SHARE THIS ARTICLE:
Tick Photos | What do Deer Ticks & Other Ticks Look Like?
TICK VECTORS (For more information about ticks click here)
These tick photos may help you to identify the different species of ticks and what they look like at various life stages. Some tick photos include objects to help you compare their size to the actual size of the ticks.
There are a number of ticks in the United States that can carry and/or transmit many diseases which people and their pets may get from a tickbite. Often, one tickbite can transmit several different diseases. The ticks most often talked about are the Ixodes scapularis, commonly known as the deer tick or blacklegged tick, and its western cousin, Ixodes pacificus, the western blacklegged tick. Both of these ticks transmit Lyme disease.
Various tick photos below are from LDA’s LymeR Primer – Available for online ordering
Latin Name (Common Name): Diseases they can transmit
Click photos for more descriptions
Ixodes scapularis
(deer tick or black legged tick)
Found in Northeast & Upper Midwest
Lyme (B. burgdorferi, B. mayonii), Borrelia miyamotoi, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, Powassan encephalitis, tick paralysis, tularemia, bartonellosis, ehrlichiosis (due to Ehrlichia muris-like).
Ixodes scapularis have been shown to carry Ehrlichiosis (HME), but to date, transmission is still in question
Amblyomma americanum (lone star tick)
Found throughout the Eastern part of United States
Human monocytic ehrlichiosis, Heartland (Phlebovirus), STARI (Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness), tularemia, tick paralysis, Q fever, bite may cause alpha-gal (meat) allergy
Dermacentor variabilis (American dog tick)
Found throughout the United States
Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, tick paralysis.
Although a small percentage of dog ticks carry the Lyme bacterium, (Borrelia burgdorferi) transmission has not been proven.
Dermacentor andersoni
(Rocky Mountain wood tick)
Found in Rocky Mountain States & SW Canada
Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, Colorado tick fever, tick paralysis, Q fever.
Looks similar to American dog tick.
Ixodes pacificus
(western black legged tick)
Found in Western N. America
Lyme, babesiosis, anaplasmosis (aka human granulocytic ehrlichiosis), bartonellosis.
Ixodes pacificus has been shown to carry ehrlichiosis (HME), but to date, transmission is still in question.
Amblyomma maculatum
(Gulf Coast tick)
Found in Eastern & Southern U.S., esp. along coast
Rickettsia parkeri Rickettsiosis
Note symptoms: fever, headache, eschar(s), variable rash
Dermacentor occidentalis (Pacific Coast tick)
Found in Northern CA & Pacific Coast
Rickettsia phillipi (364D).
Note symptoms: fever, eschar(s).
See More in
Photo Gallery
Below
PHOTO GALLERY
