Know what to do if they form an attachment
How much do you know about ticks in your neck of the woods? Or on your neck for that matter? Here’s a little quiz to find out.
• Question: Washington state has a high rate of tick-borne diseases compared to other states. True or false? Answer: False. The Pacific Northwest has a relatively few reported cases of diseases caused by ticks compared to other regions of the United States.
• Question: You are most likely to encounter ticks in late spring and early summer in Washington. True or false? Answer: True, this time of year is generally when ticks seem to be out and about throughout the state.
Question: If you find a tick attached to you, you should coat it with petroleum jelly or touch it with a hot match to make it release. True or false? Answer: False! Those are folklore remedies and may make matters worse. Pulling ticks out with tweezers, by gripping close to the skin surface and pulling upward steadily, is the recommended way to remove ticks.
The answers to our little quiz are courtesy of the Washington State Department of Health (DOH), which offers lots of useful information about ticks that may be helpful to keep in mind as we head into the outdoors.
Tick types
Four species of ticks are found in Washington. In the Methow Valley and eastern Washington, the most common ticks are the American dog tick and the Rocky Mountain wood tick. Both ticks “prefer woodland areas, medium height grasses and shrubs between wetlands and woods, and sunny or open areas along the edge of woods,” according to DOH.
Both species are cable of transmitting Rocky Mountain spotted fever through bites from an infected tick, although reported cases in Washington are very rare, DOH said.
Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a bacterial disease that can be deadly if not treated early with antibiotics. Symptoms include rash, fever, headache and muscle aches.
Lyme disease, although the most commonly reported tick-borne disease in the United States, is also rare in Washington, DOH said. The disease is carried by the western black legged tick, which is found in forested and brushy areas, mostly in western Washington and on the eastern slopes of the North Cascades, state health officials said.
The most commonly reported tick-borne disease in Washington is relapsing fever, and DOH said most reported cases are from the eastern slopes of the Cascades and northeastern corner of the state.
Do you enjoy staying overnight in rustic, rodent-infested cabins in mountainous areas? That’s where you’re likely to encounter soft ticks, which transmit relapsing fever, DOH said.
Soft ticks usually feed at night and remain attached for a very short time, so most people never realize a tick bit them, DOH said. Unlike the other ticks found in the outdoors which are hard, soft ticks “look like little bags with legs” and behave more like a bed bug, according to a DOH entomologist.
The main symptoms of relapsing fever are high fever, headaches, and muscle and joint aches. Symptoms can recur repeatedly if the infection is not treated, with cycles of 2-7 days of illness alternating with 4-14 days of recovery. Without antibiotic treatment, this cycle can repeat several times.
Tick-borne relapsing fever infections typically occur in summer months, but people can become infected year-round and sometimes in their primary homes, not just rustic cabins. Soft ticks are infected by feeding on mice or other rodents, and then pass the disease to humans. DOH recommends avoiding sleeping in places that have rodents, and taking steps to rodent-proof homes and cabins.
Okay, yuck.
If all this information about diseases and symptoms is alarming, keep in mind that we’ve got it pretty good here in Washington as far as tick-borne diseases go. And, there are things we can do to keep ticks off, or get the little suckers off if they’ve latched on.
Ticks are blood-feeding parasites that grab on to people and animals. Once aboard, ticks crawl to find a good spot to feed, then burrow their mouthparts into the skin for a blood meal. Their bodies slowly enlarge to accommodate the amount of blood ingested. Ticks feed anywhere from several minutes to several days depending on their species, life stage, and type of host, according to DOH.
So if you are in tick territory, preventing them from hitching a ride is the best way to avoid bites. DOH offers the following suggestions:
• Know where to expect ticks. Many ticks live in grassy, brushy, or wooded areas. When possible, avoid wooded and brushy areas with tall grass and leaf litter. Walk in the center of trails, particularly in spring and summer when ticks feed.
• Wear appropriate clothing. When in tick habitats, wear light-colored, tightly woven long pants and long-sleeve shirt. Tuck your pant legs into socks or boots, and your shirt into your pants. This helps keep ticks on the outside of your clothing where you can spot them more easily.
• Use tick repellent when necessary, and follow instructions on the label.
• Check clothing, gear, and pets after being in potential tick habitats. Ticks can hitch a ride into your home on clothing and pets, then attach to you or a family member later. Carefully examine coats, camping gear, daypacks, and your dog.
• Shower soon after being outdoors. Showering within two hours of being in tick habitat can reduce your risk of getting Lyme disease and may be effective in reducing the risk of other tick-borne diseases. Showering can wash off unattached ticks and it is a good opportunity to do a tick check.
• Check your body and your child’s thoroughly for ticks. Carefully inspect areas in and around the hair, head, neck, ears, under arms, inside the belly button, around the waist, between the legs, and behind the knees. Ticks can be very small before they feed — look for what may appear like a new freckle or speck of dirt. Continue checking for two to three days after returning from areas with ticks.
Offloading
If you do find a tick on board, there is a right way to get it off that does not involve matches, petroleum jelly, soap, or nail polish. Folklore remedies like theses may make matters worse by irritating the tick and causing it to release additional saliva, increasing the chance of transmitting disease, health officials said.
Your goal is to remove the tick as soon as possible — don’t wait for it to detach. DOH advises the following steps:
• Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin surface as possible. Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Avoid removing the tick with bare hands. Don’t twist or jerk the tick; this may cause the mouthparts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouthparts with clean tweezers. If you are unable to remove the mouth easily, leave it alone and let the skin heal.
• After removing the tick, thoroughly clean and disinfect the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.
• If you develop a rash, fever, or flu-like illness within several weeks of removing the tick, see your health care provider. Tell the health care provider about your recent tick bite, when the bite occurred and where you most likely acquired the tick.
• If you want to contribute to public health and science, you can save your tick and send it to DOH for identification. Make sure it’s dead first, though. Because different tick species transmit different diseases, knowing the tick species may help a health care provider diagnose an illness that could be associated with a tick bite. DOH has instructions on submitting ticks on its website.
Enjoy the outdoors! For more information about ticks, go to: doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/pests/ticks.
