Ticks can make you sick when they transmit bacteria, viruses, or parasites while feeding.
The species, your location, how long the tick stayed attached, and the pathogen involved all affect your risk.
Blacklegged ticks, lone star ticks, American dog ticks, and several regional species most often cause serious illness in the U.S. Many tick-borne illnesses start with fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, or a rash. Prompt medical advice matters after a bite.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tick guidance explains that different tick-borne diseases can look alike.
Recording where and when you found the tick, saving it when possible, and watching for symptoms can help your healthcare provider assess the risk.
Common U.S. Ticks and Their Health Risks
Identifying ticks can be difficult, especially with larval ticks and partially fed specimens.
Your region and exposure setting, such as wooded areas, grassy trails, or places with deer and foxes, can provide useful clues.
Blacklegged Tick and Western Blacklegged Tick
The blacklegged tick, often called the deer tick, lives in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and upper Midwest.
The western blacklegged tick lives mainly along the Pacific Coast. Both species can transmit Lyme disease, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi.
These ticks can also spread anaplasmosis, babesiosis caused by Babesia microti, Borrelia miyamotoi disease, and Powassan virus.
CDC guidance recommends reducing exposure in areas where these ticks live.
Lone Star Tick
The lone star tick lives across the South, Southeast, and parts of the Midwest and Northeast.
It can transmit ehrlichiosis, caused by Ehrlichia bacteria, and may be associated with southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI).
Researchers have linked lone star tick exposure with rare infections involving Bourbon virus and Heartland virus.
A lone star tick does not transmit Lyme disease, but its bite can cause irritation and a rash that may look like an expanding Lyme rash.
American Dog Tick and Other Regional Species
The American dog tick lives east of the Rocky Mountains and along parts of the Pacific Coast.
It can transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) and tularemia.
The brown dog tick can also spread some Rickettsia infections, especially in certain settings.
Other regional species can transmit Rickettsia parkeri rickettsiosis, Colorado tick fever, or tick-borne relapsing fever.
Risk varies by state and habitat, so tick identification alone cannot confirm whether a bite transmitted disease.
Symptoms That Need Medical Attention
Tick-borne diseases often start with nonspecific symptoms, including fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, body aches, and weakness.
Your healthcare provider may consider your symptoms, travel or outdoor exposure, geographic region, and testing when evaluating you.
Flu-Like Symptoms and Expanding Rashes
Contact a healthcare provider if you develop flu-like symptoms within days or weeks after a tick bite.
A spreading or expanding rash, especially one that looks like a target, can occur with Lyme disease, though not everyone develops one.
Rashes may also occur with STARI, RMSF, ehrlichiosis, or tularemia.
Fever and chills with marked fatigue, headache, muscle aches, or body aches deserve attention even when no rash appears.
Symptoms can overlap, so do not try to identify the illness from the rash alone.
Urgent Neurologic Symptoms
Seek urgent medical care for weakness, numbness, confusion, trouble speaking, difficulty breathing, facial weakness, or paralysis.
Tick paralysis results from a toxin in the saliva of an attached tick and can gradually move upward through the body.
Tick paralysis may resemble Guillain-Barré syndrome or other neurologic conditions.
Removing the attached tick can lead to recovery, but progressive symptoms require immediate evaluation.
When to Contact a Healthcare Provider
Call promptly after a bite if you develop fever, chills, a new rash, severe headache, weakness, or significant joint pain.
Tell the clinician when and where the exposure occurred, whether you removed the tick, and how long it may have been attached.
Keep watching for symptoms for several weeks, even if the bite site looks minor.
Lowering Risk Before and After Outdoor Time
You can reduce exposure by using repellent, wearing protective clothing, choosing safe routes, and doing careful tick checks.
Ticks often wait on grass and shrubs, so staying near the center of maintained trails can limit contact.
Repellents and Protective Clothing
Use an EPA-registered tick repellent containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, para-menthane-diol, or 2-undecanone, following the label.
Treat clothing and gear with permethrin products designed for that purpose, rather than applying them directly to your skin.
Wear long sleeves, long pants, and light-colored protective clothing so crawling ticks are easier to spot.
Tuck pants into socks when walking through tall grass, brush, or leaf litter.
How to Do Thorough Tick Checks
Perform tick checks as soon as you return indoors.
Examine your ankles, behind your knees, groin, waist, armpits, neck, hairline, and scalp, along with children’s skin and clothing.
Check pets, bags, and outdoor gear as well.
Showering soon after outdoor activity can help remove unattached ticks, while putting worn clothing in a hot dryer can kill ticks that remain on fabric.
Safe Tick Removal With Tweezers
Use clean, fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible. Pull upward with steady, even pressure, and avoid twisting or crushing the tick.
After you remove the tick, clean the bite area and your hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based cleanser. Do not cover the tick with petroleum jelly, nail polish, or heat.
Record the date and location of the bite. Seek medical advice if symptoms appear.
