By spending more time outside in warm spring weather, people put themselves at risk of outdoor hazards like potentially dangerous tick bites. Understanding where ticks are common and avoiding those areas can also help to reduce your risk of a tick bite.
Ticks cannot fly, but they usually crawl up vegetation and wait for someone or something to walk by so that they can latch on. You can lower your risk of getting a tick by walking in the middle of trails, avoiding tall grass and staying out of leaf litter.
There are a few ways to decrease tick bite risks in your yard, according to the CDC. The CDC recommends keeping the yard clear of leaf piles and maintaining a short grass length. After spending time outside, always help children check for ticks and inspect pets for any unwanted visitors before returning inside. As the weather turns warmer, those headed outdoors should be aware of a heightened risk for Lyme disease this year, experts say. "We know that it’s going to be a risky year," according to Felicia Keesing, an ecologist at Bard College, who specializes in studying ticks and Lyme disease. When there are large numbers of acorns, as Keesing and her team witnessed in the fall of 2015 in the northeastern United States, there tends to be a high volume of mice the following summer, she said.
A large number of mice is indicative that the late spring and early summer of the following year- in this case, 2017- will feature a heightened risk for Lyme disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), mice are carriers for a specific bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. Ticks use both mice and humans as hosts, and when they transfer from rodents to people, they bring the bacterium with them which lead to Lyme disease. 
After being bitten, people may find a rash at the site of the tick bite, which can resemble a mosquito bite. However, after several days, the site of the bite can "clear out," resembling a bull's-eye. Lyme disease can often be mistaken for the flu, with fever, aches, pains and swollen lymph nodes. If you have these symptoms, even without a telltale rash, get treated with antibiotics as soon as possible. If you have those symptoms in the summertime, it’s a bit unusual, according to doctors. We don’t see influenza that often in the summer, so tick-borne diseases should be pretty high on the list for what could cause those symptoms. Arthritis of a single joint may occur weeks, months or years after the initial infection. Usually a big joint like the knee will be affected and the pain is often only on one side of your body.
Some symptoms include temporary facial paralysis (Bell’s palsy), short-term memory problems and shooting pain and numbness in hands and feet. Treatment of these more serious Lyme disease symptoms is the same – a course of doxycycline – but once the damage is done, it takes a long time to recover completely, even after the organism has been killed. Once a person is treated, they are no longer infected – that’s the good news. The bad news is that there is no immunity. You could very easily get Lyme disease again if you get bitten by another tick. To prevent tick bites, the CDC recommends repellents that contain 20 to 30 percent of active ingredients like DEET and picaridin on exposed skin and products that contain permethrin on clothing. People entering a tick habitat should wear light-colored clothing so insects are easier to spot and tuck the bottom of their pants into their socks to avoid ticks from contacting the skin.
The black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) and western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus) transmit the bacteria that cause Lyme diseas
e and other serious vector-borne diseases. Pritt said they are generally smaller than other ticks and have reddish bodies with dark-colored legs. American dog ticks (also called wood ticks) tend to be larger than black-legged (or deer) ticks and may have white streaks on its back. However, nymphal and larval ticks of any species may be too small or too engorged to identify, so be sure to remove any tick as soon as you notice one.
Ticks can always be submitted to a laboratory for identification, so experts suggest bringing the removed tick to a doctor or lab if you are suspicious. "This is especially important for engorged ticks, since this indicates that they have been attached for an extended period of time," according to Dr. Bobbi Pritt, director of the Clinical Parasitology Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic. "The longer they are attached, the greater the risk that they can transmit disease-causing organisms." Prevention and awareness are the first steps to fighting back against Lyme disease. If you enjoy reading this blog, feel free to comment and please hit the like button at the bottom.
