In fact, this species of tick is the main vector of Lyme disease in North America. Bacterium Carried īlack-legged ticks are vectors for several diseases, including Lyme disease. So pay extra attention to armpits, elbows, behind the knees, in hair, or behind the neck. Ticks hide in warm, secure areas when feeding. To correctly identify a black-legged tick when it’s engorged, look at its legs and upper body, as these remain unchanged.Īfter you’ve gone hiking in the forest or walking through brush and tall grass, always check your body for ticks. It will appear ovular and be gray instead of dark or reddish-brown. They have round bodies when they’re not engorged.Īfter they’ve had a blood meal, however, an engorged black-legged tick can be unrecognizable from its normal state. Males are usually dark brown, whereas females are more reddish-brown. How can you spot a black-legged tick? They are named for their appearance, so naturally, these arachnids have 8 black legs. For more info on the lifecycle of ticks, check out this video from New York State Integrated Pest Management. After female adult ticks have fed off their host, they will wait out the winter and lay eggs in the spring. In this phase, black-legged ticks look for large animals as hosts, where they’re more likely to find mates. Black-legged ticks are more dangerous in this phase because they are tinier and therefore difficult to spot.įinally, the tick enters the adult phase, in which it must feed a third and final time. At this point, they will seek out large and small hosts, including humans. Once the larvae have engorged themselves, they molt and enter the nymph phase the following spring. Larvae go out in search of hosts, usually targeting smaller animals like rodents and mice. In each stage of life, a black-legged tick must have a blood meal from a host. Eggs hatch into larvae between spring and summer. Typically, these ticks are among the first invertebrates in their environment to become active again in the spring.īlack-legged ticks have a 2-year lifespan, passing through 4 life stages. This makes them particularly dangerous, as you may not even notice a tick on you until after the damage is done.īlack-legged ticks are hardy creatures, able to withstand severe winter temperatures that are common to Connecticut and the Northeast. Black-legged ticks may spend days gorging on a blood meal from their host. You can’t feel a bite from a black-legged tick since their saliva contains a numbing anesthetic. ![]() They sit and wait for a potential host to pass by, latching on when one does.īlack-legged ticks often cling to fur and clothing and will crawl toward warmer spots on the body where blood is closer to the surface. You can find black-legged ticks in low vegetation, like shrubs and ferns. ![]() But this tick also feeds on mice and rodents, as well as humans. The black-legged tick is often referred to as the deer tick because its preferred warm-blooded host is the whitetail deer. They are a common tick species in Connecticut. This species of tick is known as a vector for several diseases, including Lyme disease. Its scientific name is Ixodes scapularis. The black-legged tick, or the deer tick, is found in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions of the United States.
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