Despite their minuscule size, ticks can cause disease and even kill.

LYME DISEASE Tick Dangers Identifying Ticks Lyme Disease CDC Lyme Disease Info

Ticks are members of the arachnid class that includes spiders and mites. All ticks are carnivorous, feeding on the blood of various species of birds, reptiles and mammals, including humans.

Ticks can be as small as the head of a pin or the size of a small button and are often difficult to detect. As they feed on blood, the secretions that ticks return to the skin can cause infections.

The Gory Details

Ticks use their mouth parts to anchor themselves to the skin, where they cut a small hole and suck the blood. A number of species of ticks, such as dog ticks and deer ticks, transmit diseases infecting livestock, pets and humans.

The arachnid causes everything from anemia due to blood loss to severe rashes to paralysis due to neurotoxins that it secretes. Some of the more common tick-borne diseases include East Coast fever, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme Disease.

Tick removal tips:

• Don't use any of the folklore remedies (matches, cigarettes, pins, gasoline) that will irritate the tick. They increase the likelihood that the tick will "spit up" in you, which increases the risk of disease.
• Oil is not effective because the breathing requirements of the tick are so small that it could survive for hours covered with oil. The mouthpiece is barbed rather than spiraled, so trying to rotate the tick out doesn't provide any advantage.
• The preferred method is to use special tweezers designed for that purpose, pulling straight out.