Clearing Up the Confusion about Turkey Mites

This article was originally published on October 14, 2009 and expired on November 21, 2009. It is provided here for archival purposes and may contain dated information.

Throughout deer season, hunters make their way deep into the woods in search of venison. This annual celebration of hunter versus prey has other players that many of us only notice when we become the prey.

"I get many calls from people who say they have been attacked by turkey mites," says Doug Jones, integrated pest management specialist with University of Illinois Extension. "The callers would report that turkey mites were especially brutal, with hundreds of bites and severe itching that could last for weeks. This confused me because I had never heard of a turkey mite. So, I began to pour over the literature to find out the biology of this villain. I found no information about a mite that attacked both turkeys and people. So, I changed the focus of my investigation and asked anybody who got turkey mites to send in a sample. In every case, the case of turkey mites was actually the first life stage (larva) of a tick."

Most of the ticks found in the United States are hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae). Of these, most are three-host ticks. That is, they require three separate animals to feed on in order to complete their life cycle.

A typical life cycle goes like this: Eggs hatch, the tick larvae (usually with only six legs) crawl up grass, weeds, etc. and hold their front legs up in the air in order to grab onto anything that passes by (questing). Once on the animal, they feed for a little while and then drop off the animal and molt into the next life stage (nymph). They now quest for another host, feed and then drop off again to molt into the adult stage. Now they quest for the last host animal. Once aboard, the female begins to feed, and the males seek the females. A female will only become heavily engorged with blood (replete) after she is mated. Once she is mated and fully replete, she drops off, lays her eggs and dies --- completing the cycle.

Some important facts to remember about ticks are that they do not transmit diseases from mother to egg. This means that a tick must feed on an infected host before it can transmit diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, Lyme's disease, ehrlichiosis, STARI, relapsing fever or babesiosis.

However, tick paralysis could be caused by any life stage since it is not caused by a virus, bacteria or protozoan, but by factors in the tick saliva.

So what can you do to protect yourself from ticks? Wear long clothing with tight fitting cuffs. Liberally apply tick repellents that contain DEET. Application of permethrin-based repellents to your clothing works well, but do not apply these products directly to your skin.

Check yourself or enlist a trusted friend to check you for ticks once you get home. Carefully remove any tick you find by grasping the tick as close to your skin as possible with tweezers. Next, put gentle pulling pressure on the tick until it relaxes its mouthparts and comes out whole.

Pulling too quickly or hard can complicate things by leaving the tick's mouthparts in your skin. Burning a tick with a match is even worse; it causes the tick to regurgitate into you as its insides begin to boil. It usually takes 12 to 24 hours of feeding before an infected tick can transmit a disease to you.

See a physician if you start experiencing high fevers, unexplained rashes or a pounding headache after being bitten by any tick. These symptoms are common to all of the diseases that ticks can transmit.

Source: Douglas Jones, Extension Specialist, Integrated Pest Management, jonesd@illinois.edu