Tick identification virginia3/17/2024 ![]() The American dog tick is found throughout North Carolina, but it is most common in the Piedmont area. However, this species does not transmit Lyme disease. In North Carolina and throughout the southeastern United States, the American dog tick is the vector of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. For example, the larvae feed only on white-footed field mice and meadow voles or pine voles, whereas nymphs prefer medium-sized mammals such as opossum or raccoons. In each stage of its life cycle, this tick may feed on a different animal. It lives along woodland paths, in recreational parks, farm pastures, wastelands, and other shrubby habitats in rural and suburban areas of North Carolina. The adult American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, ( Figure 4) is active in the spring, summer, and fall. Here are the most common species of ticks found across North Carolina: Depending upon the species of tick, the life cycle may take as little as a few months or as much as two years.Ĭommon Ticks in North Carolina Skip to Common Ticks in North Carolina The eggs hatch in about two weeks, and the life cycle begins again. Shortly after laying an egg mass, which may contain thousands of eggs, the female dies. After mating and feeding, the female tick drops to the ground where it lays a mass of eggs in a secluded place such as in a crevice or under leaf litter. The male tick may mate several times before dying. A male tick may attach, but it does not feed as long as the female. By the time it finishes feeding, the female may increase in weight by 100 times ( Figure 3). ![]() The female mates while attached to a host and usually feeds for 8 to 12 days until it is "engorged" (full). In addition, the tick produces a glue to hold the mouthparts in place. The tick’s mouth parts are barbed (like a fish hook), making it difficult to remove the tick from the skin. Once a tick is on a host, it crawls upward in search of a place on the skin where it can attach to take a blood meal. If a host is not found by fall, most species of ticks move into sheltered sites where they become inactive until spring. When they seek a blood meal, ticks engage in "questing" behavior.( Figure 2) ticks move from leaf litter or from a crack or crevice along a building foundation, or from another protected area to grass or shrubs where they attach themselves to an animal as it passes. Ticks are usually most active in the spring, summer, and fall however, the adults of some species are active in the winter. For most ticks, each blood meal is taken from a different type of host. Each stage of the tick usually takes a blood meal from a different host. After hatching from the egg, the tick must take a blood meal to complete each stage in its life cycle. Larva, nymphs and adults look simiilar except that the larva only have six legs and with some tick species, color patterns and markings may differ betwen the adults and immatures. They have four stages in their life cycle: the egg, the larva, nymph, and adult stages ( Figure 1). Tick Biology and Behavior Skip to Tick Biology and Behavior
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |