Hard ticks feed on blood. They're like tiny vampires that gorge themselves on some unsuspecting host. These arachnids use cutting jaws to dig into a victim's skin and suck up its blood. Hard ticks can drink hundreds of times their own body-weight, and they get enough nourishment from a single meal that they might not have to feed again for years.
Saw Jaw: A hard tick's mouth is a complex cutting tool. The arachnid's upper jaw works like a pair of scissors to slice open a piece of skin on their host. The saw-like lower jaw then digs deep into the wound.
Blood Sac: These creatures' abdomens are like tiny balloons. Ticks can slurp up to 500 times their own weight in blood per meal, and their stomachs expand up to 10 times their original size.
Three Meals in a Lifetime[]
Several ticks dig in all at once on this unlucky hedgehog.
Hard ticks are such heart eaters that they can survival several years between meals. In fact, these relatives of spiders and scorpions usually eat only three times during their seven-year lifespans. Ticks need extra energy only when they are (1) changing from larvae to nymphs; (2) transforming from nymphs to adults; and (3) preparing to breed. These meals can take a while-the tick can attach to a host and drink blood for up to nine days.
Don't Leg Go: Once a hard tick buries its head into a victim's flesh, it's hard to remove. Barbs on their lower jaws point backward to prevent them from being pulled out, and their bodies will break off before the head comes out.
Tick Fever: Like many parasites, these creatures often spread diseases to their hosts. Lyme disease is most common, but hard ticks also cause other illnesses, such as encephalitis, typhus and Colorado tick fever, which can be fatal.
Hitchhiker[]
- In a process known as "questing," a hard tick climbs onto the edge of a tall blade of grass and stretches out its front legs. The tick is practically blind and deaf, so it waits until a host comes along and brushes against the tick's sticky legs.
- Grabbing onto a hiker, the tick uses palps near its mouth to find blood vessels near the person's skin. It then drools a bit of saliva on its new host to numb the area so the host won't feel its bite. The tick buries its head into the wound it makes and begins to drink the host's blood.
Trading Card[]
Trivia[]
- The knowledge card says Hard Ticks. The trading card says Hard Tick.
- The hard tick is featured in Head in the Clouds on Monster Mania 32.