Hearing or reading the name “Ticks” gives all pet owners chills as they are the worst nightmare for any pet parent and their pet. As summer approaches and the weather starts to get warmer their infestation on the body of our pets start.
As a pet owner, you need to apply all possible pet care strategies to keep them away from our dearest pets. Although if they get near our pets, it becomes a very difficult task, we do not give up.
In such situations, newly become pet parents get into a lot of hassle if they are fully unaware of what to do, as they sometimes lack knowledge about a lot of things, and to speak the truth, it is not possible to acquire everything in a short period of time, as the sayings go, everything comes into our gasp of knowledge as time passes and teach us.
As pet lovers, owners, or someone who wants to become a pet parent, we need to acquire a little bit of knowledge about everything concerning them. In this article, we will learn about ten really interesting facts about Ticks.
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Ticks
Ticks belonging to the arachnids class also belong to superorder Parasitiformes besides mites. They are external parasites that live on other organisms and feed on them. Ticks have been living on the planet Earth for 146 million years ago, originating back to the cretaceous era.
The most common form of their fossilization is in amber immersion. Commonly there are two families of ticks, hard ticks, or scientifically known as Ixodidae, and soft ticks, which are scientifically known as Argasidae.
- The Life Cycle Of A Tick
Ticks’ life has four stages, namely egg, larva ( or in common language infant ), nymph (immature), adult (mature). These stages make a complete lifecycle for ticks, saying that only ticks in the egg stage do not need to feed on other organisms like the other three stages.
Thus those three stages need a host to feed on; otherwise, ticks would die. Most of the time, ticks can not find any host; thus, they die.
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- Genetic Relation With Other Organisms
Though ticks are considered insects by many people, the fact is as they are arachnids, they have more relation with spiders and scorpions than insects.
This fact is stated and proven by scientists; the proof is their legs. Although just like insects, ticks have three pairs (six) of legs in the larva stage, as they reach further stages (nymph and adulthood) in their life cycle, they grow another pair (two) legs, so they end up having four pair (eight) legs like spiders.
3. Lifespan Of Ticks
Ticks have three years of life span to reach adulthood and then reproduce before their death. That is a quite long life for ticks to have, and it’s quite a long period to feed on your pets or other organisms.
4. Spotting Ticks
If someone already is a pet parent or knows a little thing about pets, they would already know how hard it is to spot ticks, especially when they are in the larva stage. It is very difficult to find them in the fur of a pet.
Thus as a pet parent, you need to prepare beforehand with a tick and flea prevention prescription so that you don’t need to worry about them annoying your pets.
5. Food Of Ticks
Feed food is blood, and they feed on the blood of their hosts. They take pets, humans, birds, domestic and wild, even reptiles as their host.
Ticks feeding habits differ from one to another; some prefer to have different hosts at different stages of their life. While some other ticks prefer to stick to one host in their lifetime, for example, Brown Dog Tick prefers one type of species throughout their whole life.
6. Diversity Of Ticks
Ticks have been living on Earth for more than 146 million years and have successfully diversified into more than 900 species. Where many of these can transmit diseases, and some are very rare diseases and allergies.
Some of the names of such diseases are Lyme disease, Alpha-gal, and Rocky Mountain Spotted, and many more. In some, diseases lead to some severe and rare allergies, for example, Alpha-gal, which is caused by Lone Star tick, which causes a rare allergy to red meat in humans.
7. Ticks And Infections
Ticks are infectious to all kinds of domestic animals. Within these animals, cats are less likely to be infected by ticks than dogs, but teddy bear dogs who have long coats are at higher risk of being infected by ticks.
Thus many prevention products have been approved by the FDA to kill ticks in dogs more than they did for cats. The reason for the FDA to approve fewer prevention medicines/products to kill ticks in cats is because some products are very harmful to cats.
So veterinarians always advise discussing such matters with them first so that they can assure if the products to be used are safe to use on or around cats.
8. Ticks Are Not Born With Disease Agents
This fact, ticks do not carry disease agents genetically or have them when they are born. They obtain it while they feed on the blood of their host and then pass it to their next host.
Most of the time, the diseases are transferred after they feed on the blood of their host for hours, so it becomes an advantage for the tick prevention products; the products use this time to kill ticks before they can start transmitting the disease.
9. Ticks Spread Diseases To You Along With Your Pets
Ticks do not just transmit diseases to your pets; they can also transmit the disease to you too along with your pets. Some of these diseases can be very severe and even deadly.
So keep in mind when your pet carries a parasite like ticks, it may enter your house along with your pet and can even bite you or your family members and spread diseases.
10. Removing Ticks
Veterinarians always advise using special tick-removing equipment or tweezers for removing ticks, for example, Tick-ease tweezers. Vets also advise not to use empty hands or twist to remove ticks; otherwise, ticks’ heads might be left behind embedded on the skin.
Thanks for reading! I hope you know a lot of things about the dog ticks now. For more information about different pet care tips, feel free to visit petdogplanet.com.
