To avoid direct contact with ticks stay away from wooded and bushy areas with high grass, leaf litter, and make sure to walk in the center of trails. While it is a good idea to take preventive measures against ticks year-round, take extra care in warmer months (April-September) when ticks are most active. Males are slightly smaller than females and are a solid dark brown color. Deer/Black-legged ticks live throughout the central and eastern United States, wherever their favorite hosts, deer and rodents, are present. Significantly smaller than the more commonly encountered American Dog tick, adult female deer ticks are about as big as a sesame seed and have reddish hind bodies with black markings. These blood-sucking ticks were vaulted into the public consciousness in the 1970’s when it was discovered that they are the primary (and possibly only) transmitters for Lyme disease. Lyme disease is a debilitating, though rarely fatal, infection that is often misdiagnosed because early symptoms closely resemble the flu. The loathsome deer tick, now known as the black-legged tick, is defined more by the disease it spreads than by its own characteristics. Male American Dog ticks are typically brown to reddish-brown in color with gray or silver markings on their backs. Females can be identified by their large off-white markings against a dark brown body. American dog ticks can survive for up to 2 years at any given stage if no host is found. The adult American Dog ticks commonly attack humans and can transmit diseases such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Tularemia. They feed on a variety of hosts ranging in size from mice to deer. The American Dog ticks are found predominantly in areas with little or no tree cover, such as grassy fields and scrub-land, as well as along walkways and trails. When feeding, they attach themselves onto their host and use a salivary fluid in their mouth as anesthetic so that when they suck blood, the host will not feel it. This species of tick readily attach themselves and feed on dogs, other household pets and humans. Both the male and female species are a reddish brown color in the adult stage. A male lone star will not have the white spot and will instead have some spotting along its back. The female of the species is easily distinguishable by the white star shaped spot on its back, which acts as part of its shield. The Lone Star tick is a common type of tick mainly found in the south central and south eastern parts of the US, although recently the species has spread across a larger area of the country. It makes it hard to believe that it’s even the same pest! One aspect of ticks that amazes people and leads to mis-identification is a tick can enlarge itself 20-50 times its size when engorged with blood and look nothing like itself before engorgement. We encounter most ticks after they’ve attached and fed for some amount of time. It sounds simple enough but proves difficult because ticks are small and difficult to see without the help of a magnifier. First is to recognize if the pest is a tick, then determine what group the tick belongs to. B.I.T.E.The most difficult part of identifying a tick is knowing what to look for.Different ticks carry different diseases so knowing the species of tick is important for identifying the disease it may carry. If you find a tick attached, save the tick for identification purposes. Repellents that contain 20% or more of DEET, picaridin, or IR3535 can be applied on exposed skin for protection that lasts several hours. Clothing will remain protective through several washings. Allow spray to dry as it is poisonous to cats in liquid form. One of the best ways to keep ticks from becoming attached is to spray clothing, shoes and boots, and gear with a product with that contains 0.5% of permethrin. The 3 most common ticks in Ohio include the blacklegged or deer tick which is active year round even in the winter months and is found mainly in the woods, the American Dog tick which is more active in the spring and summer and is found in grassy areas, and the Lone Star tick which lives in wooded areas, particularly in second-growth forests with thick underbrush, where white-tailed deer (the primary host of mature ticks) reside. Ticks can carry and transmit a variety of diseases to people and animals.
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