Health
Male Deer Tick Female Deer & Dog Tick

Ticks

It’s that time of year again and ticks become a growing problem during the Spring/Summer months! 

First and foremost, if you find a tick on your child, don’t panic!  Most tick bites are harmless and the spread of disease by ticks is rare!!  Ticks can only transmit infection when they've been attached to the skin for a long period of time (12 to 48 hours). If the tick you see is crawling on your child's clothing, or on his/her skin and is still small, there's really nothing to worry about.

Be sure to check the rest of your child's body for other ticks. Look carefully at his/her scalp, armpits, groin area, and between his fingers and toes — these are some of ticks' favorite hiding places.

Types of Ticks

There are many types of ticks.  Check on-line when you have found a tick to ensure which tick you it is.

  • The Wood Tick (Dog Tick) is the size of a watermelon seed and can sometimes transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Colorado tick fever.
  • The Deer Tick is between the size of a poppy seed (pin head) and an apple seed, and can sometimes transmit Lyme disease.
  • The Lone Star Tick Adults are about 1/8-inch long and brown. The adult
    female has a white spot in the middle of her back. Because they are so
    similar in size, the lone star tick is sometimes misidentified as the
    blacklegged / deer tick.

For additional images of ticks, visit the Image Gallery

Removing a Tick

Remove the tick immediately, by:

  • Use a pair of tweezers and grasp the tick close to the skin (on its head). See picture on the left.
  • Pull the tick straight upward without twisting or crushing it.
  • Maintain a steady pressure until it releases its grip.
  • If tweezers aren't available, use your fingers, a loop of thread around the jaws, or a needle between the jaws for traction.
  • Tiny deer ticks need to be scraped off with a knife blade or credit card edge.

Note:  Covering the tick with petroleum jelly, nail polish, or rubbing alcohol doesn't work. Neither does touching the tick with a hot or cold object. In fact, by irritating the tick, it can cause it to inject the contents of its stomach into your child’s blood, therefore, increasing the risk of infection.

Tick's Head

If the wood tick's head breaks off in the skin, remove it.

  • Clean the skin with rubbing alcohol.
  • Use a sterile needle to uncover the head and lift it out.
  • If unsuccessful, call your doctor.

What if I don't remove all of it?

If part of the tick remains buried, don't worry. It's not going to increase the risk of a tick-borne infection. Just remove it as you would a splinter. As with a splinter, if you can't get it completely out fairly easily, don't dig around. Your child's body may expel the piece on its own. If not, and any sign of a local infection develops (redness, oozing, warmth), take your child to the doctor.

Dispose of the tick in the toilet or by putting it in a plastic bag and then in the garbage.

Antibiotic Ointment

Wash the wound and your hands with soap and water after removal to prevent catching any tick disease.  Apply antibiotic ointment to the bite once.

Call Your Doctor If

  • You can't remove the tick or the tick's head. (Note: if the removed tick is moving, it was completely removed).
  • Fever or rash in the next 2 weeks.
  • Bite begins to look infected.
  • Your child looks or acts very sick.
  • Widespread rash occurs 2 to 14 days following the bite.
  • Fever or severe headache occurs 2 to 14 days following the bite.
  • Bite looks infected (red streaking from the bite area, yellow drainage).  (Note: infection doesn't start until at least 24-48 hours after the bite.)
  • Red-ring or bull's eye rash occurs around a deer tick bite (Lyme disease rash begins 3 to 30 days after the bite).  
  • A red, expanding rash with central clearing following the bite of the lone star tick.
  • There is a more subtle rash with small, flat, pink, non-itchy spots on the wrists, forearms, and ankles.
  • You had a probable deer tick and it was attached for more than 24 hours (or tick appears swollen, not flat).

Other things to keep in mind

  • Tick infections, except Rocky Mountain spotted fever, are usually not transmitted from dog ticks, which are larger than the deer ticks that carry many of these infections. Dogs and other pets can carry deer ticks.
  • Ticks are most likely to transmit infection after feeding for more than one day. Therefore to greatly reduce your child's risk of infection do daily checks, especially when you child is outdoors a lot!
  • Lyme Disease and Rock Mountain spotted fever is most common during the late spring and summer months in the United States (May through August).
  • A tick bite can cause other symptoms than just a rash, read more at Keep Kids Healthy.
  • Ticks eventually fall off on their own after sucking blood for 3 to 6 days.
  • Tick bites normally don't itch or hurt.  That's why they often go unnoticed.
  • Keep your Pediatrician up to date on tick bites.  It is also a good idea to write down on your calendar or a journal what type of tick bit your child and the date.

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