Numerous locations in the United States are home to a number of tick species, with the best known being the deer tick.

People in Western Pennsylvania don't just get tick bites from hiking in the woods — in many cases, ticks are lurking in their backyard.

“Most of these happen in people's backyards. You don't have to be hunting in the woods. The risk is very real, while sitting on your back porch or patio,” said Dr. Darren Machak, a family practitioner based in Butler.

The presence of ticks that bite and latch on to the skin of humans and animals, sometimes infecting them with Lyme disease, seems to have increased in recent years.

“I don't remember very many ticks at all until the last 10 to 15 years. The numbers are skyrocketing I think,” Machak said.

The best defense against ticks, he said, is a couple simple preventive measures.

A product called permethrin spray is usually found in sporting goods stores or the camping section of department stores. Permethrin is sprayed or applied to clothing and shoes the day before they will be used outdoors.

It is not toxic to humans and is effective at warding off ticks. Depending on the brand of the spray, it typically stays on the clothes for several cycles through the washing machine, meaning it could last nearly an entire summer.

The other important measure that people should take is to check themselves for ticks after being outside. Ticks have eight legs and can be as small as a pinhead in the nymph stage of their development and less than a quarter-inch as adults. They enlarge once engorged from feeding on blood.

They are known to crawl as far upward as possible once getting onto a person's body.

The American dog tick is the most common species of tick found in Pennsylvania, though they do not transmit Lyme disease.

Lyme disease, according to the state Department of Health, is caused by a bacteria that can be transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected blacklegged tick, which is also called a deer tick.

Symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue and a characteristic skin rash that looks like a bull's-eye.

Most cases of Lyme disease can be treated successfully with a few weeks worth of antibiotics.

However, getting a tick bite does not guarantee that a person will have Lyme disease.

If a patient removes a tick that has latched on to his skin within 24 hours, the odds that they contracted the disease are very low, Machak said.

If a tick is removed between 24 and 48 hours after the first bite, the patient is advised to call his doctor immediately because a one-time dose of an antibiotic may be able to knock out the disease.

However, if a tick is allowed to latch on for 48 to 72 hours, and the patient starts to show some of the symptoms of the disease, then they would be prescribed anywhere from one to four weeks worth of antibiotics.

About 50 percent of Lyme disease patients never found a tick on their body nor knew that they had a bite, Machak said.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he said.