They are insidious arachnids that emerge from tall grass, wood piles and leaf litter to feed on warm-blooded creatures.
What makes ticks so creepy is once they find a host — a human, a dog, or wild animal — they crawl around until they find a place to begin sucking blood. Usually, it’s where a capillary is close to the surface of the skin.
A walk through the woods, tall grass, and weeds brushing up against low-hanging tree limbs, or string trimming around a house or outbuilding in rural areas, is all it takes to pick up a tick.
Several factors are responsible for the increase in humans coming in contact with ticks in recent decades — larger wildlife populations, especially white-tailed deer, the expanding ranges of some tick species, development of housing in rural areas, and the growing popularity of hiking, camping, and other outdoor activities during the warm weather months.
Lone Star Tick
Take a shower immediately after coming back from rough country, not only to guard against ticks but itchy chiggers. Carefully check under your arms, behind your knees and between your legs, and especially around your waist and hairline for attached ticks.
It was a late season for ticks here in Kentucky this year, since April was cold and damp. But, unseasonably warm temperatures in May and sporadic heavy rains fueled fast-growing weeds and grass, giving ticks a way to reach potential food sources. They came on with a vengeance.
Generally, tick activity peaks in June, and slows as summer’s hot weather progresses.
Ticks are external parasites most often found on mammals, but sometimes they feed on birds or hitch a ride on migratory birds to move long distances, which aids in range expansion.
Ticks fossilized in amber have provided evidence that ticks likely originated in the Cretaceous geologic period, which began about 145 million years ago.
There are three families of ticks, with the largest being Ixodidae, the hard-bodied ticks, of which there are 700 species.
Ticks thrive in warm, humid climates, and are most abundant where there is a high population density of host species, typically mice, shrews, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, white-tailed deer and several furbearers.
Deer Tick
Ticks have a two-year life cycle. They hatch from an egg, go through all three stages in their life cycle, reproduce and then die.
They require a blood meal to progress to each successive stage in their life cycle, from larva to nymph to adult. Nymphs are sometimes referred to as “seed ticks” since they are so small.
Adult hard-bodied ticks have eight legs and egg-shaped or pear-shaped bodies that become engorged with blood when they feed.
A tick feeds through mouthparts at the front of its head adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood. When feeding, ticks secrete an enzyme that thins the host’s blood and dulls the pain at the point of the bite.
Ticks don’t have a brain or eyes but use a unique sensory structure in their legs to find warm-blooded creatures by detecting the host’s breath and body odors, and by sensing body heat, moisture, and vibrations.
Ticks lie in wait in a position known as questing, clinging to leaves and grasses with their rear legs, while holding the first legs outstretched, waiting to grasp and climb on to any passing host.
Tick questing heights tend to be correlated with the size of the desired host, with nymphs close to the ground where they may encounter small mammals, whereas adult ticks climb higher into the vegetation where larger hosts may be encountered.
Removing an Attached Tick
The best way to remove an attached tick is with tweezers. Grasp the tick just behind the point of attachment and pull slowly and steadily until the tick is dislodged.
Do not jerk or twist the tick or you may break off its head, leaving mouth parts still attached. Don’t squeeze the tick’s abdomen because that will cause the tick to regurgitate its stomach contents into the wound. Wash the bite area, apply antiseptic and cover with a band-aid.
Dispose of ticks in a small glass jar, with a tight lid, filled with rubbing alcohol, or placing them inside a folded over piece of tape.
When an attached tick is removed, the site will become red and itch horribly for days.
Tick-Borne Illnesses
But a “bite” isn’t just discomforting. Ticks can transmit a number of debilitating or potentially-deadly diseases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that ticks found in the U.S. can cause 16 different diseases in humans. Here’s a link to the list of the diseases and the ticks most responsible: http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/diseases/index.html
Symptoms of tick-borne illness include a sudden fever and rash, severe headache, muscle or joint aches, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. Sometimes a red bulls-eye rash develops around the site of the tick bite.
According to information posted on the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture Entomology website, the most common ticks in Kentucky are:
* American Dog Tick, Dermacentor variabilis, can transmit Spotted Fever Rickettsiosis (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever), and Tularemia. This tick is found throughout the eastern U.S. Its other common name is Wood Tick.
* Lone Star Tick, Amblyomma americanum, can transmit Erlichiosis, Tularemia, Spotted Fever Rickettsiosis (Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick-Associated Rash Illness (STARI), and cause some people to develop an allergy for red meat.
This small, aggressive tick, named for a silvery-white spot near the center of the adult female’s shield, is found in the eastern, southeastern, and midwestern states. The primary host for adult ticks is the White-tailed Deer, and wild turkeys are a common host for immature ticks.
* Black-legged Tick, Ixodes scapularis, sometimes referred to as the Deer Tick, can transmit Anaplasmosis, Erlichiosis, and Lyme disease.
Found throughout the eastern and northern Midwestern states, this tick is one of the first to emerge in the spring.
The White-tailed Deer is the main host of adults, but in its larval or nymph stage, the tick is often found on migratory birds. The adult female Black-legged Tick is mostly black and rust colored, but when it has consumed a blood meal, its abdomen will be a light grayish-blue color.
This species of tick is the main vector of Lyme Disease in North America. In 2016 alone, the CDC reported over 30,000 new cases.
Although deer are the tick’s preferred host, they cannot transmit the spirochete that causes Lyme Diseases to the ticks that feed on them. Ticks acquire Lyme Disease by feeding on infected mice, and other small rodents.
Photo by Sam Leatherman
Treat Clothing To Repel Ticks
The best way to repel ticks, also chiggers and mosquitos, is to treat clothing, boots, and packs with the insecticide Permethrin.
Spray your clothing and gear, then hang outside to dry on a clothesline.
Permethrin should not be applied directly to the skin.
Pets Needs Protection from Ticks
Regularly check your dog for ticks.
Your veterinarian is the best source of information about the use of tick prevention treatments, which includes pills and liquids applied directly to the dog’s skin, on its back, between the shoulders.
If you protect your dog from ticks, you’re protecting your family too. This is because family pets, and hunting dogs with house privileges, can bring ticks indoors, onto carpets and bedding.
Tick Infestation a Danger to Deer Fawns
In areas of high deer densities, tick numbers can be extreme.
A photo of a newborn Missouri deer fawn, its eyes and ears are encrusted with ticks, posted on the Quality Deer Management Association website, is a reminder of the impact these parasites can have on deer.
In The Field Manual of Wildlife Diseases in the Southeastern United States, published by Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, it was reported that “heavy infestations of ticks may produce fawn mortality up to a reported estimate of 30 percent.”
Ticks are dangerous to humans, their pets, and free-ranging wildlife. Be aware of how to deal with these pests as activity heightens with warming weather.
Art Lander Jr. is outdoors editor for NKyTribune. He is a native Kentuckian, a graduate of Western Kentucky University and a life-long hunter, angler, gardener and nature enthusiast. He has worked as a newspaper columnist, magazine journalist and author and is a former staff writer for Kentucky Afield Magazine, editor of the annual Kentucky Hunting & Trapping Guide and Kentucky Spring Hunting Guide, and co-writer of the Kentucky Afield Outdoors newspaper column.
