What were your symptoms? I got bit by two ticks last May (after the jumped onto me undetected, while walking the dog), but never had noticeable effects.
First, they have to be deer tick botes. Deer ticks are smaller than regular ticks. Now, I am not an outdoorsman, and I almost always wear long sleeved shirts and do not own a pair of shorts. I always wear socks. When I lived in this wooded town in eastern CT, I went from the house to the car, from the car to the house. Nonetheless, my tick bite went undetected for sometime, as it was the back of my thigh.
If your bites might have been deer tick bites, you get a tell-tale “bullseye” shaped rash. I had one, I just couldn’t see it. If you have that rash, assume you have it.
Many do not get that rash, and symptoms run the gamut. In my case it was on-again off again flu symptoms with exTREME fatigue that would come and go. Others get joint pain, sweats, all sorts of things. Theer is a Lyme test, but it is not conclusive, it doesn’t detect a Lyme cell, it only says whether your blood work is consistent with someone who has Lyme.
Lyme is still mostly in the northeast and heavily wooded northern areas like Michigan, though its range has spread.
ticks don’t jump and are located in tall grasses and lawns.
Stay on the beaten path or paved areas and you will be OK or better off.
Just last week I went 10 feet into the road side by my place to pick up a beer can,came out and had one on my calf.
It was a dog tick much bigger than a deer tick but still a tick.
The only good tick is a dead tick
I am constantly looking down when out back.
Wear white socks to make it easier to see them
Baby deer ticks are the size of a Poppy Seed
If curious about the tick population in your yard/area make a “Tick Drag”
Simple and easy.
I did a freaked out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYLSNwB1Ar8
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/10/13/under-our-skin-documentary.aspx
I had fever & chills in a range I’d never experienced before (in terms of extremes of hot & cold), as well as achiness in my hands & feet. Ticks themselves don’t always carry it (only deer ticks do in my area, as opposed to the larger wood ticks), and supposedly they need to be attached for 24 hours to transmit (which I don’t believe). The old methods of removing them (burning with a hot match-head or simply digging out with tweezers) are now thought to be conducive to causing infection (by causing the tick to vomit inside you); special tick pliers and “keys” can now be bought (if you can’t find them in a sporting goods store try a pet store) that grasp it near the head and allow you to pull it out without either squeezing the stomach (as tweezers might) or leaving the head inside the wound. Now they also advise people to wash their hands thoroughly after just handling them, so I’m guessing they have some transmission cases they can’t figure out.
I still have a scar from one that really took some work to remove; nothing developed from the bite so I guess it was either early enough or the tick wasn’t a carrier (though you have to be wary of other diseases like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever they may carry). If you are out much in areas with a lot of them you might want to consider trimming the nether region; I’ve found a couple after showering that could only have been hiding there (though I think the warmth drives them out for a cooler spot to dig in - they didn’t attach there).
I’ve had Lyme three times. Each time I had the classic bullseye (one time was HUGE, covered my entire shoulder blade). It was caught in time and I had some strong meds to take (believe me, they CLEAR out your system and are rough on your stomach). The real danger is getting a tick on your scalp where you might not see the indicator(s) if you have a full head of hair. That is what I fear; those little suckers will jump from on high onto you. My second time with it, I picked up a tick while re-roofing my home. Who knew they were up there?!!!