Anyone who spends the spring and summer months tramping around in the woods, meadows and wetlands of North America and Europe will tell you: the tiny blood-sucking insect called the tick is a nuisance. What you might not realize is that life-threatening diseases carried by the miniscule insect tick (the adults are about the size of a sesame seed) include Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, neither of which you should be eager to experience.
Tick Types
There are basically two kinds of ticks: hard ticks (Ixodidae) and soft ticks (Argasidae). Most of the hard ticks in the world are carriers of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme Disease; but only four species are known to be able to transmit the disease to humans: these are Ixodes persulcatus and I. ricinus in Europe, and I. pacificus and I. scapularis (dammini) in North America. I. ricinus is known to communicate both Lyme Disease and tick-borne encephalitis in Europe; the black-legged deer tick (I. scapularis) is the most commonly identified rascal in the northeastern and middle United States for Lyme Disease and babesiosis; and the western black-legged tick (I. pacificus) is the guilty party harassing the residents of California.
Tick Environments
Ticks thrive in areas where a thick mat of vegetation--especially decaying vegetation--provides a humid micro-climate; and where there are plenty of host animals around. Generally, these are deciduous wooded areas; but ticks can live in coniferous forests, meadows and wetlands, and even in suburban lawns, if they are not kept mowed. In fact, the highest levels of incidence of Lyme Disease infections today is in suburban Westchester County, New York.
Ticks are the original blood suckers, and they don't much care what the animal is; they're partial to whatever walks by, mouse, dog, deer, human. Only domesticated animals--pets, cattle, horses, humans--develop Lyme Disease. Lucky us.
