The warmer weather brings with it a lot of positives — concerts, camping, and ice-cold drinks just to name a few. But, with the rising temperatures comes a whole new season of creepy crawlies that are just waiting to spoil your vacation. Among some of the worst summer party crashers are ticks.
You’ve likely heard all about the importance of tick awareness but familiarizing yourself with ticks, the dangers that they pose, and how best to keep safe can be as important as applying SPF. So, let’s get you all brushed up on everything there is to know about ticks so that you can enjoy your summer safely.
What Is a Tick?
Familiarizing yourself with what ticks look like and how they latch is the first step in tick awareness. So what is a tick? Ticks belong to the arachnid family of creepy crawlies. They’re smaller than a fly and have eight legs. They don’t fly or jump and they don’t have antennae.
Instead, when ready to eat, they latch on to blades of grass and wait for an unsuspecting mammal to walk by. When the mammal walks by, the tick reaches out and latches on searching for exposed skin. Once it finds the perfect place, it’ll then burrow its head into the area of its choice.