Ticks transmit pathogens during feeding. They lie in wait until a suitable host passes by. Once attached to the host, they can secrete small amounts of saliva with anesthetic properties, preventing the animal or person from feeling the tick's attachment. Depending on where it attaches, it may also go unnoticed.
During the tick’s blood meal, it can ingest pathogens from its host. Additionally, through the saliva that enters the host, it can transmit pathogens. The tick subsequently infects other hosts during its next blood meal, and so on.
Symptoms of tick-borne illnesses often resemble those of other illnesses, including fever and chills, persistent headaches, body aches, and rashes. If you get a tick bite and develop these symptoms within a few weeks, consult your healthcare provider. It's important not to wait, as some tick-borne illnesses can be very serious, even fatal, if left untreated.
Based on the most common ticks present in the state (Rocky Mountain wood tick and American dog tick), tickborne diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Colorado tick fever, soft tick relapsing fever, tick paralysis, and tularemia are infections most likely to affect Montanans after a tick bite. Testing for tickborne disease can be performed at most reference laboratories, including the MT Public Health Laboratory.
You can reduce your chances of tickborne conditions by minimizing situations that allow ticks to attach. In forested areas, try to avoid grassy, brushy spots as well as felled trees, logs, and branches. Keep the grass around your property mowed, at least in areas where humans and pets may go.
Wear light-colored long sleeves and long pants, and use a repellant known by the EPA to be effective against ticks (always use repellants as directed). Check your clothing frequently and before washing, place garments in a hot dryer for 10 minutes to kill any ticks that might be present.
Thoroughly check yourself and others for ticks during and up to three days after activities in tick-infested areas. Remove any ticks with fine tweezers, being careful to also extract the head. Shower soon after returning from tick habitats. Use PPE when washing pets to avoid transfer.
Currently, tick experts do not believe that the blacklegged tick is present throughout Montana. Still, public health officials are conducting further surveillance to determine where the blacklegged ticks may be residing and whether they are establishing their habitat in the state. The goal of DPHHS’s active surveillance program is to target as much of the state as possible while ticks are active. Members of the public can assist with passive surveillance by submitting suspect ticks to the MT DPHHS for identification: https://form.jotform.com/243114113292141.
In addition, If you would like to see previous surveillance reports, Check out our new dashboard! (https://prod-dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/cdepi/diseases/ticks/index)
For additional information about tickborne illness in Montana, contact Devon Cozart with the Communicable Disease Epidemiology Section at DPHHS (devon.cozart@mt.gov).
References:
MTDPHHS Communicable Disease Epidemiology. Tickborne Illnesses. May 2025. https://prod-dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/cdepi/diseases/ticks/index. Accessed May 29, 2025.
Montana Health Alert Network. May 20, 2025.Blacklegged Ticks Identified in Montana. https://dphhs.mt.gov/assets/publichealth/HAN/2025/DPHHSHANUPDATE2025-11BlackleggedTicksIdentifiedinMontana.pdf. Accessed May 29, 2025.
California Department of Public Health. Tick Paralysis. Webpage last updated November 2023. https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/TickParalysis.aspx. Accessed May 30, 2025
CDC. May 2024. About Ticks and Tickborne Disease. https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/about/index.html. Accessed May 29, 2025.
CDC has additional information about tickborne diseases for clinicians linked below: