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From walking the dog to camping, it helps to know which ticks live in your area and what diseases they can spread. Most tick bites are painless or cause only minor symptoms, such as a change in skin color. But the bite from some ticks can be serious.

In the United States, the number of people diagnosed with tick-borne diseases has increased. In the years between 2004 and 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that tick-borne diseases rose from about 22,500 cases to about 50,800 cases. As of 2019, Lyme disease is the most often diagnosed tick-borne illness.

Here are images of unfed, human-biting ticks. The images also show where the ticks might be found in the U.S. and the diseases they're known to carry.