• Avoid walking or sitting in areas with long grass or short shrubs.

• Tuck your pant cuffs inside your boots or socks.

• Use spray repellents containing DEET.

• Walk on paved trails to avoid encountering ticks.

• Regular tick checks while walking in natural areas are an effective preventative measure, as ticks are easy to spot on clothing.

• Check for ticks on your sleeves and collar, pant legs and socks.

• When you get home, thoroughly check your head and hairy places. Check your pets too!

• A tick that has not bitten you can easily be brushed off.

• If a tick has attached itself to your skin, grasp it firmly as close to the skin as possible with clean tweezers. Slowly pull straight back to remove it; do not twist. Wash the bite area with soap and water.

  • If you have been bitten by a tick and are worried about your health contact Health Link at 811. They can refer you to a resource that is appropriate to your situation.

  • If you plan to follow up with a doctor after removing an attached tick, take a photo of the tick or seal it in a small bag.

Did you know?

You can submit your tick sightings to https://etick.ca/ - this Canadian citizen science project helps to monitor tick populations and provides expert identification of ticks.

Rocky Mountain Wood Ticks are a species of tick that can transmit Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Symptoms are severe headaches and a continuous fever. These symptoms occur within 3 – 10 days after being bitten by a tick. A few days after an attached tick has been removed a peculiar skin rash appears on the arms, legs, and other parts of the body. This disease can be fatal, but in the prairie provinces it is very rare. There is no need to avoid outdoor activities for fear of ticks, as long as a few simple precautions are taken to reduce your chances of being bitten.

Lyme disease is not transmitted by Rocky Mountain Wood Ticks. The Ixodes species of ticks transmit Lyme disease, these ticks have not been found in the Lethbridge region.

Generally Rocky Mountain Wood Ticks will take 2 years to complete their lifecycle in southern Alberta. Their lifecycle is quite complex as they go through egg, larvae, nymph, and adult stages. Only adult Rocky Mountain Wood Ticks feed on larger mammals such as deer, people, or dogs. During their other lifecycle stages these ticks feed on smaller hosts such as mice or ground squirrels.

Ticks find shelter between the soil and ground cover, like leaf litter, to overwinter. In the early spring, shortly after the snowmelt, they emerge and begin seeking hosts. They will actively search for hosts by climbing to the tips of long grass blades and short shrubs waiting for appropriate hosts to brush past.

For more information about the Rocky Mountain wood tick lifecycle visit the University of Saskatchewan’s website: Dermacentor andersoni: the Rocky Mountain wood tick - Learn About Parasites - Western College of Veterinary Medicine - University of Saskatchewan (usask.ca)