Did You Know?
Revised 3-27-13
Ticks can transmit Lyme disease as soon as they bite.
It takes many ticks about 24 hours or more to transmit Lyme disease, if the germs are only in the
tick’s gut. However, Dr. Willy Burgdorfer, discoverer of the Borrelia burdgorferi bacterium that causes
Lyme disease, said at the Lyme disease conference at Bard College in N.Y. on Nov. 13, 1999 that
”There is no such thing as a safety period.” He said about 5-10% of [infected] ticks carry Lyme
bacteria in their saliva and can transmit the disease as soon as they bite.
An article was published about a patient who developed Lyme disease from a tick that had only been
attached for 6 hours. (“Disseminated Lyme disease after short-duration tick bite,” by Patmas MA,
Remorca C. Journal of Spirochetal and Tickborne Diseases 1994; 1:77-78.) The authors concluded
that “the current recommendation against treatment of short-duration tick bites may need
reconsideration.”
The Lyme Association of Greater Kansas City has members who contracted Lyme or a Lyme-like
disease in less than 4 hours of tick attachment.
Tweezers can squeeze a tick’s gut and inject disease germs.
A tick remover that slides under a tick removes large and small ticks safely. Fine-pointed tweezers
may remove large ticks safely, if the points are small enough to grasp the tick’s mouth without
squeezing its gut. Using tweezers, fingers, a hot match, liquid soap, nail polish, alcohol, or other
chemicals can cause germs to be injected into the bite site. This can cause Lyme disease even if the
tick was attached only a short time.
Deer ticks aren’t the only ticks carrying Lyme disease.
Researchers have found Lyme disease Bb bacteria in at least 10 species of ticks. The ticks that are
commonly biting people: Ixodes scapularis (“deer”) ticks, western blacklegged ticks, lone star ticks,
wood ticks, and American dog ticks, are all transmitting Lyme or Lyme-like illnesses that need to be
treated as Lyme. People are developing the Lyme disease rash and symptoms after bites by all these
ticks. Many people who have not had prompt and adequate treatment in the early stage have gone on
to develop more severe, chronic Lyme disease symptoms after bites by all these ticks. Many of these
people have become disabled. People have died from Lyme and Lyme-like diseases in Missouri and
Kansas, usually after several years of illness.
Lyme disease isn’t always transmitted by a tick.
In 1967 Dr. G. Schaltenbrand reported that about 10% of borreliosis [Lyme disease] patients at his
clinic in Germany were getting the EM rash and neurological symptoms from the bites of horseflies,
although Ixodes ticks seemed to be the primary vector. His study was published in a German medical
journal, Verhandl Dtsch Ges Inn Med, 72:975-1006. This was referenced in a book published in
English in 1993, Aspects of Lyme Borreliosis, edited by K. Weber & Willy Burgdorfer (pp. 1-20).
However, 46 years after it was published in German and 20 years after it was mentioned in a book in
English, most Americans still don’t know this.
People in the U.S. are developing Lyme disease symptoms and EM rashes after bites by horseflies,
deerflies, fleas, mosquitoes, and other biting insects. Studies that found Lyme disease Bb bacteria in
mites, flies, fleas & mosquitoes are at www. pubmed.gov.