to you once it starts sucking your blood. But if you catch it and remove it before it has filled up on your blood, you are less likely to get infected.
How do I remove a tick?
If you find a tick attached to your skin, remove the tick as soon as you can. You could use a tick removal device or a fine-tipped tweezers:
- Using the tweezers, grab the tick as close to your skin as possible.
- Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don't twist or jerk the tick. You want to remove the whole tick in one piece if you can. If the mouth-parts of the tick break off and stay in the skin, try to remove them. But if you can't remove them easily, then leave them.
- Thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.
When do I need to contact my health care provider about a tick bite?
Many tickborne diseases can have similar signs and symptoms. The most common are:
If you develop any of these symptoms within several weeks of removing a tick, contact your provider.
How can I prevent tick bites?
There are steps you can take to prevent tick bites:
- Avoid wooded, brushy, and grassy areas, especially during warmer months.
- Wear insect repellent with DEET, picaridin or another U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellent.
- Wear light-colored protective clothing.
- Treat your clothing and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin.
- Tuck your pant legs into your socks and your shirt into your pants.
- Remove your clothing after being outdoors. Check your clothing for ticks and remove any ticks that you find. Wash and dry your clothes at high temperatures.
- Check yourself, your children, and your pets daily for ticks and carefully remove any ticks you find.
Symptoms
- Symptoms of Tickborne Illness (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Prevention and Risk Factors
- Avoiding Ticks (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Find the Repellent that is Right for You (Environmental Protection Agency)
- Stop Ticks to Avoid Lyme and Other Tickborne Diseases (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
Treatments and Therapies
- Tick Bites, First Aid (VisualDX)
- Tick Removal (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Related Issues
- Alpha-gal Syndrome (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- It's Open Season on Ticks (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) - PDF
- Preventing Ticks on Your Pets (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
- Regions where Ticks Live (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Tick-Borne Diseases (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health)
Specifics
- About Powassan Virus Disease (Minnesota Department of Health)
- Babesiosis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
- Heartland Virus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Q Fever (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
-
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
(National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
- Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness (STARI) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Tick-Borne Encephalitis (TBE) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
Statistics and Research
- Anaplasmosis: Epidemiology and Statistics (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Ehrlichiosis: Epidemiology and Statistics (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Illnesses on the Rise from Mosquito, Tick, and Flea Bites (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Q Fever: Epidemiology and Statistics (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF): Epidemiology and Statistics (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
-
Taking the Bite Out of Vector-Borne Diseases
(National Institute of General Medical Sciences)
Clinical Trials
-
ClinicalTrials.gov: Tick Bites
(National Institutes of Health)
-
ClinicalTrials.gov: Tick-Borne Diseases
(National Institutes of Health)
Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
- Article: Knowledge, protection behaviours and seroprevalence of Lyme borreliosis in inhabitants of...
- Article: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on delays in diagnosis and treatment...
- Article: Comparison of acarological risk metrics derived from active and passive surveillance...
- Tick Bites -- see more articles
Children
- First Aid: Tick Bites (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation)
- Hey! A Tick Bit Me! (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
- Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
- Tick Removal: A Step-by-Step Guide (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
Patient Handouts
- Colorado tick fever (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Ehrlichiosis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Rocky Mountain spotted fever (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Tick bite (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Tick paralysis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Tick removal (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Tularemia (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish