Updated July 24, 10:26 pm: A woman who was killed by a grizzly bear near West Yellowstone, Montana on the morning of July 22 has been identified as 48-year-old Amie Adamson of Derby, Kansas, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office confirms in a Facebook post.

Adamson was working in the Yellowstone area at the time and was on the Buttermilk trail when the grizzly attacked her in what GCSO is calling a non-predatory manner. The avid runner was likely jogging at the time of the attack and was only a few hundred yards from the trailhead, ABC News reports. There was no evidence of the offending grizzlies consuming or attempting to consume the victim.

Adamson was a longtime English teacher and published author who quit her job in 2015 to hike across the country. No stranger to spending time outdoors, she wrote the book Walking Out: One Teacher’s Reflections on Walking Out of the Classroom to Walk America. Officials have set bear traps in the area for the third night in a row since the incident in hopes of catching the grizzlies.

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A hiker discovered a woman’s body on the Buttermilk Trail near West Yellowstone on the morning of July 22. Tracks, wounds, and the location of the incident are consistent with a grizzly bear kill, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks reports.

FWP game wardens were notified of the body at around 8 a.m. on Saturday. Wardens, bear specialists, and other investigators found wounds on the body that were typical of a grizzly bear attack. They also found tracks from an adult grizzly bear and at least one cub in the vicinity, but they didn’t see any bears, bedding areas, or animal carcasses nearby.

The woman is believed to have been traveling alone. Investigators didn’t find any bear spray or firearms at the site, indicating that the woman had no way to protect herself from an attack.

The Forest Service immediately closed down the section of Custer Gallatin National Forest where the incident occurred. They also warned nearby residents and visitors of bear activity. Concerns over the proximity of the area to multiple homes, campsites, and high-use areas prompted responders to begin the bear capture process, although no bear has been found yet. Investigators are still searching for the offending bears both on the ground and from the air.

The Buttermilk Trail (or “Buttermilk Creek Trail,” depending on which map you look at) is located within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. One of six recovery zones for grizzlies in the U.S., the GYE is home to well over 1,000 bears, which is second only to the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem in terms of overall population.

Read Next: The Clock Is Ticking as the Feds Grapple with Delisting Grizzly Bears

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently reviewing both distinct population segments and the feasibility of removing them from the Endangered Species List. That process began on February 3 and is expected to take a full year.

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Some jaw-dropping details have emerged about a bison goring that occurred in Yellowstone National Park on July 17. Victim Amber Harris of Phoenix took to Facebook to recount the events that led up to the incident and the injuries she suffered as a result. The severity of the damage is shocking.

Harris, 47, fractured her spine in seven places and experienced a bilateral lung collapse after the bison charged her near the north end of Yellowstone Lake. She was staying at the Lake Lodge Cabins with her boyfriend and daughter at the time.

“We woke up our first morning and walked down to the lodge for some coffee then decided take a walk through a field to get to Yellowstone Lake,” Harris wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday. “There were a few other people and about 20 elk roaming around so we waited for them to clear before walking through the field. About halfway to the water we noticed [two] bison. [One was] on the path we were walking and the other [was] in the opposite direction. We stopped and looked at the massive beast, about 50 yards away on the trail, hidden at first in the shadows of the tress. We watched him drop and roll in the dirt, like a dog would. He got up on his feet and started walking then running towards us.”

When the bison made contact with Harris, it struck her in the chest and back. It missed her major organs but left her with severe bruising in addition to her debilitating injuries.

“I was carried out of the field on a stretcher to an ambulance and then transferred to a helicopter for a life flight to Idaho,” she continues. She was treated at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, approximately 100 miles as the crow flies from the Lake Lodge Cabins.

A Surprise at the Hospital

What Harris didn’t know was that the vacation was supposed to end with a major surprise. Her boyfriend, Chris Whitehill, had a marriage proposal planned for Yellowstone’s popular natural bridge. With the trip cut short, Whitehill had to recalibrate.

“My love got down on one knee beside my hospital bed last night and formally asked me to be his wife,” Harris wrote. “Without any hesitation I said yes!”

Whitehill also organized a GoFundMe for Harris’ medical expenses. He confirmed in a recent update that Harris’ injuries did not require any surgery, but that she is wearing an immobilizing back brace to heal the fractures.

Watch: Bison Charges Family, Gores Man at Yellowstone National Park

“Amber is a fighter and she is battling hard,” he wrote. “Making little progressions daily.”

The National Park Service recommends keeping a distance of 25 yards from bison, elk, and other wildlife at all times. (This recommendation extends to 100 yards for bears and wolves.) Harris estimated she and Whitehill were double that distance from the bison that charged her. But as the NPS points out, the bison rut occurs from mid-July to mid-August, and they can be much more aggressive than usual this time of year.

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After spending three months adrift on the Pacific Ocean, Australian sailor Timothy Shaddock was rescued by a group of Mexican tuna fisherman on July 12, the Associated Press reports. Stepping on dry land for the first time since April, Shaddock recounted on July 18 how he and his “amazing” dog Bella survived the ordeal by eating raw fish and drinking rainwater.

“I’m feeling all right. I’m feeling a lot better than I was,” Shaddock told reporters during a welcome ceremony in Manzanillo on Tuesday. “To the captain and fishing company that saved my life, I’m just so grateful.”

The 54-year-old sailor added that there were times when he didn’t think he’d survive. But thanks to his perseverance and ingenuity, he’ll be returning to Australia soon to reunite with his family.

“There were many, many, many bad days and many good days,” Shaddock said of his time adrift at sea.

The First Bad Day

Shaddock set sail in April from the Mexican city of La Paz, which is located in Baja on the Sea of Cortez. He was joined on his small catamaran, named the Aloha Toa, by Bella, a stray dog that he’d picked up during his travels in Mexico.

“She’s the spirit of the middle of the country and she wouldn’t let me go,” he said of his newfound companion. “I tried to find a home for her three times, and she just kept following me onto the water. She’s a lot braver than I am, that’s for sure.”

Shaddock originally planned to sail across the Pacific to French Polynesia, but that plan fell apart just weeks into the journey. He ran into bad weather in early May after sailing out of the Sea of Cortez and into the Pacific, and his catamaran was badly damaged in a storm. Without any electronics or the ability to cook, he and Bella found themselves adrift in a crippled vessel.

Survival at Sea

Fortunately, Shaddock had some fishing gear onboard. He spent the following weeks, which soon turned into months, catching fish, eating them raw, and sharing the meat with his dog.

While it’s unknown what kind of fish he was catching, the Sea of Cortez and South Pacific are known as some of the most fertile fishing grounds on the planet. They’re home to large numbers of billfish, dolphin, bonito, tuna, and other saltwater species that can be eaten raw. (Some of these species carry parasites and there is always a risk when eating uncooked fish straight from the ocean.)

As for how they stayed hydrated, Shaddock said he collected rainwater the whole time. He didn’t explain how, but there are a few different ways he could have done this—like using a tarp or one of his sails to catch and funnel the water into a receptacle.

Read Next: 10 Primitive Survival Skills that Will Keep You Alive

Of course, physical needs are only part of the equation when trying to survive in the open ocean. And Shaddock said he was able to stay sane all those months by tinkering with his boat and taking the occasional swim, which allowed him to “just enjoy being in the water.”

Saved by Fish, Rescued by Fishermen     

Shaddock has Grupo Mar, a Manzanillo-based commercial tuna fishing fleet, to thank for his eventual rescue. A helicopter pilot that was scouting for the fleet spotted his small catamaran roughly 1,200 miles from land. The pilot then returned with the María Delia, one of Grupo Mar’s tuna boats.

The crew did what they could to help Shaddock and his dog, who were both in a “precarious” state, according to the company. They gave them food, water, and medical attention before bringing them back to port on July 18. One of the crew members also agreed to adopt Bella and promised Shaddock that he’d take good care of the dog.

Shaddock has since been cleared by doctors and local governments to return to his native country. And when an AP reporter asked him what meal he was looking forward to the most when he got home, he gave an unexpected answer.

“Tuna,” he replied. “Sushi.”

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Encounters between brown bears and dogs don’t always end well for the domesticated canines. But some dogs are just tougher than others. A recent video from Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula shows a handful of working dogs that aren’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with a brown bear. In the video, which was shared to Instagram on July 12, the four dogs win the fight and drive the bear away.

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Kenai River fishing guide Mike Evans filmed the video at Harpestead Mountain Kennels, where his friend Jen Harpe trains German shepherds, Border collies, and other working breeds. Evans told reporters that the bear had visited the property before and was about to crash their barbecue when Harpe’s dogs stepped in.

“Intense moment from a couple weeks back,” Evans writes in the video’s description, adding that no dogs or bears were injured in the tussle.

Of the four dogs that confront the bear, one in particular stands out as the dominant fighter in the group. While the other three bark at the intruder and run circles around it, the dominant German shepherd charges the bear, barking in its face and nipping at its throat. The brown bear growls, spinning on its heels as it shakes its head defensively from side to side. The dog only gives up when Harpe calls it off, using the German command “Aus,” which translates to “off” or “let go.”

Read Next: The Best Bear Hunting Dogs

There are a couple of explanations for why the dogs won the fight so handily. For one, the dominant dog had likely been trained for encounters like this. Harpe’s Instagram page features several videos of German shepherds, Belgian Malinois, and other dogs doing personal protection drills and biting down on would-be attackers. (Harpe did not immediately respond to requests for comment and little is known about her training programs or her dogs.)

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The other obvious factor was the bear itself, which took a defensive stance from the get-go. The young boar looks like a two-year-old, which would help explain its curiosity around the barbecue. It’s also clearly injured and has a large chunk missing from the back of its neck. This was probably the result of a recent fight with a larger, more dominant bear.

If that was the case, then the beat-down bear wouldn’t have wanted to fight and would have been more of a pushover than most Alaska browns. In any other circumstance, the dogs might not have been so lucky.

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As if all the biting bugs that are visible to the naked eye weren’t nuisance enough during the summer, the tiny chigger is nearly impossible to spot and produces giant welts that are maddeningly itchy. The good news is that, unlike ticks and mosquitoes, chiggers don’t usually carry diseases in the U.S. and chigger bite treatment can be administered at home with basic first aid supplies.

What chiggers in the U.S. have historically lacked in disease risk, they more than make up for with itch factor. The bites will drive you crazy if you don’t treat them. If you’ve never even heard of chiggers before, then lucky you. If you’re suffering from chigger bites as you read this, then relief is on the way. We’ll cover everything from where chiggers live to what the tiny bugs look like, how they bite, how to differentiate chigger bites from other bug bites, and how to treat them.

What Are Chiggers?

In order to understand proper chigger bite treatment, it’s helpful to first know what chiggers are and where they live. Chiggers are the larval form of a mite species in the Trombiculidae family. They are technically arachnids, like spiders and ticks, although they are much smaller and often aren’t visible without a magnifying glass or microscope. The larvae are less than 1/150th of an inch, while adults are about 1/60th of an inch. If you do manage to get eyes on one, they can be an orange or bright crimson color, hence the other common nickname: berry bugs.

Humans need only worry about these parasites in their newborn larval stage. After hatching, they require a meal to mature into nymphs and adults. They cling to clothing and eventually make their way to skin, where they inject a special digestive enzyme that breaks down skin cells. They actually spend three to four days feeding on the dead, liquified skin cells that result from their saliva. (Contrary to popular belief, chiggers do not feed on human blood as mosquitos do.) This enzyme is what causes the violent itching. Chiggers may stay attached for multiple days to feed on their hosts, assuming the hosts don’t furiously scratch them off. (We don’t recommend doing this, since it won’t make the bites itch any less and could potentially lead to infection.)

Where Do Chiggers Live?

Chiggers lay waiting for their host in wooded areas in tall grasses and shrubs, especially near water and in shade. They exist globally and across the U.S., but are more common in more humid places since they prefer moisture. For that reason, you are more likely to encounter chiggers in the South, Mid-Atlantic, and Great Lakes regions than you are in the Northeast, Northern Midwest, Mountain West or Southwest.

Chiggers are most active during the late spring to early fall months. If the ground temperature is hovering between 77 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit, they’re certainly on the move and looking for a meal. Any ground temperature drop below 42 degrees spells almost certain death for chiggers.

Chigger Bite Symptoms

Telling symptoms of a chigger bite from other bug bites and rashes can be tricky, but knowing what to look for is helpful. Chigger bites are:

• Red
• Itchy
• Small bumps
• Multiple bites in a small area
• Clustered in areas covered by tight-fitting clothing or waistbands
• In areas with thin or wrinkled skin
• Sometimes accompanied by pustules or whiteheads, similar to ingrown hairs

Because chiggers move from clothing onto skin, places where clothing is in close contact with skin are the most vulnerable, second only to places without any clothing cover. Chigger bites are common on the ankles, backs of knees, groin, belt-line, and armpits.

Some people describe chigger bites as a “chigger rash,” since the bites are small and clustered. They can resemble other types of rashes like sun rash or poison ivy. Look for clusters of irritated, little white pustules resembling ingrown hairs rather than liquid-filled blisters or sprawling patches of red skin.

How to Treat a Chigger Bite

If a strange collection of itchy red bites appear after a hike, early-season hunt, or yard work, there are a series of steps you can take to ward off the worst of the symptoms. Steps for chigger bite treatment include:

1. Taking a shower. Wash the area with soap, warm water, and a washcloth or loofah. This step helps ensure that any remaining chiggers wind up down the drain and don’t stay on your skin, drooling skin-melting enzymes onto your ankles or the backs of your knees. Better yet, take a shower or a bath. Scrub a little harder than usual.
2. Doing a load of laundry. Wash any and all clothes, blankets, and other textiles that you brought outdoors in hot water. They might still have chiggers hanging around and waiting for an opportunity to jump to skin.
3. Applying ointment. Treat the bites and rash with over-the-counter anti-itch cream. For some folks, calamine lotion does the best job. Others prefer a hydrocortisone cream, or maybe a swipe of menthol ointment. Keep applying in the days and weeks that follow to stave off the itchiness. 
4. Taking meds. If creams and ointments aren’t getting the job done, take an antihistamine like Benadryl before going to bed. This will treat the itch systemically rather than topically. You can also apply cold compresses to relieve the fiery irritation.
5. Watching the area closely. If you scratch the bites too much and accidentally break the skin, you run the risk of infection, which could require antibiotics to clear up. You could also react to the bites so severely that you require a steroid shot. If anything extreme arises, contact your doctor. Expect the bites to itch for one to two weeks.

Chigger Bite Prevention

Like most other outdoor pests, chigger bites can be prevented with proper care and attention to detail. Insect control is, after all, one of the most important ways to stay safe in the outdoors.

• Wear long, loose-fitting clothing if you’re going to walk through woodlands, tall grass, or brush.
• Before you go outside, douse yourself in an insect repellent of your choosing. Anything you would use as a mosquito repellent for camping should work fine, as long as it has DEET. 
• Consider treating your clothes with permethrin before wearing them outside. Permethrin is considered one of the best tick repellents and can make a big difference in deflecting all types of nasty biting bugs. You can also buy pretreated insect-repellent clothing.
• When you get home, throw your clothes in the wash and take a hot, soapy shower. Scrubbing your skin with lots of soap can help kill chiggers before they get a chance to bite you.

FAQs

Final Thoughts on Chigger Bites

Chiggers can put a damper on an outdoor weekend by leaving you with ferociously itchy skin for the weeks that follow. Having some chigger bite treatment tips memorized can help you avoid the worst of the itchiness, and knowing how to prevent chigger bites in the first place means you probably won’t need to deal with them. As with all bug bites, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.       

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An alligator bit an unidentified, 79-year-old man while the man was out for an early morning walk near his home in Naples, Florida on July 13. The attack occurred around 5 a.m. at Forest Glen Golf Course and Country Club, according to Fox 4 News.

The victim, who asked not to be identified, called 911 immediately after the attack and calmly reported what happened. He said that he was walking in the middle of the street when the alligator “came from out of nowhere” and latched onto his leg.

“I just got bit by an alligator in my community and I’m walking home,” the man said in a recording of the 911 call that was obtained by Fox 4. “I was just strolling along listening to my radio, listening to Willie’s Roadhouse.”

He was life-flighted by helicopter to a local hospital, where doctors treated the wound on his leg and then discharged him. His injuries consisted mainly of a large bite on his knee, which required more than 50 staples to close.  

“There’s a lot of skin ripped off I can see,” he said at one point during the 911 call.

Although he originally told dispatchers that he thought the alligator was around three feet long, licensed trappers found a 6-foot, 9-inch female gator at the scene. Witnesses and local law enforcement confirmed that it was the same alligator that attacked the elderly man, and it was promptly removed from the 630-acre residential community. (Forest Glen has declined to comment on the incident.)

Read Next: Video of Alligator Chasing Fisherman Leads to Fishing Ban in Coastal Community

“Go figure, out for a walk to stay healthy,” he told the dispatcher, who replied: “And you get bit by an alligator.”

Because of the time of year and the fact that it was still dark out, officials believe the gator was defending its nest when it attacked. Female alligators typically lay clutches of eggs in late June or early July, according to FWC. They’ll incubate the eggs for more than 60 days until they hatch. They’re extremely protective of their nests during this time, especially around dawn and dusk when predators are most likely to be on the prowl.

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Forget sharks. Surfers on the Central California coast are dealing with a different kind of marine menace this summer: an oddly aggressive sea otter. The otter has been accosting surfers near Santa Cruz, hijacking their boards, and even riding in the occasional wave—leading wildlife officials to try and capture the animal. One of these close encounters was captured on video and shared to Instagram on July 11:

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At the beginning of the video, the surfer is already in the water while the sea otter climbs onto his board and starts gnawing on it. The surfer tries rocking the longboard from side to side and flipping it upside down, but the otter is unshakable. It keeps biting chunks out of the surfboard and briefly charges the man when he gets too close. The exasperated surfer eventually gives up, swimming beside his commandeered board while the otter stays put.

“This was a very aggressive encounter and scary to watch,” reads the caption. “Please consider this video as a warning to how strong and forceful this animal is and [it] should be avoided if at all possible!”

This wasn’t a one-off occurrence, either. Several surfers and sea kayakers have dealt with the hard-charging otter in recent weeks, with three incidents taking place just last weekend, according to the New York Times. The otter’s behavior has gotten so out of hand that it is now considered a public safety risk, and local wildlife officials started trying to capture it on Thursday. Working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, a team of trained specialists with the Monterey Bay Aquarium has so far been unsuccessful in its attempts.

“She’s been quite talented at evading us,” Monterey Bay Aquarium spokesperson Jessica Fujii told the Times earlier this week. She also explained that the otter has a history with the aquarium, which helps account for its unusually bold behavior.

Known by officials as Otter 841, the five-year-old female was born in captivity. Her mother had become habituated to humans feeding it, and after boarding multiple kayaks in search of handouts, she was captured in 2018 and taken to the Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center in Santa Cruz, where researchers quickly learned the otter was pregnant. Her sole offspring, Otter 841, was brought to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to be rehabilitated before being released into the Pacific.

“After one year of being in the wild without issue, we started receiving reports of her interactions with surfers, kayakers, and paddle boarders,” Fujii said. “We do not know why this started. We have no evidence that she was fed. But it has persisted in the summers for the last couple of years.”

While 841’s behavior was definitely out of the ordinary—most sea otters are terrified of people—locals found it cute at first. Over time, however, the animal grew bolder. And since Southern sea otters are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, there wasn’t much that surfers, kayakers, and other oceangoers could do to fend it off.  

“I tried to paddle away but I wasn’t able to get far before it bit off my leash,” recalled one surfer who was forced to abandon his board in the surf last weekend. (Judging from his description, this was likely the same surfer who was filmed in the above video.) “I tried to get it off by flipping the board over and pushing it away, but it was so fixated on my surfboard for whatever reason, it just kept attacking.”

Read Next: A Surfer in Hawaii Was Attacked by…a Wild Pig?

Another surfer, 16-year-old Noah Wormhoudt, described his run-in with 841 differently. He said that getting his board hijacked by the sea otter was actually a “pretty cool experience.”

“The otter was shredding,” Wormhoudt said. “Caught a couple of nice waves.”

With 841 still on the loose in the California surf, officials are reminding everyone to give the otter space for both the animal’s benefit and theirs.

“Otters have sharp teeth and jaws strong enough to crush clams,” one official said, noting that if the sea otter bites a human, the state will have no choice but to euthanize it.

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Sharks have been a major problem in the Northeast U.S. in recent weeks. Five people were bitten by the toothy predators in just two days around July 4th on New York’s Long Island; now videos have surfaced showing a shark attacking and killing a seal in Massachusetts has prompted authorities to close some beaches near Nantucket Island.

The video, recorded by Nick Gault from a boat near Great Point on the northern tip of Nantucket Island, shows blood-stained water from a shark ravaging a seal right beside the beach. The seal, missing its tale but still alive, later washes ashore and is set upon by gulls. The Costaka-Coatue Wildlife Refuge at Great Point was closed to swimming as a precaution against sharks, according to the Nantucket Current.

“Those videos are pretty troubling, and no human could survive that,” Diane Lang a stewardship manager on Nantucket told Fox News. “The policy is in place now. We’re telling our visitors no swimming at Great Point. I was in touch with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and they’re in full agreement [with the closure].”

Lang said that seal populations in the area have disappeared following the shark attack at Nantucket. Apparently, seals knew it was time to skedaddle. Tiger shark schools have been spotted in some Northeast coastal areas recently, with up to 50 sharks in one school seen cruising near the Long Island shore.

Read Next: Rabid Beaver Attacks Swimming Georgia Girl, Her Father Beats It to Death

Major shark precautionary measures are underway in the region. Lifeguards are patrolling beach areas with jet skis, and aerial drones are being deployed in some Northeast coastal regions to monitor sharks and warn swimmers about their presence.

“Drones will increase the shark monitoring capacity of local governments across Long Island and New York City, ensuring local beaches are safe for all beachgoers, Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement.”

Meanwhile, wildlife managers are reminding beachgoers that shark attacks on humans are the exception, not the norm.

“New York’s shores are home to a wild and natural marine ecosystem that supports the annual migration of sharks to our coastal waters,” New York Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner Basil Seggos said in a statement. “While human-shark interactions are rare, DEC encourages the public to follow shark safety guidance to help minimize the risk of negative interactions with sharks this summer.”

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A girl was bitten by a rabid beaver while swimming at the north end of Lake Lanier outside of Atlanta on July 8, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and local news sources. The girl’s father came to her rescue and beat the beaver to death.

Upon the agency’s request, the dead beaver was obtained by Hall County Animal Control for testing, then shipped to Georgia’s Public Head Lab, which tested the animal and discovered it was positive for rabies. The condition of the young girl and her name were not made available to the public.

Read Next: Watch Man Catch Lost Fishing Rod with Giant Striper Still Hooked Up

“There was nothing to indicate that there were baby beavers in the vicinity that were being protected, or that the beaver was sick, or whether it was just an otherwise angry beaver,” said DNR Lt. Judd Smith.

One recent Facebook report stated that two people had encountered a rabid beaver in the same general Sardis area of Georgia. But no one was reported bitten by the animal.

While beaver attacks on humans are rare, they aren’t unheard of. In most cases the animal attacks to protect its young or its lodge, or—as in this case—because it’s rabid.

At least one fatal attack on a human by a beaver has been reported. In 2013, a 60-year-old fisherman in Belarus died after a beaver bit his leg and severed an artery and a snorkeler in Nova Scotia was bitten by a beaver in 2014. In 2012, a Pennsylvania Boy Scout leader was attacked by a beaver (in that particular beaver attack, the man’s troop came to his defense and stoned the critter to death).

Karen Bond detailed in a Facebook post how she was attacked by a beaver in 2016 while swimming in the Quinnebaug River in eastern Connecticut. Her report is accompanied by gruesome photos resulting from the attack.

“I shoved my hand in its mouth to get it to release me and tore the ligament in my thumb,” she writes. “I had no idea what it was while screaming bloody murder until Gahrett Bond jumped in and unclamped its jaw from me and pushed me away. While he was swimming away it grabbed his leg and he was bit. We did not provoke this beaver, we had no idea it was there because he attacked underwater. We did nothing to this beaver. But they do attack viciously.”

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Everything we know about tick bite symptoms seems to have been watered down to a single telltale warning sign: the bullseye rash. If no red rings show up around the site of your tick bite, then you’re fine, right? Not necessarily, according to the experts.

There are plenty of tick bite symptoms that warrant a visit to your doctor’s office. While increasingly common (and now of concern year-round in some parts of the country), tick bites are not something to take lightly. The health consequences can range from an irritated bite mark that lasts a few weeks to a serious illness that lands you in the hospital or with chronic complaints.

We spoke with public health entomology expert Phurchhoki Sherpa, coordinator for the Purdue University Public Health Entomology Program. Medical entomology is a fancy term for the area of medicine concerning insect-borne diseases like Lyme and malaria. Sherpa has spent countless hours in the field collecting ticks for research purposes, and she knows more than her fair share about what can happen when a tick bites you.

What to Do When a Tick Bites You

If you find a tick latched onto your skin, first you should review how to remove a tick and follow that procedure. (Quick refresher: grab your tweezers or tick removal tool, grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible, and pull until it releases.) The best immediate tick bite treatment options involve cleaning the bite with some sort of disinfectant—hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol are good options—and applying an antibiotic ointment of your choosing. Your tick bite may look and feel like a chigger bite or any other bug bite in the days that follow, or you may find that an angry, itchy bump persists for weeks as it heals.

“It can look as benign as a mosquito bite, like a little itchy welt, especially if the tick has fallen off without you realizing you had it,” Sherpa tells Outdoor Life. She notes that such circumstances are common with tiny, immature ticks that are hard to see. “It can also look kind of scary, with a scab on the bite mark. It varies.”

Common Tick Bite Symptoms

Sherpa is referring to the rashes, scabs, and swelling that can accompany a tick bite. Always keep an eye out for a bullseye rash (the traditional symptom that is present in some, though not all, Lyme disease cases). A bullseye rash can appear not just around the bite mark, but anywhere on the body. Small, hard scabs might form around the bite. If they’re dark and crusty, this might be an early sign of a type of tick-borne disease known as spotted fever (more on this in a minute). If the bite mark exhibits other signs of infection, like extreme swelling, pustules, blistering, or anything else abnormal, seek medical treatment immediately. 

Beyond the early, visible symptoms of a tick bite, be on the lookout for these more systemic symptoms that most or all tick-borne illnesses share. These symptoms might pop up anywhere from a day to a few weeks after the bite: 

• Fever
• Chills
• Headache
• Muscle ache
• Fatigue
• Nausea/vomiting
• Joint aches/arthritic pain

Tick-Borne Illnesses You Should Know About

Most tick bites will not cause you any further trauma than a mosquito bite would. After all, half or fewer of all ticks are infected with transmissible diseases. If the tick wasn’t latched deep into your skin or wasn’t engorged with blood yet, it probably didn’t get the chance to transmit anything. For example, it usually takes at least 36 hours for an attached tick to transmit Lyme disease to its human host. 

But if your tick bite does transform into something of concern, it’s good to know about the various tick-borne illnesses you could develop. The risk of each tick-borne illness changes depending on where in North America you picked up the tick, Sherpa says. This is because different types of ticks carry different diseases. 

This is not an exhaustive list of all possible tick-borne illnesses. But here are eight tick-borne diseases that you should absolutely know about.

Tick Bite Prevention

Fortunately, with proper tick bite prevention, there’s no reason to avoid the outdoors—especially not during the most enjoyable months of the year.

Dress, Treat, and Check

Tick bite prevention goes beyond simply drowning yourself in the best tick repellent. It also involves wearing the right clothes, treating your gear with permethrin, and doing multiple tick checks in the field and after the day is over. 

“I tell [hikers] to wear light-colored clothing so they can detect ticks earlier and faster, especially the ones that would go unnoticed if we wore patterns or dark clothing,” Sherpa says. “Tuck your shirt into your pants, tuck your pant legs into your socks, always wear close-toed shoes with long socks when you’re outdoors.” 

Sherpa also acknowledges that hunters have to do things a little differently if they want to avoid tick bites and the scary symptoms that can come with them. We spend more time bushwhacking than we do on trails, we wear dark and patterned clothing (hello camouflage), and we’re outside for a long time.

“When you’re hunting, you’re in the field for a while. You’re waiting, walking around. So do a tick check every few hours. The faster you can find the tick and get rid of it, the better,” she says. “When you get home, check yourself and your camo clothing. If you have a dryer, put your clothes in the dryer on high heat for about 20 minutes. The heat will decimate the ticks. And the sooner you can take a shower, the better.” 

If showers and dryers are unavailable back at camp, or you refuse to put your expensive merino wool or rain gear in a dryer, treating your clothes with permethrin is the best line of defense. Make sure to follow the instructions on the bottle and wear gloves to avoid getting any on your skin.

Parts of the Body Likely to Get Tick Bites

When it comes to tick checks, close attention to detail makes all the difference. Check under your armpits, behind your ears, along your hairline, in your groin area, between your toes, behind your knees, and even in your belly button. Sherpa highlights all these spots as dark, easy-to-overlook hiding holes for ticks of all sizes.

If your legs and arms are bare, not only is there a chance they bite your ankles or inside your elbows, but they could also crawl under your shirt or shorts. By wearing long sleeves and pants and tucking in all your layers, you limit a tick’s chances of accessing any skin, let alone skin in a hard-to-reach place.

Tick Bite FAQs

Final Thoughts

Tick bite symptoms can range from a small, itchy welt to a series of flu-like ailments that could land you in the hospital if left untreated. That’s why it’s crucial to know what types of ticks live in your area and what diseases they might carry. 

Read Next: How to Remove a Tick From a Dog

The good news is that these scary tick-borne diseases with their array of side effects are all avoidable, thanks to the time-tested prevention strategies outdoorswomen and men now swear by. The age-old adage about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure holds true, Sherpa says.

“We as humans are lazy. We don’t like dealing with that extra work. But prevention goes a long way when it comes to tick bites and tick-borne diseases. It is really important to take preventative measures when you go out,” Sherpa says. “If people aren’t sure about the worthiness of prevention measures, they should talk to someone who has had a tick-borne disease before.”

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