Ticks are 8-legged arachnid parasites that, like female mosquitoes, feed on blood in order to survive. They prey on mammals (including humans), reptiles, birds, and amphibians, and although they cannot fly like mosquitoes, they can move from one animal to another, or situate themselves in ambush positions to crawl onto their prey. They can be identified by their eight legs, small heads, and large bodies that grow much bigger once they are engorged with blood. The largest ticks range from a sixteenth of an inch for larvae, to a quarter of an inch for the American Dog Tick, which is one of the largest. When found on human skin, they most closely resemble poppy seeds. Many are less than a quarter of an inch. Although ticks are also active in the winter, they prefer warmer, moister climates, and will dwell on leaves or leaf litter, in wood piles, and on vegetation in general. In general they are most likely to be found in forests or wooded areas, especially around populations of animals or areas where humans travel a lot. Ticks detect their prey by their carbon dioxide emissions from breathing, the ammonia from sweat, and the temperature that living things generate. They can also find their targets by detecting their movements.
Like mosquitoes, ticks are a potential vector for dangerous illnesses. One of the most famous is Lyme disease, which is passed by the deer tick and which can occasionally be fatal. Another tick-spread disease is meningoencephalitis, a disease that causes inflammation in the brain and can cause fatalities in up to two percent of all cases. Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a well-known bacterial disease that ticks transmit to humans. Whereas up to a third of people who contracted the disease died before the invention of tetracycline and other antibiotics, the fatality rate in America is now around five percent. Tularemia is yet another bacterial infection that ticks can pass onto humans, and its mortality rate is as high as fifty percent for the most virulent strains when left untreated.
Walking in the center of a trail will keep a hiker at an optimum distance away from ticks by avoiding contact with vegetation, making the person less reachable. Light clothing will make it easier to tell if a tick has landed on skin or clothing. Full coverage by clothing and sealing gaps in clothing will also make it harder for ticks to latch onto the skin and feed. Sealing gaps means tucking the legs of pants into socks, shoes or boots, and making sure that the shirt is tucked into the pants. Like with mosquitoes, repellents based on lemon eucalyptus or DEET can be applied to the skin to repel ticks, and clothes treated with permethrin will also keep them away. When washing clothes, drying the clothes first will deprive any hidden ticks of moisture and result in the death of the bugs by desiccation. If possible, put them in a dryer for ten minutes, and then the washer. Because of the threat of tick bites, hikers should carry tweezers as part of their hiking equipment. In the event of a bite, it will be necessary to remove the tick from the skin. To remove a tick that has already bitten, use the tweezers to gently grab it by the head or as close to its head as possible, which means to grasp it at where it comes into contact with the skin. The goal is to remove the entire tick without leaving mouth parts or the head still stuck inside the skin, which could lead to an infection. Once removed, the tick should be stored and preserved for analysis in case it may have transmitted an infectious disease into the blood stream.
Okaloosa County Mosquito Control District
84 Ready Avenue
Fort Walton Beach, Florida 32548
Phone: (850) 651-7394 or (850) 689-5774
Fax: (850) 651-7397
E-mail
302 N. Wilson St. - Suite 302
Crestview, FL 32536
1250 N. Eglin Parkway, Suite 100
Shalimar, FL 32579
Call 850-689-5050 or 850-423-1542 for all departments.