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.
The only vector for Lyme disease in the U.S. is the deer tick known as Ixodes scapularis. These ticks are carriers of the Lyme disease bacterium in their stomachs. The ticks then are vectors that can transmit the bacterium to humans with a tick bite.