It’s never fun to encounter a spider, bed bug, or cockroach (shudder), but finding a creepy-crawly like a tick actually on you—or even worse, embedded in your flesh—might feel like next-level horror. That’s because tick bites are the primary cause of Lyme disease, which can cause a host of uncomfortable, but sometimes subtle symptoms, including weird rashes, fever, and joint pain.
Before you freak out, know that Lyme is treatable: As many as 476,000 people in the US are diagnosed every year, and with the proper antibiotics, there’s a good chance you should be able to ward off problems, even at later phases of the infection. But how long does this eight-legged creature need to be attached to give you Lyme disease? Though the overarching answer is, frustratingly, “it depends,” there’s actually some good news: It’s probably longer than you think.
So how long does a tick need to be on me to infect me with Lyme disease?
If you happen to find one of these gross little critters on or beneath your skin, take a deep breath: A tick generally needs time to feast on your blood (blech)—at least 24 hours—before things lead to Lyme. And there’s a whole lot that has to happen behind the scenes to get to that point.
First, know that your chances of encountering an infected tick aren’t super enormous—and vary depending on where you are, explains Bobbi Pritt, MD, division chair of clinical microbiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The only ticks that can transmit Lyme in the US are black-legged, or deer, ticks, which you’re more likely to find in the northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and midwest part of the country. (You can check where different types of ticks live and track Lyme disease cases on various CDC maps.) And in those “high-risk” locations, anywhere from 10% to 50% of black-legged ticks carry the bacteria responsible for Lyme, called Borrelia burgdorferi.
Here’s how the process works: If a black-legged tick feasts on, say, an infected mouse, those bacteria end up in the tick’s gut, waiting for it to feed, Thomas N. Mather, PhD, a professor of public health entomology at the University of Rhode Island and the director of URI’s TickEncounter Resource Center, tells SELF. And as it gorges on your blood (ew), he explains, the bacteria multiply inside the tick, eventually making their way to its salivary glands to infect you (or your dog or kiddo), Catherine Brissette, PhD, a professor and Lyme researcher at the University of North Dakota, tells SELF. “The bacteria have to get kind of woken up, and then they travel up to the salivary glands to be transmitted,” she says. By the time the bacteria reach that stage, the bloodsucker isn’t just sucking—it’s also spitting out water from your blood that it doesn’t need through those salivary glands, and the bacteria flow with it. “They spit and suck and spit and suck,” Mather says.
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That’s why it takes at least 24 hours (but oftentimes, as many as 48 hours) for the transfer to go down.
Of course, the longer this all goes on, the greater your risk of getting the disease: After researchers let Lyme-carrying ticks feed on nearly 90 rodents, none were infected within 24 hours, 10% were infected by 48 hours, and 70% were infected by 72 hours, according to one review. It’s important to note, however, that most research on transmission is done in animals because scientists aren’t about to purposely infect humans. The ticks in those studies were also known to have Lyme (so, again, not every creeper that latches will cause issues).
Bottom line: You have about a 1% to 3% chance of developing Lyme after a tick bite, even in areas where it’s common. In fact, a 2017 study of more than 3,500 reports of tick bites found that only 5.2% of people who estimated the tick had been attached to them for four whole days or longer developed symptoms (headache, fever, dizziness, that classic “bull’s-eye” rash, even joint pain—which are again, all usually treatable with meds). Important to note, too, that Lyme isn’t the only tick-transmissible disease possible: Some can transfer Powassan virus disease much more quickly (like, in minutes, Mather says), although this one is pretty rare. (There have been just 26 cases in 2024 so far.)
Here’s how to avoid getting bit entirely
What experts all agree on is that you need to get that tick off of you ASAP regardless of where you are, Dr. Pritt says. Ideally, you’ll catch it within a couple of hours of spending time outside. “If you’re in an area where there are ticks, if you do a tick check every day, you significantly decrease your chances of getting Lyme disease,” Brissette says.
Here are some ways to cut down your risk:
- Shower within two hours after you’ve been hiking, camping, gardening, or even picnicking in the park. This helps to wash off unattached ticks.
- Look thoroughly behind your knees, between your fingers, in your armpits, on your hairline, and anywhere your clothing presses on your skin. Be diligent because they can also be tiny: Adult black-legged ticks are only as big as a sesame seed, but the younger nymphs are more like the size of a poppy seed.
- Tuck your pants into your socks when hiking in brushy areas and try to avoid walking directly through the densest wooded areas.
- Use an insect repellent with DEET.
- Treat your clothing and gear with the insecticide permethrin, which remains protective through several washes.
The safest way to remove a tick
If you do find a tick attached to your skin, don’t suffocate it with a heavy substance like petroleum jelly or nail polish, or try to burn it off your skin (ouch!). Instead, grab a pair of fine-tipped tweezers dipped in rubbing alcohol (or hand sanitizer in a pitch) to de-latch the demon. Here’s how:
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- Grab the tick with the tweezers as close to your skin as you can.
- Pull the tick up and off your skin with steady pressure. Try not to jostle it around so it remains intact. (If small parts of the tick are still in your skin after you get it off, try to remove those with the tweezers too.)
- Drop the arachnid into a sealable plastic bag and close it tightly (you don’t want it to escape if it’s still alive!).
- Wash the bite and your hands with soap and water or rubbing alcohol.
Next, try to identify the species. You can use an interactive tool like the CDC’s Tick Bite Bot to help you, but know that black-legged ones appear dark red or brown (other ticks may have white spots), and they have long, narrow mouths that are visible from above. Keep in mind their color may change when they’re engorged with blood (sorry). You can store the sealed-up tick in your freezer to bring to your doctor if you develop any symptoms, Dr. Pritt says.
If the tick was on you for more than 36 hours, you’re sure it’s a black-legged tick, and you are located in an area where Lyme is common—even if you don’t have symptoms—talk to your doctor. You can sometimes take a preventive antibiotic. “There's a chance that you are infected. You may not be. But you could take that single dose to help prevent that infection, if it is there, from really setting hold,” Dr. Pritt says.
If thinking about all of this has you sweating, just know that you’re gonna be just fine, even if you do come across a creepy-crawly. Stay safe out there!
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