The larva and adult male do not transmit Lyme disease. The two ticks removed in practice are the nymph and adult female. I one study in our area at least 25% of nymphs and 50% of female adults carried Lyme disease.

Warning: Most warnings describe a tick the size of a pinhead or the size of a period at the end of a sentence. That would be the typical for a nymph. The female adult is much larger, and can reach the size of a sesame seed. The adult female deer tick can resemble the sized of a dog tick. Both the nympal and female adult tick become even larger when engorged with blood following a bite.