Here is a picture of deer ticks and the American brown Dog Tick. The ruler is 1/16th of an inch per line and the ticks are sitting on a postage stamp! The four on the right are deer tick. The two smallest are the nymphs which generally amount to over 75% of all cases of lyme disease. They are so small that you may not even know it is on you. The two larger ones on the left are Dog ticks and don't spread disease



This gives us an idea of what we are talking about. The dog ticks are much bigger and easier to diagnose. The nymph (baby) deer ticks seem to spread the most disease but only in MAY, JUNE, and JULY. Adult deer ticks bite most in Fall.

Caution..... If you don't know what kind of tick it is, take it somewhere where they can diagnose it. I was biten by a deer tick last summer and thankfully it was caught early in the disease from the rash that developed and the antibiotic (21 days of it) cleared it completely up. I realize some people are not this lucky and end up with serious health problems.

[ October 29, 2001: Message edited by: Dixieland Dancer ]