What tick is this? If it is even a tick..?

Hi all!

I was hiking at Tenafly Nature Center (NJ) on Sunday afternoon (55 hours ago). Tonight when I took a shower I felt a little grain on my leg and when I went to take, it came off easily. I took a few images right away.

Does anyone know if this is in fact a tick? From my search I think it may be a Blacklegged Male tick, but I am not sure.

I will go see a doctor in a few hours but I would appreciate a lot if anyone has some expertise in this topic, thanks!!

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Definitely a tick.

Looks like a small wood/dog tick. Pictures are pretty blurry though so hard to tell for me.

Also, if your main concern is the Lyme disease risk, keep in mind they usually have to have their head embedded in you for 36-48 hours generally before Lyme can be transmitted. Just to be safe, keep an eye out for the red “bullseye” that may form around the bite.

CDC info: https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/transmission/index.html

Thank you LabDaddy1, I sent these to my doctor and he prescribed doxycycline.
Better safe than sorry!

Also, if it “came off easily”, it hadn’t embedded itself into your skin yet, so I would say it’s extremely unlikely that you would catch anything from this tick, even if it is a deer tick.

This is the safest approach as a lot of people that get lymes will not get the bullseye or other symptoms after initial infection. I know way too many people who have had their lives permanently disrupted by not catching/treating lymes early.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

Also, if it “came off easily”, it hadn’t embedded itself into your skin yet, so I would say it’s extremely unlikely that you would catch anything from this tick, even if it is a deer tick.

Yes, I also thought this at first but then I thought, what has this tick been doing for the past ~50 hours on my body? So since I do not now whether they can actually embed at first and then just detach, I went with the safest route.

Than you all for your contributions!

Here is a very small female deer tick I discovered buried neck deep in my leg one morning and the subsequent tiny red inflamed circle. Got back to the cities three days later and took some doxy. No symptoms three months later.

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It is a tick. Are you going to see your Doctor because of this tick? Are you ill. It does not even sound or look like the tick was dug into you. Ticks really swell up when they eat. Did you squish it? Was it full of blood if you did? This said, getting on an antibiotic certainly will not hurt.