Ticks are small spiderlike animals (arachnids) that bite to fasten themselves onto the skin and feed on blood. Ticks live in the fur and feathers of many birds and animals. Tick bites occur most often during early spring to late summer and in areas where there are many wild animals and birds.

Most ticks do not carry diseases, and most tick bites do not cause serious health problems. But it is important to remove a tick as soon as you find it. Removing the tick's body helps you avoid diseases the tick may pass on during feeding. Removing the tick's head helps prevent an infection in the skin where it bit you.

To begin with, ticks don't fly, jump or blow around with the wind; these suspects are not ticks.  Ticks are slow and lumbering, while spiders are quick and nimble. They are small, very patient and amazing in their capacity to locate their host/prey.  Their purpose in life is only to propagate their species and unknowingly pass diseases to those hosts they feed on.  They don't feed often, but when they do, they can acquire disease agents form one host and pass it to another host at a later feeding.  Their sensory organs are complex and they can determine trace amounts of gases, such as carbon dioxide left by warm-blooded animals and man.  They can sense the potential host's presence from long distances and even select their ambush site based upon their ability to identify paths that are well traveled. 

Although the number of tick species is in the hundreds, there are relatively few ticks that interact with mankind and domestic animals causing harm. While most ticks limit their host selection, others are opportunistic feeders and will feed on almost any accessible host. A tick, which feeds on a select host group, will move infective agents within that group. However, when a tick is a nonselective feeder, it can transmit disease agents from one host group to another. These nonselective ticks pose the largest threat of infection in man.

Ticks generally are not born with disease agents but rather acquire them during various feedings.  They then pass the disease on to other animals and mankind during subsequent feedings. When an infection moves from an animal host to a human it is called zoonosise.  Lyme disease, babiosisos, erlichiosious and tularemia are examples of such diseases.


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Remove any tick promptly. The mouthparts of a tick are barbed and may remain embedded and lead to infection at the bite site if not removed promptly. Do not burn the tick with a match or cover it with petroleum jelly or nail polish. Do not use bare hands to remove the tick because tick secretions may carry disease.

• Wash the bite area and your hands thoroughly with soap and water and apply an antiseptic to the bite site.
  
  
• If you have an unexplained illness with fever, contact a physician. Be sure to tell the physician if you have been outdoors in areas where ticks were present or traveled to areas where tickborne diseases are common.