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.
About the tick. In New Jersey, Lyme disease is transmitted primarily by the bite of an infected black-legged or deer tick (Ixodes scapularis). Ticks are flattened and circular in appearance with eight legs. Deer ticks are very small only one sixteenth of an inch across. Immature ticks are even smaller and very difficult to detect.