In early July, 1863, troops from General Robert E. Leeâs Army of Northern Virginia (the Confederates) met up with a patrol of Union cavalry on the outskirts of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Over the next three days, this encounter grew into a turning point of the Civil War.
In the South, lone star ticks (Amblyomma americanum) can also transmit Lyme disease or a closely related illness. Ticks have four life stages: egg, larva, nymph and adult. In each stage after hatching, they suck blood from animals like mice, squirrels, birds and deer.
Additionally, only blacklegged ticks transmit Lyme disease bacteria, but each other type of tick carries its own type of disease-causing agents, and risk for disease from infected ticks varies greatly depending on the type of pathogen, how long the tick was feeding, and even the immune status of the tick-bite victim.