Ticks & Tick Bites

It’s not always the big critters you have to watch out for…

- Paul Donovan

They often say “It is the little things which can do us the most harm”, and this is especially true when it comes to ticks. Ticks are external parasites which latch onto their host and suck blood. As if blood-sucking wasn’t enough, they can also act as vectors (transmitters) of some very nasty diseases.

Ticks are classified as Arachnids (relatives of spiders, scorpions, mites) as they have eight legs and two parts to the body; and they are further divided into soft ticks (Argasidae) and hard ticks (Ixodidae). Soft ticks have a tough leathery skin and several nymphal stages during their development. Hard ticks have a ‘hard’ skin. In males of the latter type, this covers the entire upper surface, while in the females, the nymphs and larvae it covers just a small area behind the head. Hard ticks undergo several nymphal stages and are responsible for spreading more diseases than soft ones.

A tick’s lifecycle

Before we look at the ins and outs of tick bites, how to prevent them, and how to deal with a tick when it is latched onto your leg, it is important that we understand their lifecycle, as this will have a bearing on how we can prevent bites.

The lifecycle of a hard tick is complex, and has four stages: Egg, six-legged larva, eight legged nymph (soft ticks have several nymphal stages, whereas hard ticks have a single one), and finally, eight-legged adult.

After the ticks mate, the engorged female drops off the host where, after a few days, she then lays several thousand eggs − either on the ground, amongst tree bark, or on the underside of a leaf − and then dies. A few weeks or months later (depending on temperature and/or rainfall), the eggs hatch into small six-legged larvae. These climb grass stems and wait for a host to pass by. They hold onto the grass with their third and fourth pairs of legs, leaving the first pair free to grab onto the host.