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Perhaps one of the most feared bugs in the country today is the tiny creature known as the deer tick. Where do ticks live? They can be found in grasses on lawns, and thrive on moist, shady areas.

This minuscule little mite usually brings havoc to anyone unlucky enough to get bitten by it. Because of its nasty habit of needing fresh blood to survive, if the host happens to be a human, this is where the problems begin.

Indeed, these creatures only eat three times in their lives, and their life span is around two years. When they are changing from the larval stage into the nymph state (young tick) and then when they change from the nymph stage to the adult stage.

The last feed comes when they want to lay their eggs. After this, they die off and the whole cycle begins again.

But if these have had any contact at all with a carrier of Lyme disease on the first feeding, they will inject this disease into their host on the second and third.

In humans, this can show itself in a variety of ways which includes symptoms like paralysis of the face, palpitations and neurological disorders. Indeed, the symptoms do not really form a recognized pattern so doctors have a hard time working out what is wrong with the patient.

People affected normally include those who have gone camping in the North East in particular since the eggs are normally amongst dried leaves on the ground.

Of course, everyone is familiar with the common dog and cat ticks which normally bloat up once they are feeding on the animal, but these deer ticks are no bigger than a sesame seed so they are incredibly difficult to spot on the body.

Since people are more into outdoor sports now than ever before, the cases of Lyme disease are the fastest growing diseases in the US.

Usually, there can be up to about fourteen thousand cases reported every year but what people should know is that this disease is rarely fatal.

Indeed, the symptoms normally resemble flu which means that many cases go unreported. Infected persons usually get better on their own but some need antibiotics to clear up the infection. One odd fact though is that the medical world predicts that about ninety percent of cases are not reported so this gives some indication of how large the problem is.

For anyone living within this range where the deer tick is present, it is a good idea to keep the place free of rodents and animals which attract the tick in the first place.

Exterminators are always ready to give advice and show the householder how to make the place as uninhabitable as possible for infestations.

If there is no food source apart from humans, it is unlikely that these ticks will be able to sustain their life span which is good news for everyone who worries about such infections.