Many people are squeezing in the last bit of summer by enjoying the outdoors through walks, hiking on trails, biking, camping, outdoor sports, and picnics in parks and forests. Unfortunately, these activities – sometimes even in our own backyards – increase our risk of being exposed to ticks and the diseases they carry.
Ticks are a nuisance. No one wants anything on their body that drinks their blood or – worse than that – also give you a disease. Most people are familiar with Lyme disease, but not the many other equally serious diseases that ticks carry. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now lists 14 diseases that ticks in the United States can transmit and cause human disease. The CDC website also has regional distribution maps with pictures of the ticks that carry these diseases and where in the nation they are most like to be.
