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A Deer Tick Photo as an Adult
Above is a deer tick photo of an adult...On this page we have provided some pictures of the deer tick during
it's life cycle, these types
of ticks
are a common cause of lyme disease, so identification and removal is
very important.
On this page we have provided pictures of ticks from eggs to larva and
then from nymph to adult.
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A Photo of Deer Tick Eggs
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There
are over 850 species of tick with the female capable of laying anything
up to 10,000 eggs but they are not normally laid on the host.
After
the parasite hatches
from the egg in late spring time it will go through the remaining
stages in it's life cycle - with the next stage being the larva.
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A Photo of Deer Tick Larva
The larva as you can see
in the photo above has six legs and are about the size of a pin head.
The larva or larvae will feed on small animals like mice, shrews,
voles, chipmunks and other small animals.
Larva
live very close to the ground and will rarely get close enough to
humans to attach themselves. They are also known as seed
ticks and are quite easy to
remove if you do find them on you, your dog or other pets.
Simply
place some packaging tape over the affected area and then remove the
tape, you will see that on the tape the seeds or larva have become
attached.
The larva will contract any disease from an infected host that they
have been feeding on.
Their peak time of activity is during the month of August, they will
the moult and start the next stage in their life cycle - i.e the nymph.
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A Deer Tick Photo of a Nymph
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As you can see from the picture above, this stage in the life cycle the
parasite now has eight legs.
The
nymph as shown in the photo above will become quite active during
the months of May through until August. The tick will then take it's
second blood meal from another host. If the nymph is carrying any
disease that it contracted during the larva stage this disease can be
transmitted to it's host.
At this stage in the black legged deer tick's life cycle (it is now
called the black legged tick) it will feed on larger animals like
birds, squirrels, cats, raccoons,
dogs and even humans.
If the nymph is not carrying any disease from the larva stage it can
still become infected as a nymph.
The size of the nymph is approximately the size of a poppy seed or
freckle and is often translucent
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A Deer Tick Photo of an Adult
Adult ticks are the size of a sesame seed with males black in color and
the female a red/brown color.
Adult ticks can be active all winter if the winter is relatively mild
and above freezing.
The black legged deer tick feed mostly on deer, but they will also feed
on horses, cattle, dogs, other pets and animals. The deer tick will
normally only attach itself to humans by accident,
Adult deer ticks have a peak time of activity during October, November
and also in April.
The deer tick will take about two years to finish it's life cycle.
Remember that bites from this parasite may cause lyme disease or other
nasty infections. For more information check out our section on the bullseye
tick bite rash.
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| We would like to say
thanks to John moran for his excellent deer tick photo's and website. |
Go from
deer tick photo back to free vet advice
or back to
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