It's been a wonderful summer, but now one of my least favorite invertebrates has spurred me back to the blog: TICKS. In particular, I want to talk about lone star ticks -
Amblyomma americanum. They are very prevalent where I live, and in many parts of the US. Their range includes most of the eastern and midwestern states. Around here, we seem to mostly get bitten by these guys.
Here's today's story. Our dog, Franklin, went outside this morning and disappeared into the woods. I called for him and he came running back happily, but I had a sinking feeling in my gut. A few weeks ago we had both gone exploring out there, and we returned home covered in the tiniest ticks I've ever seen, which resulted in around 40(!!) horribly itchy bites. They took a long time to heal and it was very unpleasant - to say the least. Remembering this experience, and similar ones from the past. I ran a paper towel down Franklin's legs. The horror was confirmed.
Yes. Those tiny dots are all tick babies (larvae). Hundreds of them.
Cue mad bathing of the dog, stripping of all couch and bed linens, washing, vacuuming, and showering.
Lone star ticks are so named for the bright gold/silver dot on the back of the adult female tick. Ticks are arachnids but like insects and other exoskeleton-bearing invertebrates, they shed their skin and grow in several stages. After hatching from an egg, a tick is called a larva. It has only six legs and it quests, or waits, for a meal to walk by. After feeding it molts into a nymph. It eats again, molts, and then it's a sexually mature adult. The male and female feed and mate on the final host, then the engorged female lays eggs and dies. Pretty simple.
The lone star family! Top left: the adult male. Bottom left: adult female. Top right: nymphs. Bottom right: the larvae.
For size reference, here's a larval tick on the end of my fingernail. Yeah. They are ridiculously small.
It get's upsetting for us humans, because we are one of the hosts, and ticks are known to transmit pathogens that cause diseases. Lyme disease is one that always rears its ugly head when ticks are discussed. Lucky me, covered in bites from the larvae: lone star ticks do not carry the pathogen (
Borrelia bacteria) responsible for Lyme. They do occasionally carry other nasty stuff,
see here. But even luckier me, larvae can't carry anything. To carry a pathogen a tick has to first bite a host that already carries a pathogen and ingests it along with the blood. I was the lucky first meal for the larvae, so they only have my blood... for now.
I could attempt to launch into a very detailed exploration of ticks and all the upsetting various tick borne diseases, but quite frankly there are plenty of sites with good information, so I'll just point you to those for more
details. Safe to say it's best to avoid getting bitten in the first place. Also, I'm no tick borne disease expert, but here is some information I do know, from my own experience and information I've gathered. The larval lone star ticks climb on and walk around looking for a suitable place to bite into my skin. These larval ticks seem to bite, then find me distasteful, and fall off quickly, but the damage is already done. When they sink their mouth parts into skin, they inject salivary compounds, including a glue-like secretion to anchor them in place. If the tick is removed, these substances stay put, and the itchy bite is a reaction to this. And it takes weeks to heal, for me at least. Nymphs and adult lone star ticks do basically the same thing, but they bring the added risk of pathogens with their bite. They are also implicated in
a situation in which their bites cause a cross reaction to the proteins in red meat, causing a serious food allergy. Fun.
So what to do? For now, I try to keep myself, my dog, and my family out of the woods. The larvae activity peaks in late summer/fall, so I'll save my woods-exploring for another season. I use all the usual tick precautions if I do stray into their territory: use repellent on clothing, and employ thorough tick-checks and shower when I return. Though they are less risky from a disease standpoint, the larvae come in alarming numbers, and their tiny size makes them very difficult to detect and pick off. At least larger nymphs and adults are easier to spot if you are careful.
If you find a tick attached to you, pull it off. You are supposed to use tweezers, but take care not to squeeze too hard and pierce the tick, which is bad news. Anything in the tick's gut could get into the bite. Don't do that. Grasp it as close to the head as you can manage, and pull straight out. I use my fingers because I feel like I have better control, and I don't have to search for tweezers, but again, that's not advised. The earlier you get a tick off, the better the chance that it hasn't had time to transmit a pathogen.
Because I am who I am, I always save the ticks I find in a vial of alcohol. You could also stick them to a piece of tape. I think it's a good idea to hang on to ticks that bite you, so you can get them identified, and for possible testing later.
The CDC has a lot more official and better organized information on lone star ticks, and ticks and the diseases they transmit in general.
http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/
As always, if you find a tick (or any insect or arachnid) and get a photo, feel free to post it to my Facebook page and I'll do my best to tell you what it is
More Lone Star ticks...
Larvae
Nymphs
Adult female
Adult male
