TICK SAFETY
Tiny, crawling critters that are a part of the arachnid family. Ticks are part of our local ecosystems and can be found around the world. Find out more about what types of ticks are around, prevention measures, tick removal info, and the importance of ticks below!
What are Ticks?
THE BASICS
Ticks are arachnids, not bugs. They are a part of the same group as scorpions, spiders, and mites. Like mini-vampires, they feed on the blood of their host, known as ‘blood meal’. Ticks have 4 sets of legs as adults and no antennae. These tiny creatures live in grassy and wooded areas around the world, including urban areas, fields, yards, woodlands, and grassy areas.
Ticks wait for hosts (animals or you) from the tips of grasses and shrubs, not from trees. Ticks can sense changes in temperature and humidity as well as increases in carbon dioxide. The tick waits on the end of a plant with its upper legs outstretched. When you brush by a plant, the tick quickly lets go and climbs on and crawls around. Ticks do not jump or fly!
Wood ticks are the most commonly encountered tick in Illinois!
IDENTIFICATION
Adults are about 3/16″ long. Unfed males and females are reddish brown. Females have a large, silver-colored spot behind the head and will become about 1/2″ long after feeding or about the size of a small grape. Males have fine silver lines on the back and do not get much larger after feeding.
FEEDING
Larvae and nymphs feed on small, warm-blooded animals like mice and birds. Adult wood ticks will feed on humans and medium to large animals like raccoons and dogs.
Deer ticks are very, very tiny!
IDENTIFICATION
Larvae turn into pinhead-sized, brown nymphs. Adult deer ticks are reddish-brown and about 1/8″ long or the size of a sesame seed.
FEEDING
Larvae and nymphs feed on small animals including white-footed mice, chipmunks, and prairie voles. Adult ticks feed on white-tailed deer and other larger mammals like humans.
White-tailed deer are an important part of the deer tick lifecycle and reproduction. Once the tick becomes an adult it uses the deer as a host for blood meal for 5-7 days. This blood meal gives the tick the nutrition it needs to lay eggs at a later time. Once full, the tick drops onto the ground and females will lay between 1000 and 3000 eggs in leaf litter.
CONNECTIONS TO DEER & SNAKES
Snakes can help control the tick population. They don’t directly feed on the ticks but they do keep the rodent population down which helps to keep the tick population down.
LYME DISEASE
Lyme Disease is a tick-borne disease that comes from the tick (typically larval or nymphal ticks) feeding on small animals including white-footed mice and chipmunks that may carry the bacterial agents that cause disease like Lyme, Babesiosis, or Anaplasmosis. Once the tick becomes an adult, it can transfer the disease into the next host; however, the host will not spread the Lyme disease. Lyme bacterium takes 12 to 48 hours to become active enough to be transmitted by a feeding tick. Prompt removal of the tick (including the head) greatly reduces the possibility that the Lyme disease pathogen, if present, will be transmitted. For more information about Lyme disease visit cdc.gov.
Wood ticks are the most commonly encountered tick in Illinois!
IDENTIFICATION
Adults are about 3/16″ long. Unfed males and females are reddish brown. Females have a large, silver-colored spot behind the head and will become about 1/2″ long after feeding or about the size of a small grape. Males have fine silver lines on the back and do not get much larger after feeding.
FEEDING
Larvae and nymphs feed on small, warm-blooded animals like mice and birds. Adult wood ticks will feed on humans and medium to large animals like raccoons and dogs.
Deer ticks are very, very tiny!
IDENTIFICATION
Larvae turn into pinhead-sized, brown nymphs. Adult deer ticks are reddish-brown and about 1/8″ long or the size of a sesame seed.
FEEDING
Larvae and nymphs feed on small animals including white-footed mice, chipmunks, and prairie voles. Adult ticks feed on white-tailed deer and other larger mammals like humans.
White-tailed deer are an important part of the deer tick lifecycle and reproduction. Once the tick becomes an adult it uses the deer as a host for blood meal for 5-7 days. This blood meal gives the tick the nutrition it needs to lay eggs at a later time. Once full, the tick drops onto the ground and females will lay between 1000 and 3000 eggs in leaf litter.
CONNECTIONS TO DEER & SNAKES
Snakes can help control the tick population. They don’t directly feed on the ticks but they do keep the rodent population down which helps to keep the tick population down.
LYME DISEASE
Lyme Disease is a tick-borne disease that comes from the tick (typically larval or nymphal ticks) feeding on small animals including white-footed mice and chipmunks that may carry the bacterial agents that cause disease like Lyme, Babesiosis, or Anaplasmosis. Once the tick becomes an adult, it can transfer the disease into the next host; however, the host will not spread the Lyme disease. Lyme bacterium takes 12 to 48 hours to become active enough to be transmitted by a feeding tick. Prompt removal of the tick (including the head) greatly reduces the possibility that the Lyme disease pathogen, if present, will be transmitted. For more information about Lyme disease visit cdc.gov.
Prevention
What to do:
- Wear long pants, long-sleeved shirts, a hat, and close-toed shoes.
- Wear light-colored clothing to help you spot the ticks before they attach themselves to your skin.
- Tuck your shirt into your pants. Tuck your pants into your socks. It looks silly, but it’s a very effective way to prevent tick bites! You can even duct tape the area where pants and socks meet.
- Consider treating your clothing with Permethrin or buying pre-treated clothing. (a type of insect repellent for clothing and outdoor gear)
- Use an insect repellent containing: 20-30% DEET, 20% Picaridin, or Oil of Lemon Euclyptus. Read the manufacturer’s directions about use and reapplication. For details on repellents visit the US EPA Repellents.
- When walking or hiking, stay in the middle of the trail and avoid tall grasses and shrubs.
- Use a tarp when sitting on the ground.
- Check for ticks on yourself every two or three hours.
- Do a full body check after being outdoors! Check clothes, skin, hair, and gear for ticks. Be thorough – ticks are very small. If you were out with your pet, check the animal for ticks too!
- Remove crawling ticks with a piece of tape and fold the tape over complete encasing the tick before throwing away. For attached tick removal, look at the information below on Remove an Attached Tick.
- Take a shower within two hours of coming indoors to rinse off any loose ticks that you may have missed.
- Tumble dry clothes in a dryer on high heat for 10 minutes to kill ticks on dry clothing after you come indoors. If the clothes require washing first, hot water at a temperature of 130°F is required, as cold and medium temperature water will not kill ticks. (National Library of Medicine)
If your property is unattractive to ticks, they won’t come for a visit! Ticks are seldom a problem in well-maintained lawns.
- Keeping your grass mowed and weeds cut will help.
- Clean up items that attract rodents that can carry ticks, such as spilled birdseed, brush and leaf piles, or garbage piles.
How Ticks are Beneficial
Many types of woodland animals will feed on ticks including birds like wild turkey, reptiles like fence lizards, and mammals like opossums. Some people will raise guinea fowl to help keep the tick population down in their yards or around livestock. Opossums are important in the fight against ticks! Scientists have found that a single opossum can eat up to 5,000 ticks in a season.
Could you imagine the world covered in deer, rabbits, mice and more? Ticks can carry various diseases that are passed on to the host when feeding. Those diseases serve a purpose in the animal world. It is one way that nature promotes ‘survival of the fittest.’ Those animals that do not survive the disease help keep animal populations at a more stable level.
An increase in tick populations may indicate a decrease in the predators of small mammals. An example of this would be a decrease in snakes’ leading to an increase in mice equaling an increase in ticks. A study of timber rattlesnake populations in the eastern US found that healthy snakes will eliminate thousands of ticks every year by eating mice and other small mammals on which ticks feed. Snakes are great as they eat the rodents that carry the ticks!