How Much Do You Know About Ticks?

I woke up one morning and for some reason I put my hand on my back (maybe an itch) and felt something that I thought was a scab.  I had Ron look at it.  He said it looked black and wasn't sure what it was.  I decided I would wait a few days and see what happened.  Then I went to play pickleball, and one of the players is a nurse.  I decided it couldn't hurt to ask her to look at it.  I'm so glad it did.  She examined it, and in a few seconds determined that it was a tick.  Where in the world would I pick up a tick?  Not sure, but I freaked out when Beth told me I had a blood sucking tick in my back.  Removal was easy.  I went and got a book of matches.  Beth lit a match, let it burn out, then placed it on the tick.  Half the tick came out with the first match, the rest came out with the second match.  Whew, was I relieved.  Then, I hurried home to check Pepper.  Luckily, there were no ticks on him.  I guess the reality is that you can pick up a tick anywhere, even living in the city.  I'm just glad I had my pickleball group, especially nurse Beth, there to diagnose and operate on me.  Teamwork got that pesky tick removed.  Here are just a few facts about ticks that you may or may not know.

1.  Ticks have four stages of life:  egg, larva, nymph and adult.
2.  There are about 850 tick species, some of which are capable of transmitting diseases such as Lyme disease, Ehrichia, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
3.  Ticks feed on the blood of their host.
4.  Ticks may appear as a small dark speck on your pet's fur.
5.  Tick infestations are more common in dogs than cats.
6.  Ticks are generally not born with disease agents.  They acquire them during feeding and pass them along into other animals during subsequent feedings.
7.  Pets may contract multiple diseases from a single tick bite.
8.  The brown dog tick and the American dog tick are the most common carriers of disease among dogs.
9.  Never remove a tick with your bare hands.  Instead, using tweezers, grasp the tick close to the skin and pull gently.  Or, do as Beth did and light a match and after blowing out flame, put the heat directly on the tick.  It works.