Lone star ticks becoming more common in Kansas. How to ID them, what to do if one bites you

Over the past few years, ticks seem to have become increasingly common in Kansas.

While most tick bites amount to little more than a few days of redness and mild discomfort, in some rare cases a tick bite can turn harmful.

If you’ve seen a tick out in the wild, it’s more than likely been a Lone Star tick, which make up over 80% of ticks in the state, and are mostly found in the eastern half of the state.

Dr. Town Peterson, a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas, confirms that there have been some changes in tick prevalence and distributions in Kansas over time, even if their causes are uncertain.

A bite from a Lone Star tick can cause rare complications, such as allergies to red meat, milk and even some medications. According to K-State Research and Extension Food Scientist Karen Blakeslee, you’re at higher risk for these complications as you accumulate multiple tick bites.

Areas of Kansas that are particularly grassy are more likely to house thousands of ticks looking for their next meal. With changing climates and increased contact with wildlife, your chances of encountering Lone Star ticks outside this summer are pretty high.

Here is your guide to identifying, avoiding and treating potential tick bites.

IDENTIFYING A LONE STAR TICK

Ticks primarily live in wooded, bushy and grassy areas, which can mean hiking trails and lawns.

Lone Star ticks go through several life stages during their growth, and in their smallest size are often known as seed ticks. Jeff Whitworth, an entomologist and extension specialist in entomology at K-State, says these minute ticks are abundant and typically the hardest to find.

“If you find one tiny seed tick with 6 legs on you, chances are there are a lot more, too,” Whitworth said. The Lone Star tick lays hundreds of eggs, meaning most of these ticks exist in concentrated groups searching for prey.

Identifying these tiny Lone Star ticks is hard, but these tips from the Tick Research Lab of Pennsylvania can help:

• Small larvae ticks (seed ticks) have 6 legs and are lighter in color

• Adult male and female ticks are reddish brown in color and have 8 legs

• Adult female ticks have a distinct white dot on their round body, which give them their name as “Lone Star”

WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET BIT

Most tick bites are harmless, but it’s still important to practice good public health practices when you find a tick bite.

The CDC recommends the following steps to remove ticks attached to skin:

• Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible

• Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don’t twist or jerk the tick; this can cause the mouth-parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouth-parts with tweezers. If you are unable to remove the mouth easily with clean tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal.

• After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub or soap and water

• Dispose of a live tick by submerging it in alcohol, placing it in a sealed bag/container, wrapping in tape or flushing it down the toilet. Never crush a tick with your fingers.

Even though Lone Star ticks don’t carry Lyme disease, Whitworth and Peterson both emphasize the importance of observing the site of the bite for infection or development of a classic bulls-eye rash indicative of Lyme disease. Keeping an eye out for that kind of rash can be life-saving. In that case of any prolonged reddening or swelling, seek medical help.

PREVENTING TICK BITES

As a self-professed hater of ticks for their harmful potential, Whitworth joked that the best way to prevent tick bites is to simply “stay inside.”

Whitworth and the CDC recommend several common sense approaches to preventing tick bites:

• Wear light-colored clothing that makes it easy to spot ticks

• Keep your lawn well-manicured to not attract large tick populations

• Use repellents with either deet or permethrin as their primary ingredient and keep re-applying throughout the day

• Thoroughly check you and your pets for ticks outside the home to prevent ticks from burrowing in carpets in the home

• Shower shortly after being outdoors

“Ticks are like us, they like early mornings and late evenings…if you [take precautions] and keep your yards well-manicured, you can avoid them,” Whitworth says.

LEARNING MORE ABOUT TICKS

Despite the scientific advances that allow us to know so much about ticks and tick-borne diseases, much remains to be known about ticks in the Midwest. To Peterson, “the diseases that ticks bear in the Great Plains are pretty much an unknown frontier.”

Peterson says changes in the Kansas landscape, especially Eastern Kansas becoming far more wooded and bushy, have likely contributed to changing tick distributions in the state. His upcoming collaborative research project out of KU partnered with Pittsburgh State, University of Oklahoma, University of Central Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State University, will study tick distributions and ecology across Kansas and Oklahoma.

Eventually, results from the project will help develop risk maps and smartphone apps for the public to better understand where ticks are most prevalent and what tickborne diseases to look out for.