Through the bite of an infected blacklegged tick. It's the only way. Lyme disease doesn't spread person to person, through food, or through the air.
If you spend time outdoors in Massachusetts, understanding how this works isn’t just about curiosity. Lyme disease is a very real risk here, with Massachusetts having some of the highest Lyme disease rates in the country. Worse still, about half of adult blacklegged ticks in the region have the bacteria. Knowing how transmission happens can help you take the right precautions and respond calmly if you find a tick.
Not every tick bite results in infection, even from an infected tick. The Borrelia bacteria live in the tick's gut, not its saliva. When a tick starts feeding, the bacteria need time to activate and migrate from the gut to the salivary glands and then into your bloodstream. This takes about 36 to 48 hours. So if you find and remove a tick within the first 24 hours, your risk goes down substantially.
This is why daily tick checks matter so much. After spending time outdoors, check yourself, your children, and your pets. Focus on the hairline, behind the ears, underarms, waistband, behind the knees, and between the toes. Nymph ticks, which cause most human infections, are notoriously easy to miss. They’re only the size of a poppy seed and about 1 in 5 carry Lyme disease-causing bacteria.
Tick bites don’t hurt. Ticks inject an anesthetic when they attach, so you won't feel it happen. So it’s entirely possible to develop Lyme disease symptoms without even remembering being bitten because the nymph was too small to notice before it fell off.
If you find an attached tick, remove it immediately with fine-tipped tweezers. Grasp close to the skin and pull straight up. Don't twist. Don't use petroleum jelly or a hot match. Clean the area with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.
Write down the date you were bitten and watch for symptoms over the next 30 days. Contact your doctor if you experience a rash at the bite site (not always a bullseye), fever, fatigue, headache, joint pain.
If you live in Massachusetts and you’re looking to reduce tick encounters before they happen, Mosquito Squad of Chelmsford & Cambridge can help. This can be done with barrier treatments that help reduce tick populations by up to 85-90%. A technician will walk your property and find high-risk areas. Then they’ll apply targeted treatments every 21 days to help protect you all season long.
