TICKS - any of the roughly 825 species of invertebrates of the suborder Ixodida, within the order Parasitiformes, subclass Acari, sometimes Acarina, or Acarida.

Ticks, worldwide in distribution, are assigned to three families: Argasidae - soft ticks,  and Nuttalliellidae and Ixodidae - together constituting the hard ticks. The family Nuttalliellidae is represented by one rare African species. Adults range in size up to 30 mm (slightly more than 1 inch), but most species are 15 mm or less. They may be distinguished from their close allies, the mites, by the presence of a sensory pit - Haller's organ,  on the end segment of the first of four pairs of legs; eyes may be present or absent.

Ticks are important parasites of large wild and domestic animals; they are also significant as carriers of serious human and animal diseases. Although no species is primarily a human parasite, some occasionally attack man

Hard ticks, such as the American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, attach to their hosts and feed continuously for several days. When engorgement is complete, the female drops from the host, finds a suitable site to rest, lays her eggs in a mass, and dies. Six-legged larvae hatch from the eggs, move up on blades of grass, and wait for a suitable host (usually a mammal) to pass by. The odor of butyric acid, emanated by all mammals, stimulates the larvae to drop onto and attach to a host. After filling themselves with the host's blood, the larvae detach and molt, becoming eight-legged nymphs. Nymphs also wait for a suitable host; after they have found one and engorged themselves, they fall off the host and molt into adult males or females. Adults may wait for a host as long as three years.

Most hard ticks live in fields and woods, but a few, such as the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, are household pests. Soft ticks differ from hard ticks by feeding intermittently, laying several batches of eggs, passing through several nymphal stages, and carrying on their developmental cycles in the home or nest of the host rather than in fields.

Hard ticks damage the host by drawing large amounts of blood, by secreting neurotoxins (nerve poisons) that sometimes produce paralysis or death, and by transmitting disease. Such diseases include Lyme disease, Texas cattle fever, anaplasmosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Q fever, tularemia, hemorrhagic fever, and a form of encephalitis. Soft ticks also are carriers of diseases.

TICK  -  A widely distributed parasitic arachnid  -  related to Spiders and Scorpions, that sucks the blood of mammals, reptiles and  birds, and may transmit such diseases as Typhus, Lymes Disease and Relapsing Fever. Its round body can be as small as a millimeter, or up to 30 mm long, with eight bristly legs. After feeding, the adults drop off the host and lay eggs on the ground. The larvae attach themselves to a suitable victim, feed, then drop off and molt into nymphs, which repeat the procedure. They have been compared to being similar to the Mite. An insect is a six legged creature, but all of this sized organisms once came from the same ancestor.

The Spider An arachnid of which there are over 30,000 types. The body consists of a fused head and thorax - a cephalothorax, and a rear abdomen separated by a narrow  “waist.”  There are eight legs, up to eight eyes, and several pairs of spinnerets, which produce silk thread as strong as steel, for making webs, cocoons, etc. Spiders prey mainly on insects, trapping them in their webs and killing them with poison-bearing fangs; in a few species the poison is harmful to man. The female is usually larger than the male, which she sometimes eats after mating. See also Black Widow; Tarantula; Water Spider; Wolf Spider.

In many parts of the world, it is very important to be aware of ticks and know all about them. 

They are disease transmitting parasite  -  vectors, and sometimes can infect you with a killer-disease. Look out for them, as they mount sentry duty on tips of vegetation - this is questing. 

A praying like stance, as they await their next victim, to suck all their blood.

Deer ticks, or black-legged ticks, carry Lyme disease -- which has infected thousands of Hudson Valley residents -- as well as other unsettling illnesses.

By Dan Shapley

Ticks are external blood-sucking parasitic pests that, on their own cannot kill you but  sometimes become more than a annoyance. Tick bites can cause itching, irritation, make you feel lousy and run down,  and cause an infection. With the outbreak of the MRSA germ, this must now be a concern.

Moreover, the chances of infection are increased if the tick is removed incorrectly, especially if you allow the mouthparts to remain in the wound. Ticks can pass on serious diseases to humans, birds, reptiles and pets. Some small animals can 'bleed' to death. 

Just like the mosquito, after a tick has fed on an infected host there is every chance that the tick can transfer this disease to the new host. Again like other blood sucking insects this process is actually part of their life-cycle and the bacteria and or virus develop further through theses actions. The tick will feed and then drop off, it may pick up an infected microbe, then molt and go onto a further stage of its own life-cycle.               

Ticks Can Amass in Many Numbers.

This time actually allows the microbe inside the tick to develop and multiply further, they then wait for the tick to find another host, so they might be injected into another victim. 

These microscopic protozoa then develop further and this can give rise to the disease in the human form. It is important to understand how ticks tick, to avoid widespread contagion.

Ticks attach themselves to their hosts by an action called Questing. This involves the tick climbing to the very top of some small vegetation. They anchor themselves with their back legs and extend their front legs, stretched out away from their body. Like most blood-suckers they detect their victims because they are attracted to carbon dioxide, warmth and vibrations.                                  

Questing     -   As a potential blood carrier passes by, the tick latches onto hair or skin with hooks on the ends its legs, at the same time the back legs release their grip. The tick will then find a good place to settle. It will be attracted to warmth as this offers a good blood supply; it soon digs in, cutting with its mouthparts through the dermal layers of the animal.

Ticks can feed just for a day, or it will feed from several days to weeks. Hanging on to a moving animal can be difficult but the tick has evolved with the right tools.  Firstly their mouthparts have backward pointing serrations that act as anchors, and they will use their legs to take a grip of whatever is available.  

Secondly, ticks secrete a gluey substance in their saliva that reinforces the anchor. They also inject the victim with other various substances These chemicals act as a mild anesthetic, but more importantly as an anti-coagulant. Chemicals like, chlorophacinone, stop the body's defenses from carrying out their job, and the wound does not clot, but just keeps bleeding.

When the tick is full the glue dissolves and the tick drops off to rest and develop further, or lay eggs, or die.

A tick does not have a head in the normal sense, the head is the mouthpart that projects uppermost on the body. Because of the way it feeds it has evolved not to have a head and likely no brain as we would understand it. Like a single-celled creature it is programmed in only a few basic actions, urges that spur it on like a small machine, and whilst it repeats these actions it will survive, and has done for hundreds of millions of years.  

The size and shape of the mouthparts are often used, along with other differences, like size, to identify different types.  Male ticks have a hard carapace like plate that covers the entire top surface of these shells, they need little blood. In females this plate covers only about a third of them, from the front. This difference allows females to swell greatly by stretching this pliant part of their bodies, so they can take in large amounts of blood. This action is just like our stomachs; this stretches to accommodate different amounts of food. The female needs much sustenance to produce the many eggs it will lay.

A Female ticks can lay from 100 to several thousands of eggs in one batch, and they are usually laid in secluded areas around dense brush, cracks and crevices or in animal fur depending on the species of the tick. They are laid as a sticky globule mass and bond to what is ever near. All species of tick eggs hatch into the larval stage, in about two weeks.

The female dies shortly after egg laying, and the male dies shortly after mating.  Eggs hatch in the spring or early summer anywhere from April. The larvae from these eggs are very tiny, about 0.7mm or 0.025 inch long. The tick larva, which has six legs, like all stages are blind and fundamentally parasitic: they feed on the blood of mammals and birds.

After hatching, the tiny larvae move into elevated areas such as grass or shrubs in search of their first blood meal. If any animal, and it is usually a small mouse or reptile, passes by, they attach themselves and crawl upward in pursuit of an area of the skin that they can feed from. They then drop off the host, back into the environment. They need this blood feed from birds and mammals in order to develop, by molting, to the next stage in their life, the Nymph. It can wait up to maybe six-months, in some kind of stasis until a likely victim comes by; if it does not feed it will die shortly after this. Over 90% actually die because they do not find a feed of blood.

One of the most common ticks is the Deer Tick, this is mainly to do with the fact that the once the ticks have dug into the poor deer's ear or other soft tissue areas, the deer cannot remove them. In domestic dogs where ticks are also a problem at least the owner can possibly help the dog.

Lyme disease

Lyme disease is caused by the microbial spirochete, Borrelia Burgdorferi. It is the most common disease transmitted by some ticks, mainly in the United States. Lyme Disease was only discovered in the early 1970s, and named from the place it was first found, near Old Lyme, in Connecticut, USA. It has now been reported widely throughout most of the whole country. The problem is that many small creatures, like wild mice, and squirrels carry the disease, but are not effected the same way as humans. If a tick bites a host that was infected with a contagion, like many other parasites, the tick then becomes a carrier. Its next victim will also become a carrier and may develop a full-blown infection.

 Symptoms of Lyme disease may develop within 2 days, but can take up to 30 days following a bite from an infected tick. Symptoms include fever, palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath fatigue, headache, aching joints, nausea and a small red bump at the site of the bite. This bump sometimes grows bigger to become a spreading red ring called erythema migrans. Some people develop . Lyme disease may develop to the chronic stage with any of the following symptoms: rheumatoid arthritis (primarily in the joints of the arms and legs), facial paralysis, stiff neck, severe headache, and cardiac involvement. Infection and symptoms vary. Lyme disease in its early phases responds readily to antibiotics.

Pets.

Tick control on your own animals is also important, as your pet could become very ill or even die. Pet owners can choose simply to remove ticks regularly from their animals, by the method above. Others may use chemical products to treat their pets. Formulated dust, spray, drops or shampoo treatments can be used, but remember that repeated applications maybe needed and these chemicals may do more harm than good. Collars are another option; these collars contain pesticides that kill ticks around the head and neck of pets, but these are not effective forever. Examination maybe needed to see if other parts of the body are infected. 

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