You can see many ticks on your skin, though the smallest ones may look like a freckle, speck of dirt, or tiny dark bump.
Ticks can crawl across your clothing before attaching. You may not feel a tick bite because ticks can numb the surrounding area.
A prompt, head-to-toe check after hiking, gardening, camping, or spending time in tall grass can help you find ticks before they stay attached for hours or days.
Look over your skin, hair, clothing, gear, and pets. Remove an attached tick promptly rather than waiting to identify its species.
What an Attached Tick Looks Like
An attached tick may look like a small, raised spot with a visible body and, sometimes, tiny legs.
Its size and color can change as it feeds, so examine suspicious bumps in bright light and use a magnifying glass when needed.
Size, Color, and Feeding Changes
Adult ticks often measure about one-quarter inch long before feeding, although size varies by species.
Nymphs, sometimes called seed ticks, can be as small as a poppy seed or pinhead.
An unfed tick may look flat and reddish-brown, black, or gray, with darker legs or markings.
As it takes a blood meal, its abdomen expands and may become rounder, grayish, bluish, or mottled.
A loose tick may move slowly across your skin or clothing.
An attached tick usually stays firmly in place when you brush over it.
Not every tick bite causes itching, so tick bites are not always itchy.
Common Places Ticks Hide
Ticks often move toward warm, protected areas.
Check your scalp, hairline, neck, ears, armpits, belly button, waistline, back, groin, buttocks, and behind your knees.
Also inspect your ankles, socks, shoe openings, calves, spaces between your toes, bra lines, and underwear edges.
Use a mirror or ask someone you trust to check areas you cannot see easily.
Tick, Scab, or Speck of Dirt?
An attached tick may feel firm and have a distinct body or legs.
A scab usually has an irregular crust, while a mole is part of your skin, does not move, and has no legs.
If you suspect a tick, do not squeeze, burn, smother, or coat it with petroleum jelly, nail polish, or alcohol.
Use fine-tipped tweezers to remove it promptly.
What the Skin May Look Like After a Bite
Your skin may show little more than a small red spot after a tick detaches.
Since tick bites can sometimes transmit Lyme disease or another tick-borne illness, watch for changes in the bite area and for new symptoms in the days or weeks afterward.
Normal Local Skin Reactions
A small area of redness, mild swelling, tenderness, or itching can occur near a tick bite.
These reactions often improve within a few days and do not automatically indicate infection.
Avoid scratching the area.
Wash it gently with soap and water, and note its appearance so you can recognize whether it expands or changes.
Rashes on Different Skin Tones
Redness may be easier to see on lighter skin.
On brown or Black skin, a reaction may look pink, purple, reddish-brown, or darker than the surrounding skin, and swelling or warmth may be more noticeable than color.
Take a photo in natural light if you can.
A photo gives you a useful record if the rash changes or you need to describe it to a clinician.
Why an Expanding Rash Is Different
A rash that steadily enlarges over several days deserves medical attention, especially after outdoor exposure in an area where Lyme disease occurs.
It may resemble a bull’s-eye, though Lyme disease rashes do not always have that pattern and may not appear on every person.
According to Lyme disease prevention guidance, an expanding rash or an unexplained feverish, achy, fatigued illness can develop within one to four weeks.
A rash can also be linked to another tick-borne illness, so do not try to diagnose it from appearance alone.
Safe Steps After Finding a Tick
Remove an attached tick as soon as you notice it.
Clean the area and record when and where the exposure happened.
Monitor yourself for fever, chills, headache, unusual tiredness, muscle aches, joint pain, or a spreading rash.
Removing It With Fine-Tipped Tweezers
Use clean, fine-tipped tweezers and grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible, near its mouthparts.
Pull upward with slow, steady pressure, without twisting or jerking.
Clean your hands and the bite area with soap and water or an alcohol-based cleanser.
Seal the tick in tape or a closed container, or place it in alcohol.
A clear photo may help a clinician identify it if symptoms develop.
If small mouthparts remain and you cannot remove them easily, leave them alone and let your skin heal.
Do not crush the tick with your bare fingers or apply heat, petroleum jelly, nail polish, or alcohol while it is attached.
Cleaning the Area and Monitoring Symptoms
Mark the edge of visible redness with a pen and write down the date.
Check the area and your health over the following days and weeks.
A shower may remove unattached ticks.
Guidance on tick bites notes that showering within two hours of outdoor exposure may reduce the chance of a tick-borne disease.
A shower will not reliably remove a tick that has already attached.
When to Contact a Clinician
Contact a clinician if you develop a spreading rash, fever, chills, headache, facial weakness, swollen glands, unusual fatigue, muscle aches, or joint pain.
Tell the clinician when and where the bite occurred and how long the tick may have been attached.
Ask whether preventive treatment is appropriate, particularly if the tick may have been a disease-carrying species or attached for an extended period.
The CDC’s Lyme disease prevention guidance notes that a single dose of doxycycline may lower Lyme disease risk in certain circumstances.
Seek urgent care for severe headache, trouble breathing, confusion, weakness, or rapidly worsening illness.
Symptoms associated with Rocky Mountain spotted fever and other infections can require prompt evaluation.
Lowering Your Chances of Another Bite
You can reduce exposure by checking your body and clothing consistently, using appropriate repellents, and making your yard less suitable for ticks.
Continue checking after time in wooded areas, brush, leaf litter, tall grass, and even your own backyard.
Doing a Thorough Tick Check
Before getting into your car or home, scan your ankles, lower legs, wrists, and clothing for crawling ticks.
Once indoors, remove your clothes and inspect your skin, hair, gear, and pets.
Pay special attention to your scalp, ears, neck, armpits, waist, groin, belly button, behind your knees, and between your toes.
Use bright light, a full-length mirror, a handheld mirror, and your fingertips to find small bumps or hidden ticks.
Place washable clothing in the dryer according to its care label, and inspect backpacks, shoes, and outdoor equipment.
Ask another person to check your scalp and back when necessary.
Using DEET and Permethrin
Apply an EPA-registered repellent containing DEET as directed on the label.
Do not apply repellent to irritated skin, and follow age-specific instructions for children.
Treat clothing and gear with permethrin products labeled for that purpose, or buy clothing treated with permethrin.
Do not apply permethrin directly to your skin, and follow the product directions carefully.
Light-colored long pants, long sleeves, closed-toe shoes, and pants tucked into socks can make crawling ticks easier to spot and reduce access to your skin.
Reducing Tick Habitat Around You
Keep grass short. Trim brush around areas where you spend time.
Clear leaf litter, fallen branches, and debris. Keep wood piles away from play spaces.
Place play equipment and seating away from brush and lawn edges when possible. Secure trash and clean up spilled birdseed to reduce food and shelter that attract wildlife carrying ticks.
Recheck yourself, your clothing, gear, and pets after outdoor activities.
