How much does a tick eat? - briefly
An adult female tick can ingest up to about 0.5 ml of blood in one feeding, roughly 30–50 mg, which exceeds its own body weight severalfold. Male ticks consume considerably less, generally only a few microliters.
How much does a tick eat? - in detail
Ticks require a blood meal at each active stage—larva, nymph, and adult—to complete development. The volume ingested varies markedly among species and life stages, but it is consistently measured in microliters (µL), representing a substantial proportion of the arthropod’s body weight.
• Larval Ixodes scapularis: approximately 0.5 µL per feeding, equivalent to 5 % of its post‑larval mass.
• Nymphal I. scapularis: about 5 µL, roughly 25 % of its body weight.
• Adult female I. scapularis: up to 150 µL, representing 80–100 % of its unfed mass.
• Adult male I. scapularis: 10–20 µL, less than 10 % of body weight.
Dermacentor variabilis displays similar scaling: larvae ingest 0.3–0.6 µL, nymphs 3–6 µL, and adult females up to 200 µL. Amblyomma americanum females can exceed 300 µL, reflecting their larger size and longer attachment periods.
Key factors influencing blood intake include:
- Host blood pressure and capillary density, which determine the flow rate available to the parasite.
- Duration of attachment; longer feeding cycles allow greater accumulation, with adult females often remaining attached for 5–10 days.
- Ambient temperature, which accelerates metabolic rate and shortens feeding time, thereby affecting total volume.
Compared with other hematophagous arthropods, ticks consume a higher proportion of their body mass per meal. Mosquitoes typically ingest 2–5 µL, while fleas acquire 0.1–0.2 µL. This high intake supports egg production in engorged females and facilitates transmission of pathogens such as Borrelia burgdorferi, Rickettsia spp., and Anaplasma phagocytophilum.
Understanding the quantitative aspects of blood acquisition clarifies the ecological role of ticks as efficient vectors and informs control strategies that target feeding duration and host‑attachment opportunities.