Pests like the American Dog and Lonestar ticks have started making appearances all around Kansas due to warm spring weather. K-State veterinary entomologist Cassandra Olds says ticks are vectors of certain diseases and pose health risks. She discusses how to reduce the chances of tick bites.

“The best thing you can do is look a little bit, you know, not fashion forward, but you tuck your pants into your socks, wear long socks, tuck your shirt into your pants so that there’s no way for them to get in. You can even duct tape down your sleeves with some duct tape,” said Old.

People often panic about ticks, but removal is simple. The key is to stay calm. Quickly removing a tick after it attaches greatly reduces the risk of disease. The sooner it’s removed, the lower the chance of infection.

“What you want to do is grab the tick between your thumb and your index finger and you can just steady but firm pressure pull away from the body. You can do it with tweezers and things like that but the thing I like about using your actual fingers is you’ve got a lot more grip,” said Old. “With a tweezer sometimes you can slip a few times and then you’re starting to annoy the tick it gets a little bit freaked out. You know you squashing it so anything that’s in its gut can get forced back out so you really want to limit that then just wash the area and keep it clean as you would with any injury or wound.”

If you find a tick, Old said to place it in a sealed bag and store it in the freezer. If you feel fine after two weeks, you can throw it away. However, if you develop flu-like symptoms, take the tick to a doctor or send it for testing. Identifying the species helps determine potential infections and speeds up treatment. Keeping the tick allows for testing, giving doctors a better idea of what to look for.