Lyme disease tick. Deer tick (Ixodes scapularis, previously known as Ixodes dammini). It transmits lyme disease to humans. The female tick can feed on human blood, and in the process may transmit the bacterium Borrelia burgdorfi, cause of Lyme disease. Symptoms of this disease include skin lesions, cardiac and neurological abnormalities, and arthritis. Lyme disease is carried by I. scapularis in north and mid-west USA; and in Europe by the tick I. ricinus.