The tick will eventually release.īe careful not to break the tick, which could leave its mouthparts in your skin, potentially causing infection. Apply a pair of fine-tipped tweezers to the skin, grasp the tick and pull upwards with firm, consistent pressure. If a tick has anchored into your skin, remove it promptly. Remember that ticks can be tiny - the nymph, or juvenile, blacklegged tick is no bigger than a poppy seed before it has started bloodfeeding. Ticks can wander over the body before selecting a feeding site, and they tend to prefer areas that might seem less obvious such as the head, around the hairline, in the armpit and the groin. "That's why we advise immediate tick checks." "If you can remove a tick within 24 hours, you have a very low chance of acquiring pathogens," she said. Nevertheless, checking your person and clothing thoroughly for ticks once you go indoors is crucial, Hill said. Environmental Protection Agency-approved repellent or treat your clothing with permethrin. To help protect yourself from ticks, Hill advised wearing light-colored clothing with long sleeves and pants tucked into socks if you're headed into grassy or wooded areas. Taking steps to prevent tick bites and knowing how to correctly remove a tick if you find one attached are key to avoiding tick-borne diseases, Hill said. Indiana is home to several medically important tick species, including the blacklegged or deer tick, which can transmit Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne illness in North America. "They can be powerful vectors of disease." "Ticks have a greater impact on human health that we sometimes give them credit for," Hill said. Ticks can carry a wide variety of pathogens, parasites and viruses and can potentially spread diseases to their hosts by regurgitating infected saliva into the feeding wound they create in hosts' skin. As you savor the great outdoors this summer, protecting yourself from ticks doesn't just spare you an irksome bite - it might also help you dodge a serious health problem, says Purdue University medical entomologist Catherine Hill. (Purdue University graphic/Angela Roberts) This Purdue infographic can help you identify Indiana's medically important tick species and the diseases they can transmit.
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