Ticks and Alpha-Gal Syndrome in Northwest Arkansas

Lone star tick

By far the most common tick on our trails, and the aggressive one—unlike most ticks, it will actively move toward a host rather than waiting to be brushed. Adult females have a single white dot on the back. This is the species behind alpha-gal syndrome.

American dog tick

Larger, with mottled white-and-brown markings. The main carrier of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which is the most commonly reported tick-borne disease in Arkansas.

Blacklegged tick (the “deer tick”)

Present but much less common here. It carries Lyme disease, and Arkansas is a low-incidence Lyme state—fewer than 10 confirmed cases per 100,000 people.

Season. Ticks are active from spring through fall, peaking through the warm months, and a mild Ozark winter is not a guarantee of a break. Treat April through October as full tick season and stay alert either side of it. State health officials described the 2026 season as running worse than usual.

Where they are. Ticks wait on grass and low brush at the edge of the trail, not up in trees. That single fact explains most of the prevention advice below—the more you brush against vegetation, the more ticks you collect. Narrow, overgrown singletrack in June is the high-risk case; a wide gravel greenway is not.

Tick photos: CDC Public Health Image Library. Use does not imply endorsement by CDC or HHS. Top photo by xpda, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Most tick bites cause nothing worse than an itchy welt. But Arkansas does report meaningful numbers of tick-borne illness, so it’s worth knowing the names and, more importantly, the timeline.

• Rocky Mountain spotted fever—the most common tick-borne disease in Arkansas. High fever, headache, muscle pain, and a non-itchy pink rash that typically starts on the wrists, forearms, and ankles. Usually appears about a week after the bite, but anywhere from 2 to 14 days.
• Ehrlichiosis—from the lone star tick. Fever, headache, chills, aches, sometimes stomach upset or confusion. Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma together account for around a third of all reported cases nationally. Symptoms can appear up to 10 days after a bite.
• Tularemia—Arkansas reports this more than most states. Carried by the American dog tick and lone star tick, among other routes.
• Anaplasmosis and Lyme disease—both from the blacklegged tick, and both uncommon here relative to the Northeast.
• Heartland and Bourbon viruses—rare, emerging, and associated with the lone star tick. Flu-like illness in the warm months.

The practical takeaway—a fever, bad headache, or unexplained rash in the one to two weeks after a hike is worth a call to your doctor—and mention the tick bite, because it changes what they test for.

Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) is an allergy to a sugar molecule found in most mammal meat—beef, pork, lamb, venison—that can develop after a bite from a lone star tick. It is the one genuinely Arkansas-specific thing on this page.

Arkansas leads the country. A CDC study of blood donors across ten states, published in 2026, found Arkansas with the highest alpha-gal antibody seroprevalence in the nation at 31.2%—roughly one in three donors tested—compared with 24% across the five highest states combined. The state has recorded around 3,000 suspected cases so far in 2026, and was the first in the country to require labs to report them.

An important caveat—testing positive for the antibody is not the same as having the syndrome. Only a small minority of people with alpha-gal antibodies go on to develop actual symptoms. The number is a measure of how much tick exposure there is here, not a prediction about you.

What it looks like

The distinguishing feature is the delay. Unlike most food allergies, a reaction typically arrives two to six hours after eating, which is why people so often fail to connect it to dinner. Symptoms range from hives, swollen lips, stomach upset and diarrhea through to full anaphylaxis. Some people also react to dairy or to gelatin—and to certain medications and medical products that contain mammal-derived ingredients, which is worth telling your doctor about.

If you develop unexplained hives or stomach trouble in the middle of the night after a steak dinner, and you’ve been bitten by a tick in the past few months, alpha-gal is worth raising with your doctor. There’s a blood test for it. There is no cure—management means avoiding the trigger foods—which is exactly why prevention is the whole game.

1. Treat your clothing and shoes with permethrin. This is the highest-value step by a wide margin. Permethrin bonds to fabric, kills ticks on contact, and stays effective through about six washings—roughly six weeks in season, then re-treat. Look for a 0.5% spray, the standard consumer concentration. Treat your hiking shoes, socks, and pant legs outdoors, then let them air dry at least two hours before wearing. Permethrin goes on fabric, never on skin.
2. Or buy it pre-treated. Factory-treated clothing holds its protection far longer than a home spray—manufacturers claim around 70 washes, though independent testing suggests less. More expensive up front, but there is nothing to remember.
3. Use an EPA-registered repellent on exposed skin. DEET or picaridin both work well. Ankles and lower legs matter most, since that’s where ticks board.
4. Dress to make them visible and to block them. Light-colored clothing so you can spot them, long pants tucked into socks so they can’t get to skin. It looks ridiculous. Do it anyway in June.
5. Walk the middle of the trail. Ticks are on the vegetation at the edges. Stepping around a mud puddle into the brush is how most people pick them up. Avoid tall grass and dense brush wherever you have the choice.
6. Shower within a couple of hours of getting home. Wash your hiking clothes in hot water, since cold and warm washes don’t kill ticks. CDC tick prevention tips.

If you have cats: wet permethrin is highly toxic to them. Treat your gear outdoors and keep cats away from it until it is completely dry. Once dry, it is safe.

Permethrin, step by step

One minute, start to finish—what to buy, how to spray your shoes, socks, and pant legs, and how long to let everything dry before you wear it.

Don’t forget the dog. Dogs collect ticks efficiently and then bring them indoors. If your dog hikes with you, talk to your vet about tick prevention and check them over at the trailhead before they get in the car.

Check once mid-hike when you stop for a break, and thoroughly when you get home. Ticks tend to wander upward and settle where clothing is snug or skin is thin, so look at:

• Scalp and hairline
• Behind and inside the ears
• Back of the neck
• Armpits
• Waistband and belly button
• Groin
• Behind the knees
• Between the toes and around the ankles

Nymph-stage ticks are the size of a poppy seed and are responsible for a large share of bites, so this is a job for good light and, if you can, a second pair of eyes or a mirror. Run your fingers over your scalp—you’ll often feel one before you see it.

Do it promptly—the longer a tick stays attached, the higher the risk of disease transmission. The method is simple:

1. Use fine-tipped tweezers and grasp the tick as close to the skin as you can get.
2. Pull straight up with steady, even pressure. Don’t twist, jerk, or wiggle—that’s what leaves mouthparts behind.
3. Clean the bite and your hands with soap and water or rubbing alcohol.
4. Note the date. A photo of the tick on your phone is genuinely useful if you end up seeing a doctor.

Do not try to burn the tick off with a match, smother it in petroleum jelly or nail polish, or paint it with anything. These are folk remedies that don’t work, and they make the tick more likely to regurgitate into the wound—the opposite of what you want. If a fragment of mouthpart breaks off and won’t come out easily, leave it alone and let the skin push it out.

A small red bump at the bite site for a few days is normal and is not an infection. Call your doctor if, in the weeks following a bite, you get:

• Fever or chills
• A severe headache
• A rash—especially one spreading from the wrists and ankles, or an expanding bull’s-eye
• Deep muscle aches or unusual fatigue
• An expanding area of redness, warmth, or pus at the bite site

In the months after a bite, also watch for hives, stomach pain, or swelling three to six hours after eating red meat. That delayed reaction is the sign of alpha-gal syndrome. Always tell the doctor you were bitten by a tick. These illnesses are very treatable when caught early and considerably less so when they aren’t, and the tick bite is the detail that points them at the right test.

Chiggers are mite larvae, they’re abundant in Ozark summers, and they are the single most common reason a hiker here goes home itching. They don’t burrow and they don’t carry disease—they attach at the skin’s surface, usually where clothing is tight, and the intense itch shows up hours later.

The prevention is the same as for ticks—permethrin on clothing, repellent on skin, stay out of tall grass. The treatment is a hot soapy shower as soon as you get home—which removes any still attached—and then anti-itch cream and patience. Nail polish does nothing here either.

• Getting Started on the Trails—new to hiking here? Start there.

This guide is general information from a volunteer trail organization, not medical advice. If you’ve been bitten and feel unwell, contact your doctor. See our Terms of Use and Trail Safety Disclaimer.