In addition to creating extreme annoyance and discomfort, ticks are efficient vectors of a number of very serious diseases of man and his domestic animals. In recent years, the ascent of Lyme Disease as a public health threat has focused attention on ticks and tick-borne diseases. Ticks transmit viral and bacterial diseases such as: Lyme Disease, tick fever, encephalitis, relapsing fever, tularemia, Rocky Mountain Spotted fever, pox, ehrlichiosis, endemic typhus and a protozoan causing babesiosis. They can also cause allergic reactions, such as tick bite paralysis. Ticks are blood sucking feeders of mammals, birds and reptiles and are capable of carrying and transmitting more than one pathogen at a time. Avoid tick bites when working in the yard or garden or walking along grassy or wooded trails.