Tick bite

The deer tick is one of the most common ticks known to man, if you have ever encountered a tick or experienced a tick bite, it would most probably have been a deer tick. Ticks are parasitical arachnids that feed on blood from birds and mammals, also reptiles and amphibians are know to be used as hosts but not at all as often. Latching on externally on its host the tick can be anchored on for as long as it likes as they are quite difficult to remove without tools. Continue to read if you want to know more about ticks and tick bites.

Tick bite – Location
The most common places on the body to receive a tick bite are in the hollows of the knees, in the armpits and in the groin area. The tick likes dark and moist places where the skin is relatively thin. To receive a tick bite you most probably need to move through nature, the tick usually does not move very much but sits instead on branches or on top of high growing grass, waiting for a suitable host to grab onto. The ticks are unable to jump no matter other beliefs.

Tick bite – How?
The tick bite is quite ingenious as the mouth of the tick is formed very much as a harpoon which it plunges into the skin of its host. While plunging the tick spits out a mild painkiller which means you won’t feel a thing when the tick bite. The harpoon shape makes it possible for the tick to stay fixated onto its host for as long as it likes.

Tick bite – Removal
When the ticks bite and really secure themselves into place it is not very easy to remove them. Some people believe that a powerful yank is the way to remove ticks but that is wrong since it might injure the tick, leaving the head left to infect the tick bite, or even worse leak nasty diseases into your blood stream. Neither is covering the ticks with oil, gasoline or any other liquid as it might only make the tick throw up and once again infect the tick bite, and your blood stream, with disease. The best way is to use a pair of tweezers and gently pull the tick out by grabbing it by its head. That way nothing will be left behind to infect the tick bite.

Tick bite – Disease
The ticks carry many diseases which can be transmitted to you via the tick bite. Therefore it is very important that you remove the tick as soon as you have located one. The ticks aren’t born contagious but will obtain all of the diseases in its first stage of life as it will find vermin and birds as suitable hosts. If it weren’t for these diseases, a tick bite would be quite harmless, nothing more than a bee sting. But as it is the tick bite can infect you with relapsing fever, Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, equine encephalitis, Colorado tick fever, and several forms of ehrlichiosis. So there are many causes to be careful.

Tick bite – Symptoms
As there are so many diseases it’s hard to speak about general symptoms. If you know that you have a tick bite and start to feel ill you should rush to a doctor for tests and further investigation. Otherwise the tick bite is not very unlike a mosquito bite in appearance, in some cases a light red ring will appear around the bite but that is all.

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