Ticks

Posted in Featured, Insects

Ticks grow from the egg to the adult by what is called simple metamorphosis, meaning there is not a great change in their appearance.  They emerge from the egg as a tick, shed their skin later to become the second stage and a slightly larger tick, and then shed one last time to become an adult tick.  At this stage, males and females mate with the female laying a large number of eggs.  The life cycle of ticks, from egg to adult, generally takes about 2 years.

Ticks are carriers of Lyme Disease.  The bacteria that causes Lyme Disease does not appear to enter the eggs before being laid.  Therefore, the first stage ticks are not infected.  In most of the western United States, the percentage of ticks infected with Lyme Disease is only around one or two percent.  As the tick enters the adult stage their choice for a meal becomes large animals such as deer, dogs, or other animals available.  If the ticks fed on an infected animal in either of the previous two life stages,  they will pass the bacteria into the blood of the larger animal, causing it to be a carrier as well. There are vaccines for pets against Lyme Disease. Check with your veterinarian.

Here are some of the common remedies for removing a tick from the skin of its host.

• they spin themselves in clockwise (false), twist it out counter-clockwise
• put a cigarette near it and the heat will make it back out
• coat it with Vaseline and once it starts to suffocate it will back out
• put rubbing alcohol on it and it will back out or be killed

You want to avoid being inoculated with whatever disease-causing pathogens the tick may be carrying. The remedies above will irritate the tick and it will become distressed, causing it to vomit its stomach contents into the skin before releasing its host.