#dermacentor

Ornate cow tick, Dermacentor reticulatus, Ixodidae

Photographed in Belarus by shapomacro

An American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) waits for a host to attach itself to in Brooklyn, New York, USA

American dog tick bites can cause Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

i have never reacted to anything with as much enthusiasm as the way ticks do when you approach a plant they're questing on. here's an example with this ornate sheep tick (Dermacentor marginatus) who immediately went into hug stance mode thinking i was going to walk another few centimeters forward with an oblivious look on my face. get your own blood, idiot

Wood tick (Dermacentor variabilis) female laying eggs.

I found this dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) crawling on me, so I put it in the freezer to kill it.  I took it out later that day to look at it with a magnifier, but it started moving again, so I put it back in for a few more days.  For some reason, both times it froze, it put its foremost limbs in this strange symmetrical position (fullview if you can’t see what I’m talking about).

@gallifreyanconsultingphilosopher submitted: Found a tick in the yard! Looks like he was scratched off a deer. I submit it to eTick, a Canadian site for the identification and monitoring of ticks, and they told me it's most likely Dermacentor Andersoni but could also be Dermacentor Variabilis or Dermacentor Albipictus.

Their email gave me info on all 3 species, how you can be exposed and what they can transmit to humans and/or animals which I thought was cool and very helpful!

Sorry for the weird shadows, sun was setting. He was pretty small and kinda flat.

Yes, it’s definitely a tick. This is a male Dermacentor species, though I couldn’t say whether it’s a dog tick or a rocky mountain wood tick. You certainly have ticks there! Anywhere there’s wildlife there’ll be ticks, even in Antarctica!

Elephant tick (Dermacentor circumguttatus)