What You Should Know About Seed Ticks
Have you ever been traipsing through tall grass and came out to see hundreds of seed ticks scurrying up your legs? Maybe you were lucky enough not to experience such a large infestation, however this type of overwhelming appearance of seed ticks is actually quite common. Seed ticks tend to stick around together in numbers that reach into the hundreds and sometimes thousands. If you got away with only a few of these tiny ticks on you, the chances are still pretty high that wherever those ticks came from, many more lie in wait. Let’s take a look at what a seed tick really is and how one can safely treat a seed tick bite.
What are seed ticks?
Contrary to popular belief, seed ticks are not their own miniature species of tick. What we all known as a seed tick is actually just one of the four stages of life that a normal tick progresses through. The life stages of a tick are egg, larvae (which is the “seed tick” stage), nymph, and adult.
Are seed ticks dangerous?
All ticks carry a certain amount of danger. Ticks can carry several different diseases, such as lyme disease, tularemia, and rocky mountain spotted fever. Many speculate that the chances of contracting a disease from seed ticks are a little lessened than the risk that adult ticks carry. This is merely an assumption based off of the fact that the tick is still very young during the larval stage and may not be capable of carrying as many diseases as an adult tick. One should always take precaution, however, because it could still be possible to contract a disease from a young tick.
How to remove a seed tick
Removing a seed tick is generally an easier process than removing an adult tick. If the seed tick has not bitten you, you can use a strip of tape to remove the tick from your skin. If you have quite a few ticks crawling on you, but they haven’t attached yet, you can make a loop out of duct tape, slip your hand through the hole, and simply pick up the ticks that way. If you can help it, try not to just swipe the ticks away because the chances are high that they will have attached to your hand, clothing, or furniture (inside) and will end up finding their way back onto your skin.
Removing a tick that has attached itself to you requires a great deal more care. As you recall, ticks carry diseases and if you don’t remove a tick properly, you could actually increase the chances of becoming infected. Proper tick removal involves using tweezers to gently remove the tick’s head from your skin. To do this, slide the tweezers horizontally against your skin, making sure that the tick’s body is between the ends of the tweezers. Grasp the tick with the tweezers as close to the head as you can and pull directly upward. Be sure not to squeeze the tick’s body, as this could cause the contents of the stomach and body to expel into your skin.
How to treat a bitten area
Immediately after the tick has been removed, pour a bit of peroxide over the bite area or rub the area with isopropyl alcohol. This will ensure the eradication of any bacteria surrounding the bite and will help to minimize the chances of contracting an infection. If desired, you can apply antibiotic ointment to the bite and cover it with a small band-aid.
It would be a very good idea to make a note on the calendar of the day you received a tick bite. This way if symptoms of an illness follow soon after being bitten, you can give your doctor the exact date that the bite occurred. This can make the doctor’s job much easier in determining how far along the illness has come and what type of treatment should be administered.