Here they wait with their front legs outstretched, as in the photo, ready to hook on to anything that may brush by. Pass through any wooded area in Eastern Kansas during the warmer seasons, and you are sure to pick up a tick or two. Well, ticks by themselves are not that destructive, though their bites can be somewhat irritating. However, they sometimes carry any of a number of different pathogens that can infect those bitten. Armed with awareness, common sense, and a can of insect repellent, you can greatly increase your chances against contracting these nasty conditions.
Soft ticks are usually larger and colored a more uniform blueish gray.
These are the fat ones you find clinging to your dog a few days following a woodland outing, but humans are more commonly targetted by the hard ticks. Though death from a tick bite is extremely unlikely, the diseases ticks carry can be serious or fatal. In the West the culprit is I. pacificus , and controversy surrounds the possible third species I. dammini , which some argue is actually a variation of one of the other two. Early-stage treatment usually involves oral antibiotics such as doxycyline, amoxicillin, cefuroxime, or azithromycin for typically 2 to 3 weeks. Late-stage treatment is a bit varied and a more rigorous affair involving intravenous ceftriaxone or penicillin for 2 to 3 weeks.