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Quality Pest Control and Environmental Services Inc
Ticks
Ticks are one of the last things you want to find crawling in your home, infesting your lawn and shrubs or attached to your pets and family members. These little blood-suckers can be a stubborn pest to eliminate if given a chance to take hold. Ticks feed only on the blood of vertebrates, making them one of the least favorite visitors in our homes. Hard ticks and soft ticks are the two major groups that are pests.
Ticks are one of the last things you want to find crawling in your home, infesting your lawn and shrubs or attached to your pets and family members. These little blood-suckers can be a stubborn pest to eliminate if given a chance to take hold. Ticks feed only on the blood of vertebrates, making them one of the least favorite visitors in our homes. Hard ticks and soft ticks are the two major groups that are pests.
© 2006-2007 by
"Gregory Carmichael"
All Rights reserved
"Gregory Carmichael"
All Rights reserved
Mailing: P.O. Box 3931 Sebring, Florida 33871-3931
(863) 382-0006
2512 Dolphin Drive Sebring, Florida 33870
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Hard ticks have the capitulum exposed and easily visible from the top. The upper side of their body also bears a distinctly sclerotized shield or scutum. When a female becomes completely engorged with blood, her abdomen increases to many times its normal dimensions and the scutum will then appear to be extremely small in relation to the body size. Male ticks do not become so large when engorged.
In soft ticks, the body has a rather non-descript sac-like shape. The front portion of the body extends forward, above and beyond the base of the capitulum, so that the capitulum is concealed when the tick is viewed from above. Soft ticks of not have a scutum on the upper side of the body, and the exoskeleton is rather leathery in texture with a distinctly roughened surface.
Most ticks spend the bulk of their life on or near the ground, waiting for a suitable host animal. Since they cannot run, hop, fly or move quickly, ticks must climb onto an appropriate object such as tall grass or weeds or up onto fences and siding of buildings. It is from these advantageous positions that they wait for a suitable host to pass by. When they detect vibrations and chemical cues such as host odors or exhaled carbon dioxide, ticks will fall from their perch or stretch out and hope to snag or attach onto a passing host. Ticks are also capable of detecting shadows cast by a passing host. These tick behaviors are important to understand and recognize. These behaviors also explain why ticks crawl up exterior or interior surfaces of homes and often lodge in cracks and crevices below shingles, clapboard siding, window molding, baseboards, etc.
Most ticks will feed on blood from a wide variety of animals. In some tick species the immature stages will feed on different hosts than do the adults. reptiles, amphibians, mammals and birds are all vertebrates which ticks may parasitize. Migratory song birds regularly spread ticks across wide regions of the United States as they move about enroute to their seasonal habitats.
In soft ticks, the body has a rather non-descript sac-like shape. The front portion of the body extends forward, above and beyond the base of the capitulum, so that the capitulum is concealed when the tick is viewed from above. Soft ticks of not have a scutum on the upper side of the body, and the exoskeleton is rather leathery in texture with a distinctly roughened surface.
Most ticks spend the bulk of their life on or near the ground, waiting for a suitable host animal. Since they cannot run, hop, fly or move quickly, ticks must climb onto an appropriate object such as tall grass or weeds or up onto fences and siding of buildings. It is from these advantageous positions that they wait for a suitable host to pass by. When they detect vibrations and chemical cues such as host odors or exhaled carbon dioxide, ticks will fall from their perch or stretch out and hope to snag or attach onto a passing host. Ticks are also capable of detecting shadows cast by a passing host. These tick behaviors are important to understand and recognize. These behaviors also explain why ticks crawl up exterior or interior surfaces of homes and often lodge in cracks and crevices below shingles, clapboard siding, window molding, baseboards, etc.
Most ticks will feed on blood from a wide variety of animals. In some tick species the immature stages will feed on different hosts than do the adults. reptiles, amphibians, mammals and birds are all vertebrates which ticks may parasitize. Migratory song birds regularly spread ticks across wide regions of the United States as they move about enroute to their seasonal habitats.
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