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Common Insect Pests - Ticks

Provided courtesy Triton Pest Control

Ticks

Few people go through life without running into a tick. There are over 850 species throughout the world. Most people encounter ticks in the woods and in high grassy areas. Ticks may also be found in warm dry places such as livestock shelters or storage buildings.

Ticks, of all blood-sucking arthropods, have the widest variety of pathogens, including rickets, bacteria, protozoa and viruses. The most talked about of these, in recent memory, is Lyme disease, which was first discovered in Lyme, Connecticut. Rocky Mountain spotted fever is the other disease most frequently associated with ticks.

IDENTIFICATION
An adult brown dog tick ranges from 1/8" long to 1/2" when engorged with blood. This tick is reddish brown in color, but when fully engorged takes on a grey-blue or olive hue. Dog ticks prefer dogs, where it derives its name, from the outdoors. The dog tick will attach itself behind a dogs ears and/or between a dogs toes. The deer tick which carries Lyme disease if found in the Midwestern and northeastern U.S. Deer ticks are about the same size as the brown dog tick, but are orange-brown in color with dark reddish-brown legs.

CONTROL
Your PCO can perform what is commonly referred to as "power spray" of your yard, concentrating on areas that may back up to wooded areas or open fields and high grasses. Most products available to your PCO will typically control, in addition to ticks, approximately 60 other pests.

PRECAUTIONS YOU CAN TAKE WHEN IN AREAS WHERE TICKS MAY BE PRESENT

• Wear long-sleeved shirts and blouse trousers/pants in your socks or boots.
• Wear light colored clothing. Light colors make it easier to see ticks.
• Use a repellent such as Teet. Apply to pants, socks and shoes.
• Try to stay in the middle of established trails when hiking or walking.
• Wash all clothing after being in areas suspected of being tick infested.

SYMPTOMS FROM TICK BITES

• Muscle and joint aches
• Headache
• Rash: Rash start from a small red spot and expands over a several days to weeks, forming a circular, triangular or oval shape. Some rashes may look like a bull's-eye.
• Stiff neck for no apparent reason
• Fever
• Facial paralysis
• Brief periods of joint swelling and pain
  

About the author:  Triton Pest Control offers pest control services to their local Pennsylvania customers, as well as online sales of Vector Fly Systems, rodent traps, and more at their website http://www.tritonpestcontrol.com

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