However, pets can bring infected ticks into your home or yard. Consider protecting your pet, and possibly yourself, through the use of tick control products for animals. You will not get Lyme disease from eating venison or squirrel meat, but in keeping with general food safety principles, always cook meat thoroughly.
Note that hunting and dressing deer or squirrels may bring you into close contact with infected ticks. There is no credible evidence that Lyme disease can be transmitted through air, food, water, or from the bites of mosquitoes, flies, fleas, or lice. Ticks not known to transmit Lyme disease include Lone star ticks Amblyomma americanum , the American dog tick Dermacentor variabilis , the Rocky Mountain wood tick Dermacentor andersoni , and the brown dog tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus.
How ticks find their hosts. How ticks attach to their hosts. The tick feeding process makes ticks very good at transmitting infection: Depending on the tick species and its stage of life, preparing to feed can take from 10 minutes to 2 hours. When the tick finds a feeding spot, it grasps the skin and cuts into the surface. The tick then inserts its feeding tube. Many species also secrete a cement-like substance that keeps them firmly attached during the meal.
The feeding tube can have barbs, which help keep the tick in place. If the tick is in a sheltered spot, it can go unnoticed. A blacklegged tick will attach to its host and suck the blood slowly for several days. If the host animal has certain bloodborne infections, such as the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, the tick may ingest the pathogen and become infected.
If the tick later feeds on a human, that human can become infected. After feeding, the blacklegged tick drops off and prepares for the next life stage. At its next feeding, it can then transmit the infection to the new host.
Once infected, a tick can transmit infection throughout its life. If you remove a tick quickly within 24 hours , you can greatly reduce your chances of getting Lyme disease. It takes some time for the Lyme disease-causing bacteria to move from the tick to the host. Learn more. Lyme disease is an infection caused by the spiral-shaped bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi , which is most commonly transmitted by a tick bite. The symptoms of Lyme disease depend on the how long the infection has been present in the body.
The first sign of Lyme disease is often an expanding round or oval red "bullseye" rash. If left untreated, people may develop neurological symptoms and heart problems, and have an approximately 60 percent chance of developing Lyme arthritis.
Lyme disease is an infection caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. This spiral shaped bacterium is most commonly spread by a tick bite. The disease takes its name from Lyme, Connecticut. This is where the illness was first identified in the United States in Although Lyme disease is a year-round problem, April through October is considered tick season.
Cases of Lyme disease have been reported in nearly all states in the U. Lyme disease is caused by bacteria that is spread to humans by tick bites. The ticks that carry the spirochete are:. Ticks prefer to live in wooded areas, low-growing grasslands, and yards. Not all ticks carry the Lyme disease bacteria. While most tick bites are harmless, several species can cause life-threatening diseases. Tick-borne diseases include:. Working or spending time outdoors in areas where the black-legged deer tick or Western black-legged deer tick is found.
A black-legged tick AKA deer tick , the kind that sometimes carries Lyme disease, was spotted just to the east of us in Vermilion earlier this summer. And Ohio is on the list of 24 states that contains counties with newly documented populations of deer ticks.
Tick bites are common. Some people are unaware of a tick bite at first. Be sure to check yourself and your children often, especially throughout the summer months when tick populations grow. Ticks are especially attracted to warm, moist areas of the skin like armpits, groins, or hair. Once they bite you, a tick may stick around drawing your blood for up to 10 days.
The sooner you spot and remove a tick, the better. The chance of catching Lyme disease from an individual tick ranges from roughly zero to 50 percent. Risk of contracting Lyme disease from a tick bite depends on three factors: the tick species, where the tick came from, and how long it was biting you. Where we live makes a difference in these odds, too. We live in the upper Midwest, and unfortunately for us, a recent study found that up to 50 percent of blacklegged ticks are infected with Lyme disease.
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