Ticks 101

Depending on temperature, humidity and other environmental factors, eggs will hatch in two weeks to several months after being laid.

Have six legs and the sexes are indistinguishable
Difficulty finding and attaching to a host can cause prolonged fasts.
A large percentage of tick larvae die of starvation.
Some climb onto vegetation, waiting for a small rodent to pass by.
Some actively seek a vertebrate host, being guided by the sent of the animal.
After a single blood meal, the engorged larvae usually drop to the soil and molt to the eight-legged nymph stage.
The larvae of one-host ticks remain on the host to molt.

Have eight legs like an adult, but lacks a genital opening.
After molting, the nymph must wait until a suitable host comes by.
After feeding on a host, the nymph drops off, molts and becoming an adult.
Nymphs may rest for long periods before becoming adults
When a tick moves from host to host, it risks it’s survival to find another host.
Some ticks, like the cattle tick, are one-host ticks and remain on a single host during their entire life-cycle.
Multiple host ticks survive because of their great reproductive capacity and their ability to survive for long periods without food.
Hard Ticks
- Some species live less than a year, while other species can live up to three years or more.
- Molt one time and then become adults (1 nymphal instar)
Soft Ticks: May molt several times before becoming adults (Multiple nymphal instars)

Sex is only distinguishable as an adult.
Female hard ticks have a small scutum(central thorax plate) compared to males.
Soft ticks are distinguished by the shape of their genital openings, located between the second pair of legs.
- Male genital openings are almost circular
- Female genital openings are oval and definitely broader than long
Unlike mosquitoes, both male and female ticks are blood suckers, and both require several days of feeding before copulation.
Male ticks copulate with one or more females after engorgement and then dies.
Female ticks drop to the ground after copulation, and after a few days for the eggs to mature, lays her eggs (hundreds to thousands).
Female hard ticks die a few days after laying eggs, while soft ticks may lay several batches of eggs, feeding between each batch (20-50 per batch).