Ticks

The major families of ticks include the Ixodidae or hard ticks, which have thick outer shells made of chitin, and Argasidae or soft ticks, which have a membraneous outer surface. A third family, Nuttalliellidae, contains one rare African species, Nuttalliella namaqua. Soft ticks typically live in crevices and emerge briefly to feed, while hard ticks will attach themselves to the skin of a host for long periods of time. Ticks, like most other arachnids, typically have eight legs but may have six depending on their developmental stage. Tick bites look like mosquito bites, but can also sometimes bruise or resemble a bullseye.

The life cycle of the hard tick requires one to three years to complete, and may require one, two or three different host animals. The following describes the three-host lifecycle

• An adult female tick drops off her final host, lays her eggs and dies.
• Tiny six-legged larvae congregate on grasses or other leaves and stems not far from ground level. Lucky individuals complete that stage after attaching to a host, feeding, and dropping off. The larval stage can cause intense itching on humans, but does not transmit disease.
• Larvae molt and emerge as the nymph stage, about 1.5 mm long and again climb a grass stem to await a host. The nymph stage also causes intense itching in humans.
• Engorged nymphs drop off, molt to the adult stage, approximately 3 mm long, mate, and again climb a stem to await a host. Adults are amazingly stealthy on humans in spite of their size, and may not be noticed until they have been attached for a considerable time.

Ticks reproduce sexually, use internal fertilisation and are oviparous. Ticks produce a lot of young but the young have no nurturing.

Ticks are second only to mosquitoes as vectors of human disease, both infectious and toxic.

Hard ticks can transmit human diseases such as Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, equine encephalitis, Colorado tick fever, and several forms of ehrlichiosis. Additionally, they are responsible for transmitting livestock and pet diseases, including babesiosis, anaplasmosis and cytauxzoonosis.

Soft ticks transmit tick-borne relapsing fever spirochetes such as Borrelia turicatae, Borrelia parkeri and Borrelia hermsii.

Ticks are blood-feeding parasites that are often found in tall grass and shrubs where they will wait to attach to a passing host. Physical contact is the only method of transportation for ticks. Ticks do not jump or fly, although they may drop from their perch and fall onto a host.Changes in temperature and day length are some of the factors signaling a tick to seek a host.

Ticks can detect heat emitted or carbon dioxide respired from a nearby host. They will generally drop off the animal when full, but this may take several days. Ticks have a harpoon-like structure in their mouth area, known as a hypostome, that allows them to anchor themselves firmly in place while feeding. The hypostome has a series of barbs angled back, which is why they are so difficult to remove once they have penetrated a host.

Lone Star Tick
(Amblyomma americanum)

Amblyomma americanum, or lone star tick, is a species of tick in the genus Amblyomma. It is very wide-spread in the United States ranging from Texas to Iowa in the Midwest and east to the coast where it can be found as far north as Maine. Like all ticks, it is capable of vectoring diseases including human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, canine and human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, tularemia, and Southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI, possibly cause by the spirochete Borrelia lonestari) STARI exhibits a rash similar to that caused by Lyme disease but is generally considered to be less severe. Though the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, has occasionally been isolated from lone star ticks, numerous vector competancy tests have demonstrated that this tick is extremely unlikely to be capable of transmitting Lyme disease.

American Dog Tick Wood Tick/Eastern Wood tick
(Dermacentor variabilis)

Dermacentor variabilis, also known as the American dog tick, is a species of tick that is known to carry bacteria responsible for several diseases in humans, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia (Francisella tularensis). It is one of the most well-known of hard ticks. D. variabilis does not cause Lyme disease, which is carried by the deer tick Ixodes scapularis.

Deer Tick
(Ixodes scapularis)

Ixodes scapularis, known as the deer tick or black-legged tick, is a hard-bodied tick (family Ixodidae) of the eastern and northern Midwestern United States. It is a vector for several diseases of animals and humans (e.g., Lyme disease, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, etc).

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