by Paul Auerbach, M.D.
reposted with permission from the Medicine for the Outdoors Blog

Dr. Jeremy Joslin is a wilderness medicine aficionado and has without question posted the greatest number of intelligent and useful comments to posts at this blog. So, I'm pleased to learn that he has created a very useful iPhone application named TickDoctor.

TickDoctor provides a stunning visual atlas of the most common ticks encountered in North America. Although not yet comprehensive, most common ticks are represented. For each tick species, the user is able to identify males, females, and nymphs. In many instances, there are included images of the engorged female, which often looks very different from its non-fed state.

More than just a beautiful atlas, TickDoctor provides instructions for prevention of tick bites and how to remove them if bites should occur. If a bite has occurred, or if you're just plain curious, Dr. Joslin has included medically relevant data on each species, describing which diseases have been associated with it.

While this application should never substitute for the advice of a physician, it will help guide you to the identification of the tick in question and provide a framework of reference for dealing with "what to do next."