Bitten by a Tick? How to Know: Ticks seem to be everywhere these days, and Lyme disease is found in every state except Hawaii.
(1) And for good reason, you’re probably hearing more and more about insects and the bite-related infections they spread.
In 2021, an estimated 476,000 Americans will be diagnosed with Lyme disease, and the number of Lyme disease cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has more than quadruple since 1990. In tick populations and bite-related infections, ticks are expanding their geographic range.
Despite the prevalence of ticks and their exposure in the news, many people are still in the dark about tick-borne diseases. The CDC reports that a national survey found that 20 percent of people living in an area where Lyme disease is common were unaware of the risks. And these risks are substantial. “Sometimes 20 to 40 percent of blacklegged ticks carry Lyme,” says Richard Ostfeld, Ph.D., a disease ecologist at the Carey Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York.
The best ways to avoid ticks, how to identify their bites, and what to do about it if a bite is detect.
What bit me? Identify these 12 bug bites.
Ticks don’t fly or jump, but they can climb on you if you get close enough.
Ticks are not flyers or jumpers.
(2) They’re creeps—and poor ones at that, says Dr. Ostfeld. “They don’t move very fast at all,” he says.
To get on your body, ticks like to climb low plants, trees, logs, or other objects close to the ground. From there, they grasp the object with their hind legs while reaching with their front legs in an act researchers call “coasting.”
Ostfeld says that when you brush past, the searching tick grabs onto your shoe or pants or skin and then makes its way upward until it burrows its mouthparts into your flesh. Don’t find a safe, inconspicuous place to sink. “They like places where the skin is soft and where they can hide undetected,” he adds, citing the back of the knees, armpits, back of the neck and back as favorite spots.
Once attached to your skin, a tick will stay there for several days, dragging itself through your bloodstream before slowly releasing itself. Ticks must feed on a host at each stage of their life to survive.
How do I know if I’ve been bitten by a tick?
Tick bites can be difficult to detect. Unlike mosquito and other insect bites, tick bites do not cause itching or immediate skin irritation.
“Every blood-sucking arthropod and insect injects saliva into a wound,” explains Jonathan Day, Ph.D., professor emeritus of medical entomology at the University of Florida. Dr. Day explains that in the case of mosquitoes and some other biting insects, the saliva contains proteins that prevent the bite wound from clotting, which slows blood flow and therefore interrupts feeding. Is.
In addition to preventing your blood from clotting, these proteins also stimulate a response from your immune system. This reaction causes redness, swelling, itching and all the other unpleasant skin irritations that come with bug bites, Day explains.
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But tick bites are different. Ostfeld explains, “Ticks suppress this response with immunosuppressants in their saliva.
Since you can’t feel a tick bite, you can recognize it in one of two ways:
- By tickling or feeling your skin
- By identifying the bite after the tick has fallen
If the tick is still attach.
Ostfeld says it can be difficult to find ticks on your skin — especially in the spring and early summer months when ticks are in their nymph stage, and about the size of a poppy seed. There are. You have to examine your skin closely – and then ask someone to scan the areas you can’t see – to find them. Although adult ticks are slightly larger, they are still difficult to identify.
Another way to find ticks before they fall is to run your hands over the parts of your body that are bitten. (They will feel like small, unfamiliar, hard nodules on your skin.)
If the tick is drop.
Although tick bites don’t itch as quickly as other insect bites, they can still cause red sores or itchy sores on the skin after the tick is remove, Ostfeld says.
The size and quality of this lesion can vary greatly from person to person, he says, and so it can be impossible to distinguish a tick bite from a mosquito bite. If the tick that was carrying you was not carrying Lyme disease or another infection, the bite will likely resemble a mosquito bite and go away quickly.
But if you find a tick on your skin or an itchy sore that doesn’t go away within a few days, it could indicate Lyme disease or another type of tick-borne infection. .
(3) The same is true of a large, bull’s-eye-shaped skin lesion—which looks like a red welt surrounded by one or more outer rings of inflamed red skin. (3) This bull’s-eye rash is a symptom of Lyme disease.
If you’ve been bitten by a tick, you’ll want to remove it as soon as possible.
If you find a mark on your body, you’ll want to remove it as soon as possible. In general, a tick must be with your body for at least 36 hours to transmit Lyme disease, but other infections can be transmitted in hours or less.
(4)If you can get to your primary care doctor or dermatologist, they can remove the tick with the proper tools that are sure to remove the entire tick.
If you are removing yourself, use tweezers or commercially available tick removal tools. “Hold the tick’s mouthparts close to the skin and pull straight out,” says Ostfeld. Don’t worry if you crush the tick or it leaves a dark spot on your skin. “It’s no big deal. Wipe it with alcohol or something to prevent infection,” he says.
(Despite rumors circulating online, killing or mashing the tick during extraction will not cause it to inject more saliva or fluid into your body.)
“The longer they’re in you, the more likely they are to transmit pathogens, so you want to get them out as soon as possible,” Ostfeld adds.
See your doctor after a tick bite if you notice a bull’s-eye rash or other signs of infection
Do the same if you notice a bite—either from a tick you found or from an unknown source—that isn’t acting like a mosquito bite. “If the rash is more than a very localized red spot—like a mosquito bite—see a doctor,” he says. Likewise, see your doctor if you develop flu-like symptoms, muscle aches, or chills within a week to 10 days of being bitten, all of which could indicate a tick-borne infection.
(5) If a doctor suspects that you have Lyme or another type of infection, he or she prescribe antibiotics, either orally or possibly intravenously, to treat the problem.
How can I avoid a tick bite or contracting Lyme?
Ticks can thrive in a variety of environments. “Ticks finds in scrub and coastal areas or in low grass and herbaceous vegetation,” says Ostfeld. “But they are essentially creatures of the forest.” Grassy, shrubby and especially heavily wooded areas are prime real estate for ticks. They say that staying away from these environments is your best defense.
But if you’re going to such areas, wear long pants and shoes, and take them off when you get home. Ostfeld recommends throwing whatever clothes you’re wearing in the dryer — turned to high heat — as soon as possible. Ticks love moisture, and show to survive washing and drying. But throw your clothes in the dryer without get them wet, and the dry, hot conditions will kill them, he says.
You can also use DEET and other bug repellants to effectively keep ticks away, he says. A chemical called permethrin is available as a spray, and when applied to your boots or hiking pants, it can cause ticks on contact.
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