Summer is here and Iowans are spending more time outdoors, but that time outdoors can bring you into close contact with ticks. These blood-sucking bugs can spread diseases such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. To protect yourself, West Des Moines pest control experts recommend familiarizing yourself with the signs of a tick bite.
Where Ticks Bite
Ticks are common in wooded or bushy areas, as well as in areas with tall grass. If your summer activities bring you into these types of areas, you could be at risk of tick bites. However, you don’t need to go hiking in the woods to run into ticks; they can even be found in your own yard, especially if your grass is long.
Tick Bites Can Be Painless
When ticks bite, they can remain attached to their victims for as long as 10 days. Surprisingly, most people don’t have any symptoms and don’t even remember being bitten.
To identify these symptom-less bites, check your skin after spending time outdoors. Prime areas for tick bites are the armpits, groin, hair, and other warm, moist areas. If you discover a tick feeding on you, carefully remove it with fine-tipped tweezers.
Signs of Tick Bites
If the biting tick isn’t detected, it will fall off the skin once it’s finished its blood meal. The site of the bite can develop redness, itching, or burning, and may be mistaken for another type of bug bite, like a mosquito bite. For those who are allergic to tick bites, symptoms may include a rash, shortness of breath, or swelling.
Some ticks carry diseases. In the days and weeks after a tick bite, you may start to show signs of these diseases, which include headaches, nausea, muscle or joint pain, swollen lymph nodes, and chills.
How to Avoid Tick Bites
Fortunately, there are simple precautions you can take to protect yourself from tick bites. When you’re outdoors, wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants, and tuck your pant legs into your socks. For more protection, you can treat your clothing with repellents that contain 0.5% permethrin. You can also apply repellents that contain DEET to your skin.
While you can’t control tick populations in the woods, you can reduce their numbers on your own property. Mow your grass regularly and clean up yard debris to reduce a tick habitat. To further reduce ticks, you can have a pest control professional spray tick pesticide on your property.
Tick bites can be dangerous. This summer, take steps to protect yourself and your family. Call Pro-Staff, the West Des Moines pest control experts, for help controlling ticks.
