Several species of ticks are native to Montana, and they are a common sight for runners, hikers and campers in the spring and summer months. But for the first time, specialists in Montana have identified a blacklegged tick in the state, a species that can carry and transmit Lyme disease.
Rocky Mountain wood ticks and American dog ticks are commonly seen in Montana, said Marni Rolston, a diagnostician in MSU Extension’s Schutter Diagnostic Lab in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology.
Rolston identified the specimen, which was found in eastern Montana. Wood ticks and dog ticks do not transmit Lyme disease, but blacklegged ticks, also known as deer ticks, can.
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