While you’re tending to the area, the CDC specifically recommends looking out for symptoms of tickborne illness, like Lyme disease, for the next 30 days. The bite can take up to two weeks to heal. But if the bite becomes further inflamed or crusted, applying “an antibiotic cream may be helpful” toward lowering the risk of infection and tamping down lingering inflammation, says board-certified dermatologist Gary Goldenberg, M.D., an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. You shouldn’t panic if it ends up looking like a mosquito bite for a few days afterward.
#Tick bite symptoms skin#
Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin as you can.
The longer it stays attached, the bigger it gets as it feeds on your blood-and the greater the risk of disease transmission. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has very specific directions:
#Tick bite symptoms how to#
Happen to find one on you? Before you can treat the bite, it’s important to understand how to properly remove a tick. Don’t be surprised if it turns into a small red bump or feels tender and itchy, especially right after the initial bite.Īnd even though you can find a tick attached to any part of your body, they gravitate toward tucked-away areas that tend to be warm and moist, like the armpits, behind the knees, and around the groin. While the look and feel of a tick bite varies from person to person, you can develop a reaction to it like any other insect bite. Even when you do everything in your power to prevent tick bites, they can still happen-the disease-carrying pests are super tiny, after all.