Information about Ticks and Lyme Disease

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Lyme Disease - transmitted by the Black-Legged Tick (also known as the Deer Tick). Bacteria carried in these ticks can be released into you when you receive a tick bite. This bacteria generally lives inside your red blood cells, however, it also likes to hang-out in your tissues (this can make blood-tests tricky). The most common early symptoms are flu-like symptoms (such as fever,chills, achy muscles, fatigue), a bulls-eye rash (NOT present in all cases somewhere between 50% and 80%). Additional symptoms include arthritis in your joints, headaches, lower-back pain, inablity to think clearly, and even seemingly unrelated symptoms such as long-lasting coughs. Lyme disease can attack your heart, brain, and neurological system, etc. Additionally, there are a handful of equally lame co-infections that are associated with Lyme disease.

Black-Legged Ticks - are SMALL. PLEASE check out the photos at www.health.ri.gov/disease/communicable/lyme/facts or www.masterhandyman.com/images/ticks. Humans are most often infected with Lyme disease from receiving a bite from a tick the size of the period at the end of this sentence. (Although I was shocked at how small the tick was in my hand, it was actually relatively big for a tick). While ticks are most often carried into places where humans are infected by rodents such as mice, voles (YES voles), and squirrels, they can also be carried by dogs, cats, and even birds. They are also carried by deer and other larger animals. Ticks generally live in bushes, brush, and trees (so they can drop down on their potential "host"); however, eggs are laid in the dirt in the late fall and hatch early spring at which time they start looking for hosts.

Removal of ticks - can be tricky. In a perfect world, you will spot a tick and get rid of it before it burrows into your skin. If a tick has burrowed do NOT use finger-nail polish or matches or anything like that to remove the tick as it can irritate the tick and cause it to release the bacteria into you. I personally would probably go to a medical facility if this happened again, but check out the CDC webpage for info on how to remove them at home. As a side-note, a tick does NOT have to be attached 24 hrs. to release the Lyme-disease causing bacteria.

Prevention - can be effective. Again, check out the CDC website but here are a few suggestions: Wear long sleeve shirts and tuck pant legs into socks, wear light colored clothing so you can more easily spot ticks, use insect repellants, examine children every time they come inside - especially hair. I know some of these suggestions sound almost IMPOSSIBLE - I can barely keep some of my children from undressing completely in the summer, I have never used insect repellants regularly, and my children are in and out all day in the summer. (I have researched some natural tick-repellants (such as Rose Geranium oil) that appear to be really effective.