One of the best ways to avoid tick encounters and minimize the likelihood of contracting a tick-borne illness is to understand their life cycle. If you are bitten by a tick, knowing where it’s at in its development will help you determine your risk of disease and the course of action you need to take.
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Ticks are a kind of parasitic mite that lives off the blood of animals. They will attach to and feed on mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Ticks have eight legs, just like spiders, and are classified as arachnids. Adult ticks are generally between 3 and 5mm long, depending on the species. They come in soft and hard varieties, depending on the hardness of their body covering. Nearly 900 species of ticks are known to exist worldwide.

Ticks expand when they feed, increasing their body weight by up to 600 times. They extract blood by nibbling a hole in the host’s skin and inserting a small sharp, straw-like structure directly into the host. To help in feeding, they excrete a chemical that keeps the blood from clotting.

Did Dinosaurs Have Ticks?

How long have ticks been around? To answer the question, we must go to the fossil record. While the precise origin of ticks is unknown, according to ABC News, the oldest preserved tick was discovered in 2006 encased in amber. It dates to near 90 million years old (from the Cretaceous Period). Evidence shows that prehistoric ticks fed from “feathered dinosaurs, non-avialan or avialan excluding crown-group birds.” So yes, dinosaurs had ticks.

Are Ticks All Over the World?

Ticks are seen almost everywhere on earth. They do have particular preferences about where they live, including –

• They thrive in warmer, wetter climates since low temperatures stunt the growth of their eggs.
• They prefer areas of transition between woodlands and fields or open spaces.
• They like plenty of leaves, low-lying vegetation, and moist, warm places where brush and weeds grow wild.

How Dangerous Are Ticks?

Unfortunately, ticks are very harmful to both animals and humans. According to National Institute of Health experts, “Tick-borne pathogens are believed to be responsible for more than 100,000 cases of illness in humans throughout the world. Ticks are considered to be second worldwide to mosquitoes as vectors of human diseases, but they are the most important vectors of disease-causing pathogens in domestic and wild animals.”

Ticks can spread several diseases to humans, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Colorado tick fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and Lyme disease.

When Was Lyme Disease First Discovered?

As mentioned earlier, ticks have been around for close to 100 million years. While the bacteria that causes Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi) was only officially named in 1981, a 5,300-year-old mummy was recently found to contain the bacteria.

Those infected with Lyme disease may experience a rash, joint pain and weakness, muscle aches, fatigue, fever, joint stiffness or swelling, and headache. While treatable, early detection can help avoid more severe heart or nervous system problems. A doctor can run a simple test to determine if the bacteria is present and prescribe medication as treatment.

How Do I Prevent Ticks?

As previously discussed, ticks love humid places with low vegetation to lay their eggs. One way to help manage ticks is to remove leaves, brush, and weeds at the edge of your property. Regular warm-weather tick spraying and preventative winter treatments can provide year-round tick prevention.

Trust Your Property with East End Tick and Mosquito Control®

East End Tick and Mosquito Control® is Eastern Suffolk County’s most-experienced tick extermination company. Since 1997, we have provided Suffolk County’s Twin Forks and East End with the most effective prevention and extermination methods. Protect yourself and your family from disease-carrying ticks by requesting a free estimate now or you can call our Southampton office at (631) 287-9700, our East Hampton office at (631) 324-9700, or our Southold office at (631) 765-9700.

That itch you’re feeling? It’s not chiggers! Every year thousands of people report itchy red bites from what they think is an encounter with a chigger. In fact, evidence shows there are no chiggers on long island. It’s the larvae of Lone Star Ticks that are causing those itchy red welts on your skin.

Lone Star larvae begin hatching in July and will remain active until the fall months. The newly hatched larval ticks will cluster in hundreds or sometimes even thousands which is why people will often get bitten in many times, usually on the ankles, legs, and waist. The Lone Star tick larva are microscopic, hard to see and while they don’t transmit tick-borne diseases, but can give you the meat allergy Alpha-Gal.

With warmer winters over the past several years, ticks have become a year-round problem on the east end. To help curb the reproduction of ticks on your property, owner Brian Kelly suggests continuing preventative spraying until the end of November then having the tick preventative granules applied throughout your property during the winter months.

Protect Yourself Year Round with Tick Shield

East End Tick & Mosquito®’s granular winter tick control treatment Tick Shield provides the ultimate year-round tick protection. The Tick Shield granular winter program is unique in that granules are placed in the leaflitter and shrub beds throughout your property monthly December through March protecting you and your family by killing any ticks that emerge on those warm winter days looking for a blood meal.

Ticks remain active whenever the temperature is above 32 degrees Fahrenheit. East End Tick & Mosquito Control® offers year-round tick bite prevention to battle the ticks that are being brought to your property by deer, birds, rabbits, squirrels, mice, and more.

If you’re in need of tick control for your property, look no further than the trusted experience of East End Tick & Mosquito Control®. Call the office nearest to you and schedule your free estimate! Our Southampton office can be reached at (631) 287-9700, our East Hampton office can be reached at (631) 324-9700, and our Southold office can be reached at (631) 765-9700, or you can fill out the form on this page.