6 Life-Threatening Diseases Ticks Can Give You

Symptoms and when to get medical help.

Photo by Erik Karits on Unsplash

I spend a lot of time outdoors working in vegetable and flower gardens. I put my hair up and wear a hat, and they still manage to get on me.

Here on the homestead, the place is crawling with ticks during the spring months. As the weather heats up, ticks find their way into the shade of trees and tall grasses, which I avoid. Not sure how I survived my youth because I did all that back then.

During the heat of summer, I like to get out early in the mornings to get my gardening done. I was pulling weeds, listening to a podcast on my phone, and scooting along on my butt, as I tend to do. The weeding between rows was going well. We got rain several days ago, and they pulled up quickly. The chickens were grateful for the extra greenery too.

Except for the gnats attempting to infiltrate my nasal cavity, it was a beautiful morning, peaceful with birds tweeting, the rooster crowing, and bocking chickens in the background.

I got to the end of the last row, where I had some Blue Hubbard Squash growing, and ticks, thousands and thousands of ticks, came pouring out of the woods, and, ok, it was probably about a dozen. Ticks outright give me the heebie-jeebies.

I didn’t wait around long enough for them to embed themselves into my tender skin. I jumped up as fast as this old body would allow me to, brushed off the nasty little buggers, and entered the laundry room where the clothes came off. Next, stop the shower. Does anyone have suggestions on how not to ruin my hair from over-shampooing?

Here is a list of 6 diseases from the CDC website that ticks can pass on to humans.

1. Anaplasmosis-is a tickborne disease caused by the bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum. In the United States, the black-legged tick primarily carries the Anaplasma phagocytophilum bacteria. Signs and symptoms of Anaplasmosis appear within one to two weeks after being bitten. Early signs-fever, chills, severe headache, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite. Late Symptoms- delayed treatment, being older, and having a weak immune system cause life-threatening symptoms such as…