A red rash following a tick bite often signifies infection. Consult a doctor.

Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

Borrelia burgdorferi, carried in the saliva of ticks, is the microscopic spirochete which causes Lyme disease.

Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

Deer are amongst the most common hosts for Lyme-carriyng ticks - and carry ticks across country.

Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

Why Are Ticks Dangerous?

What danger do tick bites pose to you and your family?

Ticks are blood-feeding parasites; which means they need a diet of animal blood to survive. During a tick’s life cycle, they will attach to a variety of hosts – deer, small mammals like squirrels, mice and possums, pets like dogs and cats, lizards and birds and even humans.

This presents a danger because ticks can pass infections from one host into a subsequent host through their blood; including serious illnesses like Lyme disease and babesiosia.

Ticks land on a host by laying in wait on a tall shrub or grass stem, or by tracking down a potential meal by detecting the carbon dioxide they exhale. Once on an animal, ticks will crawl to a likely feeding spot – normally a sheltered area such as the armpit, groin or an animal’s neck – and start the feeding process.

Over the course of 1 to 2 hours, the tick will use its saw blade mandibles to fillet a hosts skin; opening them like a surgeon and then plunging their feeding mandible inside.

The saw blade mandibles of the Ixodes Scapularis blacklegged tick

They will then secrete chemical “cement” which seals the hole they cut and attaches them firmly to the host. At this time, they will also flood the injury with a backwash of their saliva; containing a variety of compounds to assist their feeding, like anticoagulants, anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive agents, enzymes and vasodilators to increase blood flow.

Unfortunately, this injection can also contain infectious bacteria and viruses from previous hosts, which has been living inside the tick’s stomach between meals. This is how a tick bite can pass along dangerous illness; and be potentially life threatening.

For more information about ticks, check out these pages:

• Tick Species: Which ones do you need to worry about?

• The Tick Life Cycle: What you need to know to use it to your advantage.

• Geography: Where are you most at risk from tick bites?

• Statistics: Important statistics about ticks and tick-borne disease. [1.4]

• Go back to The Aspenn Guide to Tick Control page