How can you tell how long a tick has been attached?
Adell Adams
2025-08-05 04:35:04
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: 11
If the tick has a swollen or rounded body, and the color has changed from brick red to a gray or brown, is an indication that the tick has been feeding and may have been attached for more than 36 hours. Unfed deer (blacklegged) ticks are typically flat. The CDC notes that most Lyme disease cases are caused by nymph ticks because larger ticks are more easily discovered and removed. Young ticks, or nymphs, may just look like a small brown or black spot that is hard to remove. If you aren't sure how long the tick has been attached or know that it has been more than 36 hours, seek medical attention that day or the next. Once a tick bites you, it will likely attach itself to you and won’t let go until it is full, depending on the type of tick, this may take three to 10 days.
Theo Berge
2025-08-04 23:43:17
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: 19
The dose of germs transmitted from an infected tick increases the longer a tick is feeding as does the risk for infection and disease. A day 3 infected tick is riskier than a tick attached for one day or less. Time to transmission Risk for transmission of many tickborne germs increases the longer a tick is attached and feeding. Note the scutum stays the same size no matter how big the tick grows during feeding.
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