With summertime comes a chance to relax-kids are out of school, many people can take vacation time to get away from work stress, and the warmer weather puts a smile on most people's faces. But some worries rise in the summer-one of these is the possibility of insect bites, especially worrisome are insects like ticks that can transmit disease. In the United States, the chief culprits are ticks-in particular, the deer tick (also called the black-legged tick), which can carry and transmit Lyme disease. Here, Harvard Women's Health Watch tells you how to spot Lyme disease, and how to avoid tick bites in the first place.
Tick checks are a nightly activity in our household this time of year, especially after we spend a long summer day outside, at the beach, or hiking in the New England area where we live.
Ticks and disease
Most tick bites won't give you Lyme disease (or other tick-borne illnesses), but some can, and there is no vaccine to protect you from Lyme disease (or many other tick-borne diseases).
Tick-borne diseases occur throughout the United States, chiefly in late spring and summer, when ticks are most active and most likely to come in contact with humans. Symptoms vary but usually include fever, chills, muscle aches and pains, headache, and sometimes nausea or a rash. Lyme disease symptoms may start as an expanding area of redness surrounding the tick bite.
Most tick-borne illness is caused by bacteria, so it can be treated with antibiotics. But it's important to diagnose the problem early, to avoid complications. For example, a delay in diagnosing Lyme disease can result in heart symptoms, nerve problems, and arthritis. Luckily, most people develop the red rash, the telltale early sign, although you can miss it if it appears on the scalp or another hard-to-see area. Some cases of the red rash clears centrally to form a "bull's eye," which is regarded as a diagnostic sign of Lyme disease and a reason to start antibiotic therapy. In reality, though, the most common skin reaction is a patch of redness, without a bull's eye.
How to protect yourself
If you may have been exposed to ticks and you develop flulike symptoms or a rash, see your clinician-even if the symptoms go away on their own. Tick-borne infection usually causes no lasting harm if it's recognized and treated early. Of course, it's better to avoid getting infected in the first place. To that end, here are some measures you can take:
Keep ticks away. Whenever possible, avoid tick habitats-wooded, bushy, or grassy areas, including those near beaches and sand dunes. If you'll be outdoors in tick-infested areas, wear light-colored clothing (to make ticks easier to spot) with long sleeves and long pants tucked into your socks (to keep ticks away from your skin). Use a DEET-containing insect repellent on exposed skin (but not under clothes). Don't spray the DEET directly on your face; spray it into your hands and then apply it to the face. Consult a pediatrician before using it on young children. Wash your hands afterward to avoid getting it into your eyes and mouth. Use permethrin-containing products on clothing, footwear, and camping gear (including cots, nets, and tents). Spray items for 30 to 45 seconds and allow them to dry for two to four hours before wearing or using them. Permethrin should not be applied to the skin.
Do a tick drag. This is a way to find out whether there are ticks in your yard. Attach a square yard of white flannel to a 3-foot stick and tie a rope to each end of the stick. Drag the cloth over the lawn and leaves, and examine it for ticks that have latched on. Do this several times. To check bushy or grassy vegetation, use a tick "flag," which is similar to the drag but mounted like a flag on a stick. (This tip comes from the Tick Management Handbook, available from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Web site, www.ct.gov/CAES.) Reduce the number of ticks in your yard by clearing leaf litter, low brush, and tall grasses. You may also want to contact a pest-control professional about chemical options and wildlife control.
Check yourself. If you're in an area inhabited by ticks, check yourself once a day. (Check children and pets in your care, too.) To remove ticks from clothing, you can use an adhesive lint brush or masking or cellophane tape rolled around your hand, sticky side out. Undress and examine your skin, using a mirror (or mirrors) for hard-to-see places, such as the back of the knees, armpits, back of the neck, and scalp. If you find a tick attached to your skin, remove it as soon as possible. (See "How to remove a tick.") Note the date, and save the tick for a month for reference or testing in case you develop symptoms.
How to remove a tick
A tick feeds by way of a two-pronged mouthpart (hypostome) held in place with salivary cement and secured with tiny backward-pointing barbs. To remove the tick, use narrow-tipped tweezers and grasp it as close to the skin as possible; then pull upward slowly and steadily. If the mouthpart remains in the skin, try to remove it. If you can't, check with your clinician. Wash your skin and hands with soap and warm water. Never crush or squeeze an attached tick, don't try to burn it with a lighted match, and don't apply any substance like petroleum jelly, fingernail polish, alcohol, or pesticides. If you do, the tick may regurgitate its stomach contents into your skin, increasing the chance of infection.
Have you had any experiences with ticks? Do you have questions on how to remove them?
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Comments: 5
My son found a tick on his head a couple of weeks ago, two days after he had been hiking in Amherst. The tick was still alive and he put it in a jar. He then researched the type of tick and found it was a dog tick. He was glad about that, but did research symptoms. When he returned to Amherst a couple of days later, he did go to the clinic and get checked out. He is fine.
I have never had a tick on the East Coast, but having grown up out West, the ticks out there can carry Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which my late scientist father had done a lot of research on.
My mother found a tick feeding on her tummy and my father tried to cut it out with a knife, but due to my mother's loud complaints, he resorted to the less violent method of burning it off with a match. We were tent camping. It had been a female who had grown to the size of a pinky finger fingernail.
My mother was fine. i am used to doing thorough tick checks everytime we are out in the woods.
A friend of ours has lyme disease. He has had it for years and it went undiagnosed. Checking for ticks is important for anyone that ventures outdoors into wooded or grassy areas. Thank you for posting this information Kathryn.
Pulling the ticks out with a tweezers actually works well. Don't worry if there is still some tick left (gross, I know) - it's still dead! If a lyme tick is on you for more than 72 hours, you do risk exposure to Lyme Disease. You should talk to your doctor about possibly taking a preventive medicine (doxycycline) for this. If it's on for less than 72 hours, you're at much less risk.
I'm glad I came across this discussion. My sister in law just came down with Lyme disease. I saw the tell tale bulls eye and redness she has on her arm. She's being treated with antibiotics. My brother tells me she's not feeling too well. As for removing these creepy crawlers from what I've been told there's another way you can do it without tweezers. Use Dawn diswashing liquid. Put it on a cotton ball and apply to the tick. The tick is suppose to release it's hold and then you'll have it in the cotton ball to throw away. I've never tried this myself but I've read about it in a woman's magazine and several of the dog related lists that I belong to also recommended this treatment. I hate these nasty little things. Just to think that something so tiny can cause so much pain!