How Can I Tell If I Have Been Bitten By A Tick?

How Can I Tell If I Have Been Bitten By A Tick?

In Tennessee, warm weather lasts longer than in some other states. Fall in Tennessee is the perfect season to be outdoors. But if you love picking apples or going on long fall hikes, you need to know about the dangers of black-legged ticks, also called deer ticks. These insects may be small, but they can cause a lot of trouble. You may have heard of Lyme disease, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. And there are several other serious diseases that can come from tick bites. Here are the answers to some common questions you might have about ticks.

When are you most likely to get a tick bite?

Ticks live in nature and travel by attaching themselves to animals such as wildlife or pets. You’re most likely to find a tick bite after spending a long time outdoors. Hiking in wooded areas, camping, or even just playing in fields with tall grass can all be ways of exposing yourself to ticks. Ticks can also bite you in your own home or in your yard. They might get to your yard on your pet or on wildlife such as deer or raccoons. They could even get into your home on squirrels or mice.

Where are tick bites usually found?

Ticks can’t fly. You won’t find them falling on your head as you walk and they won’t jump off branches at you. Instead, they crawl on your feet or legs and travel upward onto your body. This means that you may be able to avoid them by wearing long pants that are light colored so you’ll see a tick when it gets on your leg. If you don’t see it, it will look for a moist, warm area such as your armpits, your groin, the back of your head, or in your hair.  Ticks want to find a protected (which means hard-to-see) place to bite and then they attach themselves to you after they bite.

What does a tick bite feel like?

You might not notice a tick bite. The good news is that it’s very rare for the bite itself to cause any pain. The bad news is, this makes it harder to notice a tick bite than other insect bites. And the longer the tick remains attached to your skin, the more chance you have of contracting a tick-related disease. In some cases, a tick bite will itch, especially once the tick has been removed.

In order to remove a tick, grip the body with a good pair of tweezers as close to your skin as possible and pull directly out. It’s a bad idea to try to remove a tick with your fingers because they can break and get stuck inside your skin. If you’ve been bitten by a tick, it’s a good idea to see a doctor to make sure you didn’t pick up any serious diseases.

What does it mean if you have multiple tick bites?

If you have multiple tick bites, or if you constantly find new tick bites on your skin, you may have ticks in your home. As I mentioned earlier, ticks can come onto your property by riding in on wildlife or by arriving on your pets. They can’t live inside for long, but they’ll survive for a while if they can continue to get blood from you or your pets. If you keep finding tick bites, you should consider professional help.

Why call Russell’s Pest Control for tick management?

Russell’s Pest Control has experience in dealing with these difficult pets. We believe in a full treatment plan, which means that we’ll help you eliminate ticks long-term. To do this, we’ll identify factors that might be attracting ticks to your home. We’ll address a rodent problem or help you cut back on the number of wildlife coming onto your property. This will ensure that ticks don’t just vanish for a day, but that they have a hard time ever coming back to bother you.

Tips To Avoid Ticks

Tips To Avoid Ticks

Blacklegged ticks, also known as deer ticks or bear ticks, live in wooded, brushy areas with high humidity. When you walk through wooded trails or the fringe area between the woods and grass areas, you may become a host for the tick. They wait on low-lying vegetation and shrubs for an animal or person to pass by, and then crawl on to attach themselves for their next meal! Adult female blacklegged ticks and the nymphs can transmit infections and disease through their bite.

Commonly transmitted tick-borne diseases in the United States include Lyme, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, tularemia, and ehrlichiosis.

How Can You Control the Tick Population?

Unfortunately, it is not possible to completely eliminate ticks from your yard or wooded areas. But you can make some changes to help reduce the number of ticks around your home as well as take precautions to reduce your risks of getting a tick-borne disease from a tick bite.

To reduce the number of ticks living around your home, you can take steps to change environmental conditions so your yard and property are not as attractive to ticks. For example:

  • Eliminate sources of water and moisture.

  • Trim brush and keep leaf litter away from your home.

  • Mow lawns frequently to keep the grass short.

  • Clear vegetation from the trails or paths in your wooded areas.

  • Use tick control collars or topical solutions for pets.

In addition to cleaning up your lawn and wood areas as much as possible, you can also take steps to reduce your individual risks for getting tick bites by:

  • Using DEET tick repellents.

  • Checking for ticks whenever you come inside after being outside and removing any that you find.

  • Showering after being outdoors.

  • Drying clothes worn outside on high heat for ten minutes to kill any ticks on clothing, or washing in hot water.

Get Professional Year-Round Control for Common Pests and Ticks

Our Power Platinum program provides year-round pest control for over 30 common household pests including ants, spiders, mice, cockroaches and more, as well as wood destroying termites. The program even extends your protection to the outdoors with seasonal treatments for mosquitoes, ticks, bees, and fire ants. It’s the easiest way to enjoy your home and property pest-free* and starts at just $89 per month. With the Power Platinum program, you’re also covered by Russell’s Pest Free Guarantee – if the pests return in between visits, we will come back and re-treat for no extra charge.

How To Avoid Ticks

How To Avoid Ticks

Do you hear it? The tick, tick, tick of a ticking bomb, set to go off this summer? Or, more specifically, a “tick” bomb. Experts are saying there is a good chance we’re going to see a lot more ticks this year. And, when tick populations explode, so do the number of cases of tick-borne diseases. The recent death of a toddler in Indianapolis from a case of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (a pathogen spread by ticks) is just one of many tragedies that have come as a result of a disturbing rise in tick-borne diseases in the United States. That is why this summer, it is even more important to take precautions.

Choose Locations Wisely

If you plan to go hiking, camping, fishing, or to engage in some other outdoor recreation, try to avoid bushes and grassy areas unless you have proper protection. Ticks wait on grass and leaves to cling onto you as you go by.

Personal Protection

Ticks don’t fall from the branches of trees to get into your hair. They climb up your body. When you go out into nature, here are a few things you can do to reduce risk:

  • Wearing bright colors will help you see ticks as they crawl up.

  • Tucking your pant legs into your socks or a pair of tall boots, will make it harder for ticks to get to your skin.

  • Many insect repellents work to make ticks fall off, if they get on. Spray repellent on your legs and feet to ward off tick bites on the rest of your body.

  • Always check for ticks when you come back from being in nature.

  • If you have a pet, make sure you consult your veterinarian about tick-control products. Pet owners, especially dog owners, have a higher risk for tick-borne illness.

Pest Control

If you live in a bubble, you don’t have to worry about ticks. But, since most of us don’t live in a bubble, we have to make choices that reduce our risk of contact with ticks. And, simply staying inside the house isn’t enough. Ticks can come into a home on unwanted furry animals. If you have seen mouse dropping in the backs of your drawers or cabinets, you could get a secondary infestation of ticks. A single mouse can have several dozen ticks which they will spread around your home as they search for food. When you have ongoing pest control that works to seal rodents out of your home, you increase your protection against tick-borne diseases.

If you need assistance with pest information or pest services and you live in our Tennessee service area, let the pest control specialists here at Russell’s Pest Control reduce ticks in your yard, and keep ticks out of your home. Together we can protect ourselves from tick-related illness.