Ticks are arachnids, not insects - close cousins of spiders and scorpions, with eight legs as adults and two body regions instead of three. Larvae have only six legs and are sometimes mistaken for insects, which is partly why old field guides occasionally placed ticks in the wrong class.
Folk wisdom holds that ticks fall out of trees onto people - this is wrong. Ticks cannot jump, fly, or drop from height; they quest on…
Hard ticks find hosts by questing: climbing onto grass blades or low vegetation, anchoring with the back legs, and waving the front legs…
Questing hard ticks always climb upward when they catch a host. After they latch onto a pant leg they crawl steadily up until they reach…
Ixodid ticks pass through four life stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult. Larvae, nymphs, and adult females each take one large blood…
Hard ticks (Ixodidae) take one large blood meal per life stage and stay attached for days. Soft ticks (Argasidae), including Ornithodoros,…
Ticks find hosts using Haller's organ, a sensory pit on the tarsus of each foreleg. It carries chemoreceptors tuned to ammonia, carbon…