MONROE COUNTY, Ga. — As we get closer to summer, the warm weather may be calling for you to head outside to the great outdoors. There's a tiny mite that could be lurking waiting to spoil your summer fun, according to High Falls State Park Naturalist, Bronwen Morgan.
"It actually has eight legs like a spider but it feeds off the blood of other animals," Morgan said.
Morgan said ticks can be found during warm months in several places.
"A lot of brush and undergrowth or low hanging limbs because they're going to be living on tall blades of grass or on the back of leaves," Morgan said.
Morgan said the mites are really small and some of them you can't feel.
"Hundred of seed ticks dropped onto the back of my hand and then start to spread and I couldn't feel them. They're just so tiny. You can't feel them," Morgan said.
Morgan said people shouldn't ignore a tick bite if they get one because they can lead to diseases.
Doctor Lance Slade with Primary Pediatrics said there are different ways to get a tick off. One of them is you can try to drown it out with Vaseline.
"If one's on there like work on tweezers getting it level, pull it off straight and then as long as you get the tick off definitely in the first two hours you should be fine. Lyme disease they usually say it takes 24 hours of being lodged into before it can cause symptoms or transmission," Slade advised.
If you go the tweezers route, make sure you get the head out.
"You still can get infected at that point. Your body can push it out but your but the risk of transmission or illness is worse," Slade said.
Doctor Slade said anyone is vulnerable that's in an area with ticks.
"Any of us that do that are prone to it so I don't think they discriminate ages or that kind of thing so," Slade said.
Ticks are usually spotted in wooded areas and if you're hiking through nature trails, Morgan said the risk is low if you follow the rules.
"You can avoid them really just by staying on the trail and veering off into something that's kind of grown up like this," Morgan said.
Morgan said ticks shouldn't deter people from enjoying nature.
"No! I mean I'm out here everyday and I have yet to get a tick from working at high falls state park, so I mostly encounter ticks deep, deep into the woods," Morgan said.
Morgan recommends people pay attention to their bodies for a few days after visiting an unmarked area in the woods.