Ticks and Lyme Disease
This page is about the ticks that cause Lyme Disease.
For information about Lyme Disease prevention see the Lyme Disease page.
Ticks
A tick is an arthropod (and is not an insect). They are small animals with a rounded body, small head and eight legs.
They attach themselves to a passing human or animal and then crawl about looking for a suitable feeding site. The tick then bites through the skin and sucks blood. It can take as long as three to five days to finish feeding and the tick then dislodges itself, having a more swollen body, and drops to the ground.
Immature ticks are smaller than adult ticks and may not be felt on the skin.
Lyme Disease is particularly associated with land roamed by deer but ticks will feed off other mammals during their lifecycle.
Location of ticks
Worldwide the ticks can be found in temperate zones including the USA. Certainly other European countries are affected such as France, Germany and the East European Countries.
The Health Protection Agency indicates that approximately two-thirds of those infections acquired in the UK were in the southern counties of England, and in particular the New Forest, Salisbury Plain, Exmoor, the South Downs, and parts of Wiltshire, Berkshire and Thetford Forest.
Nationally other areas that may have infected ticks include the Lake District, the Yorkshire moors and the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Please note: This listing is not exclusive and infected ticks could be anywhere.
In theory any grassy, bushy or woodland area may have a tick population, even back gardens.
Organisations interested in ticks
For full details and a form on how to submit your tick see the Tick Recording scheme (Health Protection Agency website).
The HPA is collecting ticks, in collaboration with the Biological Records Centre to expand the general understanding of the distribution of British ticks.
Sending in your collected ticks will also assist the National Biodiversity Network database.
Related websites
Contact
- email: food.safety@reigate-banstead.gov.uk
- telephone: 01737 276417.
Last updated : 18/08/2008
