Wilderness: Tick Bite

Bad Bugs Slideshow

• Tick Bites Overview
• Tick Bite Causes
• Tick Bite Symptoms
• Tick Bite Prevention and Treatment
• When to Seek Medical Attention
• For More Information
• Web Links
• Synonyms and Keywords
• Authors and Editors
• Pictures of Bad Bugs - Slideshow

Tick Bites Overview

Ticks are blood-sucking members of the class Arachnida, a group of arthropods that also includes spiders, scorpions, and mites. Ticks are divided into 3 families: Ixodidae (hard ticks), Argasidae (soft ticks), and Nuttalliellidae. The Nuttalliellidae family has only one species and is only in southern Africa.

• Globally, ticks are second only to mosquitoes as vectors (carriers) of human disease. In North America, ticks outrank even mosquitoes as the leading perpetrator of vector-borne infections. Ticks cause disease in humans or animals either by transmitting germs or by secreting toxins or venoms.


• A number of tick-borne diseases are recognized in the United States. They include Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, relapsing fever, Colorado tick fever, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, tularemia, Q fever, and tick paralysis. Hard ticks transmit all the major tick-borne diseases in North America, with the exception of relapsing fever.


• Peak infection times are in the spring and summer during the nymph portion of the tick’s 2-year life cycle (larvae, nymph, adult). The nymphs are responsible for about 90% of all infections.


• The most effective way to combat tick-borne diseases is to focus on measures to prevent them from attaching to the body. If a tick attaches to the body, find and properly remove it. (See Tick Bite Prevention and Treatment.)