Page 43 - Outdoor Oklahoma Magazine Mar-Apr2023

tick has really short and blunted mouthparts,
JAMES GATHANY/CDC
while the lone star tick has longer mouthparts.”

A NOTE ON FEMALE TICKS
“When I was growing up, I thought a fully
fed female was a different species than the
little bitty ticks. I just lumped all the fully fed
females together as a single species.”
Instead, a fully fed female of one species can
appear similar to a fully fed female of another
species. And a fully fed female can appear dif-
ferent than an unfed female of the same species.

TIPS FOR AVOIDING TICKS

“It’s not fashionable, but I recommend tuck-
ing your pants into knee high socks when in
medium to tall grass or in wooded habitats.
This can help keep ticks from gaining access JAMES GATHANY/CDC
to your skin.”
In addition to tucking shirts into pants and
pants into socks, outdoor adventurers can
also wear light colored clothing to help make
crawling ticks more visible. The ticks can then
be removed from the clothing before they can
attach to the skin.
“If you know you’re going into a heavily
infested area, spray yourself down. You can
also treat your clothes to help repel ticks.”
Tick repellants containing DEET can be
applied on the skin or on the clothes while
permethrin should only be applied to clothes
and shoes and allowed to completely dry
before use. The female lone star tick (top) has longer mouthparts than a female American dog
tick (bottom).
“My advice to those that venture into tick
prone areas is to do a thorough tick check.
If you do have an attached tick, remove it as TICK RESOURCES
quickly as possible by grasping the tick close
To learn more about ticks, scan these codes:
to the skin and slowly pulling backwards. If you
have any concerns about the tick bite, check
with your doctor.”
“When you’re growing up, you learn more
about mammals and birds and reptiles, so ticks Common TickEncounter The Tick App
Ticks of Resource
are completely alien. Learning about ticks is
Oklahoma Center
a bit like peeling back the onion. Once you and Tick-
Borne
start studying arachnids and insects, it opens a
Diseases
whole new world.”

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