Ticks 101

Tick bites are painful and may cause serious diseases in your family and your pets. Prevention and early removal are the simplest steps to remain safe and healthy!

Guard Your Yard

Ticks wish to sleep in tall grass and brush and conceal in leaf litter and debris. Landscape your yard to scale backtick populations by keeping the lawn mowed, removing the leaf litter and other hiding places, and installing a three-foot-wide strip of wood chips between natural and cultivated areas to discourage tick migration. Ticks travel on rabbits, deer, raccoons, and stray dogs. Installing fencing around the yard can help reduce tick populations by preventing these animals from carrying ticks into your yard. Larval ticks travel on smaller animals like rodents, so it’s also an honest idea to get rid of any brush piles and other areas where mice and rats wish to live. While you ought to protect yourself and your pets against ticks throughout the year whenever temperatures are above freezing, this is often especially necessary from April to September once they are most active. Using tick repellent sprays and wearing long, loose pants when walking through tick habitat can help prevent bites. ask your vet before using tick repellents on pets, as some kids aren’t safe for your animals.tick on a blade of grass, waiting to grab on

A Tick’s Life

Both male and feminine ticks must prey on blood during every stage of life after hatching from the eggs. for many species, larval ticks prey on small animals like birds, amphibians, and rodents; as they mature into nymphs then adults, they obtain larger creatures like deer or humans. Unlike the blood-sucking mosquito, ticks cannot fly – or maybe jump – to grab onto a replacement food source. Instead, they position themselves on well-used paths, where they sit on the tip of grass or other foliage with their front legs outstretched. Whenever an appropriate host brushes into them, they climb aboard. Some ticks will begin to eat immediately, et al. will wander around to seek out a far better spot to connect themselves. Once they’re able to feed, the tick pierces the skin and inserts its feeding tube, which is usually barbed. Most species also “glue” themselves in situ for the meal. it’s going to also inject a numbing chemical through its saliva, therefore, the host doesn’t notice the bite. the method of attachment can take a matter of minutes or up to many hours. it’ll then feed for several days. When it’s done, it’ll drop off and either enter a replacement life stage or find another host.removing a tick from a dogs ear

Ugh, There’s a Tick On Me!

Check yourself, your children and your pets regularly for ticks. If you or your pets are outdoors in a neighborhood where ticks are likely to be found, this is often especially important; also check clothing and kit where the ticks may have traveled home with you. If you discover one, remove it directly. Using the right tool, like a Ticked Off or a Tick-Ease, can help to get rid of the tick fully and cleanly. Ticks are often found anywhere on the body but are presumably to bite during a place where it feels more sheltered and therefore the skin is thinner, like within the underarm, around the waist, within the belly button, behind the knees, in or around the ears, or within the hair.

Here a Tick, There a Tick

There are many species of ticks, but only seven species within the U.S. are known to transmit disease by biting humans. One or more of those species is found in every state within the country. Distribution maps and disease risks for every species are out there from the CDC’s website. Each species only transmits certain diseases, so if you develop symptoms after being bit by a tick, it’s important to be ready to tell your doctor where that tick may have come from so as to be correctly diagnosed. Whether you’re working in your yard or hiking within the wilderness, keep yourself and your pets healthy by preventing tick bites.

Ticks 101

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