Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHow It Feels & LooksTick AppearanceDetecting a BiteTreatmentAt-Home RemovalWhen to Seek CarePrevention
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
How It Feels & Looks
Tick Appearance
Detecting a Bite
Treatment
At-Home Removal
When to Seek Care
Prevention
A tick bite occurs when a tick pierces the skin and attaches itself to a warm-blooded host. Once attached, a tick may feed on its host’s blood for several days. Most tick bites are harmless and do not cause symptoms, but they can also cause allergic reactions or pass the disease to humans and pets.
Aleksey Matrenin / Getty Images
What Does a Tick Bite Look (and Feel) Like?
The appearance oftick bitescan vary based on each person’s skin reaction, the type of tick, and the duration of its attachment. Because a tick’s saliva contains a numbing agent, most tick bites are painless and initially go unnoticed. The sooner a tick bite is identified and the faster an attached tick is removed, the better. The longer a tick stays attached, the greater the risk oftick-borne disease. It is important to check your skin for ticks after being outdoors.
A tick bite may first appear as a small bump. Or if the tick is carryingLyme disease, the bite may present as a classic bulls-eye rash (erythema migrans) that’s usually about 2 inches across initially but can grow to 12 inches or more over a few days.
A tick will not detach from a host’s skin until it’s completed a blood meal or is removed with tweezers. Often, the first warning sign of a tick bite is the sensation of something strange rubbing against your skin or the disconcerting feeling that something’s latched on when an attached tick gets snagged.
Once on board, the tick migrates to a warm and moist location on the body that’s often hidden from view, where it bites the skin, attaches itself, and starts feeding. Ticks most commonly bite people on the thigh, waist, or stomach, but they can attach themselves to any part of the body.
Full-Body Check: Look Everywhere for TicksTicks are crafty when it comes to finding out-of-sight bite sites. After being in a woodsy or grassy area, checkeverywherefor ticks,including your belly button, behind your ears, and between your toes.
Full-Body Check: Look Everywhere for Ticks
Ticks are crafty when it comes to finding out-of-sight bite sites. After being in a woodsy or grassy area, checkeverywherefor ticks,including your belly button, behind your ears, and between your toes.
If a disease-carrying tick remains attached for more than four to 24 hours, more serious body-wide (systemic) tick bite symptoms may develop, such as:
Tick vs. Other Insect BitesFinding a tick attached to your skin clearly indicates that a tick has bitten you. Unlike other insects that only bite for a matter of seconds, ticks can stay attached to a host’s skin for hours or even days while feeding on a blood meal.
Tick vs. Other Insect Bites
Finding a tick attached to your skin clearly indicates that a tick has bitten you. Unlike other insects that only bite for a matter of seconds, ticks can stay attached to a host’s skin for hours or even days while feeding on a blood meal.
This photo contains content that some people may find graphic or disturbing.See PhotoReproduced with permission from ©DermNetdermnetnz.org2023.
This photo contains content that some people may find graphic or disturbing.See Photo
This photo contains content that some people may find graphic or disturbing.
Reproduced with permission from ©DermNetdermnetnz.org2023.
What Do Ticks Look Like?
Ticks can have a hard shell or a soft, leathery body. Hard-shelled ticks, such as the black-legged (deer) tick, look like a shrunken watermelon seed with even-paired legs attached to each side of the shell, known as a scutum. As their name implies, soft ticks don’t have a hard shell and look like tiny beans with legs underneath the body. Ticks often look black, but their color can range from a brownish-red mahogany to dark brown.
A tick’s size and number of legs change during its lifecycle. During the larval stage, ticks only have six legs, but during the nymph phase and adulthood, they have eight legs (four on each side). A tick’s size and overall shape will vary depending on its life stage and whether it recently had a blood meal.
For example, as larvae, biting ticks are much smaller than one might imagine. When a tick larva bites human flesh and attaches itself, it may look tiny, like a poppy seed embedded in the skin. Because immature ticks are only slightly larger than the period at the end of this sentence, their bites and attached bodies are often really hard to identify without a magnifying glass.
On the flip side, when an adult tick is engorged with blood after feeding from a host for a day or two, it can swell to the size of a plump raisin.
Reproduced with permission from © DermNet and © Raimo Suhonendermnetnz.org2023.
A rash may develop and grow a few days after a tick bite. A bull’s-eye rash is usually a clear indication that a tick has bitten you; this rash is unique to tick bites.
Tick bites associated with Lyme disease are most prevalent in these high-incidence states:
Symptoms of an Allergic Reaction to a Tick Bite
Symptoms of Tick-Borne Diseases
Flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, headache, and achiness are commonly associated with tick-borne diseases. Because ticks can carry such a wide variety of pathogens, symptoms will vary. Lyme disease, the most prevalent tick-borne illness, typically starts with a bull’s-eye rash that can progress to joint pain and neurological issues if left untreated.
Other tick-borne diseases likeanaplasmosisandehrlichiosisusually cause similar symptoms, such as fever, headaches, muscle aches, weakness, or shortness of breath.Recognizing tick bite symptoms early and seeking medical advice quickly is key to preventing long-term complications.
Symptoms of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is a very serious tick-borne illness. If not treated promptly, it can be deadly.
Although Rocky Mountain spotted fever includes reference to a spotted rash in its name, this symptom isn’t always present. Not having the spotty rash can make diagnosis difficult.
How Are Tick Bites Treated?
How to Remove a Tick at Home
To remove a tick at home, follow these steps:
When to Contact a Healthcare Provider
Contact a healthcare provider if the tick bite site shows signs of infection, such as pain, erythema (redness), swelling, or purulent discharge (pus). After removing a tick with tweezers, if you notice that some of the tick’s mouthparts are still lodged in your skin, seek medical help.
Speak to a healthcare provider if you experience flu-like symptoms like fever, chills, headache, muscle pain, achy joints, or swollen lymph nodes.
Ways to Prevent Tick Bites (and Tick-Borne Illnesses)
The best way toprevent tick bitesis to avoid brushing up against tall grass, shrubs, or greenery where a tick may be waiting to find a warm-blooded host. At home, keep grass trimmed and use wood chips or gravel to create tick-free zones where people traverse frequently, such as from the front door to your car. When walking in nature, stay in the middle of the trail and avoid brushing up against any greenery or tall grass where ticks might be waiting to pounce.
Insect repellents containing 20% to 30% DEET, 10% icaridin (also called picaridin), or 10% EBAAP can be applied directly to the skin and will help prevent tick bites.Preventing tick bites is the best way to prevent tick-borne illnesses.
Clothing can also be treated with insect repellents or permethrin to deter host-seeking ticks from attaching to fabrics. Research suggests that people wearing permethrin-treated outfits get 3.36 times fewer tick bites than those who don’t.
Wearing light-colored clothing makes it easier to spot ticks. Choose long sleeves, long pants, and tuck pant legs into each sock’s elastic cuff when you’re going to be in tick-prone areas.
Taking a shower and thoroughly washing every part of your body within a half hour of returning from a tick-prone environment can rinse off questing ticks before they bite. Putting outdoor clothing in a hot dryer for at least 20 minutes after getting home will kill any ticks hiding on your clothes.
Get Ticks Off Your Body ASAPIf an attached tick is removed as soon as possible and within 24 hours of biting, the risk of Lyme disease is greatly reduced.
Get Ticks Off Your Body ASAP
If an attached tick is removed as soon as possible and within 24 hours of biting, the risk of Lyme disease is greatly reduced.
Summary
Ticks are tiny black bugs that feed on blood. Their bites are usually painless to start and appear to be harmless, but tick bites can cause flu-like symptoms and diseases that develop over time. A tick bite usually looks like a small bump initially but may grow into a bigger bull’s-eye rash. Unlike other insects, ticks attach to the skin for hours or days while biting and feeding on a host’s blood.
It’s important to remove attached ticks promptly with tweezers as soon as they’re noticed. Don’t burn or squish a tick. Instead, submerge the tick in alcohol to kill it, then flush it down the toilet. Once removed, wash the bite site with soap and water. Always check for questing ticks that might be crawling on your skin after you’ve been in a woodsy or grassy area. A thorough full-body check is key to detecting and removing ticks before they bite.
Tick bites should be taken seriously. Seek medical attention if you can’t remove a tick entirely, notice signs of infection, experience flu-like symptoms, or develop a fever or rash.
Natural Tick Repellent Options and What the Science Says
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