Welcome to the South. :-) Lone Star Tick may be our most common species
here. It very rarely carries Lyme disease, but does carry a closely
related Lyme-like illness called southern tick-associated rash (STAR).
The most common tick disease around here is Rocky Mountain Spotted
Fever, which is about 30% fatal if untreated (3-5% if treated), so go to
a doctor if you get a fever and headache in the summer, especially if
you know you've been bitten by a tick.

Here's a list of our common ticks and the diseases they carry:

Amblyomma americanum (L.) - Lone Star Tick
Borrelia lonestari - southern tick-associated rash illness
(http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/stari/)
Ehrlichia spp. - human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME), human
granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE)
(http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/ehrlichia/)

Ixodes scapularis Say - Black-legged Tick
Borrelia burgdorferi - Lyme disease
(http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/)
Babesia microti - Babesiosis
(http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/babesia/)

Dermacentor variabilis (Say) - American Dog Tick
Rickettsia rickettsii, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
(http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rmsf/)

The longer the tick is attached, the higher likelihood it will transmit
a disease, so do tick checks often!

Will


Joy in Durham wrote:
Now for a scary sighting...

I thought I was seeing things this morning, but no, there it was, a
lone star tick crawling up a pants leg. I wasn't wearing it at the
time as the pants were thrown over a rack in my room. It must have
latched on somewhere from a recent hike on the Eno River, or out in
the garden? Has anyone else seen these recently?

I had never seen this type of tick before. Very distinctive. The long
probiscious (sp?) sticks out from the body and it has that dot of
silver on the back. I found a link that shows the difference between
the lone star and more common dog tick. A good photograph for anyone
interested.

http://www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegal/...fanddvarf.html

Sorry, I did NOT save the tick.

Joy in Durham

Here's another reminder to be careful with ticks... Lyme Disease is bad,
but Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever can kill you in a week or so. If you go
to a doctor for a summer 'flu', be sure to mention if you've been bitten
by a tick!

UNC Swimmer Dies From Tick Bite
http://www.wral.com/news/2237649/detail.html

Will Cook wrote:
Welcome to the South. :-) Lone Star Tick may be our most common species
here. It very rarely carries Lyme disease, but does carry a closely
related Lyme-like illness called southern tick-associated rash (STAR).
The most common tick disease around here is Rocky Mountain Spotted
Fever, which is about 30% fatal if untreated (3-5% if treated), so go to
a doctor if you get a fever and headache in the summer, especially if
you know you've been bitten by a tick.

Here's a list of our common ticks and the diseases they carry:

Amblyomma americanum (L.) - Lone Star Tick
Borrelia lonestari - southern tick-associated rash illness
(http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/stari/)
Ehrlichia spp. - human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME), human
granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE)
(http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/ehrlichia/)

Ixodes scapularis Say - Black-legged Tick
Borrelia burgdorferi - Lyme disease
(http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/)
Babesia microti - Babesiosis
(http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/babesia/)

Dermacentor variabilis (Say) - American Dog Tick
Rickettsia rickettsii, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
(http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rmsf/)

The longer the tick is attached, the higher likelihood it will transmit
a disease, so do tick checks often!

Will


Joy in Durham wrote:

Now for a scary sighting...

I thought I was seeing things this morning, but no, there it was, a
lone star tick crawling up a pants leg. I wasn't wearing it at the
time as the pants were thrown over a rack in my room. It must have
latched on somewhere from a recent hike on the Eno River, or out in
the garden? Has anyone else seen these recently?

I had never seen this type of tick before. Very distinctive. The long
probiscious (sp?) sticks out from the body and it has that dot of
silver on the back. I found a link that shows the difference between
the lone star and more common dog tick. A good photograph for anyone
interested.

http://www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegal/...fanddvarf.html
Sorry, I did NOT save the tick.
Joy in Durham

I am not a big fan of the CDC for a whole lot of reasons. The main one
being that their statistics on Lyme are all wrong since they only
track a % of patients (those who make antibodies).

Lyme can kill you. But it usually takes longer than one week. Rocky
Mountain still does not compare to the tick disease Ehrlichiosis in
killing power.

One big thing I noticed..the CDC also needs to update their
information. STARI or Southern Tick Associated Rash Illness was
renamed Master's Disease over a year ago!!

Kara Tyson
Lyme Disease Support Group of AL