Health Topic

Tick Bites

Tick bites can spread many diseases, including Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Learn how to prevent tick bites and what to do if you get bitten.

Reviewed Reviewed by a registered pharmacistGeneral information

Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About Tick Bites

Ticks are small parasites. They may look like insects, but they have eight legs and are related to spiders. Ticks feed on the blood of people and warm-blooded animals. There are many types of ticks in the United States, and they live in different parts of the country.

Ticks can be different colors and sizes. They can be light-colored, reddish brown, or dark brown. Some ticks are so small that they can be difficult to see. Ticks may get on you if you walk though areas where they live, such as tall grass, leaf litter or shrubs.

If you spend time outdoors or have pets that go outdoors, you need to beware of ticks. When they bite, certain types of ticks can pass on germs that cause different diseases. Sometimes the symptoms can be mild. In other cases, you can have serious, long-lasting health problems. Some of the diseases you can get from a tick bite (called tickborne diseases) include:

  • Lyme disease
  • Alpha-gal syndrome (tick bite red meat allergy)
  • Babesiosis
  • Ehrlichiosis
  • Rocky Mountain spotted fever
  • Tularemia

You may not feel it when a tick bites you. The tick can stay attached to your body for several days. If that tick is infected, it can pass along any germs to you once it starts sucking your blood. But if you catch it and remove it before it has filled up on your blood, you are less likely to get infected.

If you find a tick attached to your skin, remove the tick as soon as you can. You could use a tick removal device or a fine-tipped tweezers:

  • Using the tweezers, grab the tick as close to your skin as possible.
  • Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don't twist or jerk the tick. You want to remove the whole tick in one piece if you can. If the mouth-parts of the tick break off and stay in the skin, try to remove them. But if you can't remove them easily, then leave them.
  • Thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.

Many tickborne diseases can have similar signs and symptoms. The most common are:

  • Fever
  • Chills
  • Aches and pains
  • Rash

If you develop any of these symptoms within several weeks of removing a tick, contact your provider.

There are steps you can take to prevent tick bites:

  • Avoid wooded, brushy, and grassy areas, especially during warmer months.
  • Wear insect repellent with DEET, picaridin or another U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellent.
  • Wear light-colored protective clothing.
  • Treat your clothing and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin.
  • Tuck your pant legs into your socks and your shirt into your pants.
  • Remove your clothing after being outdoors. Check your clothing for ticks and remove any ticks that you find. Wash and dry your clothes at high temperatures.
  • Check yourself, your children, and your pets daily for ticks and carefully remove any ticks you find.

It sits within Infections, Skin, Hair and Nails and Injuries and Wounds.

The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on Tick Bites

15 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Research already completed

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

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Symptoms

Treatments and Therapies

Prevention and Risk Factors

Related Issues

Statistics and Research

Clinical Trials

Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Tick Bites, Tick-Borne Diseases. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Tick Bites, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.