What happens to a tick? - briefly
A tick attaches to a host, feeds on blood for hours to days, then detaches to digest, molt into the next life stage, or, if adult, mate and die after reproduction.
What happens to a tick? - in detail
Ticks are arachnids that spend most of their lives off‑host, advancing through four distinct stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult. Each stage, except the egg, requires a single blood meal to progress.
- Egg – Laid in clusters on the ground; hatch after 1–2 weeks depending on temperature and humidity.
- Larva – Six‑legged, seeks a small host (rodents, birds). After attachment, feeds for 2–5 days, then detaches and molts into a nymph.
- Nymph – Eight‑legged, quests for a larger host (often mammals). Feeding lasts 3–7 days, followed by detachment and molting into an adult.
- Adult – Females require a final, larger blood meal to develop eggs; males typically feed minimally or not at all. After engorgement, the female drops off the host, lays thousands of eggs, and dies.
Attachment begins with the tick climbing vegetation and extending forelegs to detect host vibrations and carbon dioxide. Upon contact, the mouthparts embed into the skin, and a cement‑like substance secures the attachment. Salivary secretions contain anticoagulants, anti‑inflammatory agents, and immunomodulators that facilitate prolonged feeding without host detection.
During the engorgement phase, the tick’s body expands dramatically, sometimes increasing its weight by 100‑times. Blood is stored in the midgut, where digestive enzymes break down proteins and lipids. The nutrient‑rich meal fuels molting and, for females, egg production.
Molting is a hormonally regulated process. After detachment, the tick secretes a new exoskeleton, sheds the old cuticle, and emerges as the next developmental stage. The cycle repeats until the adult female completes reproduction.
Pathogen transmission occurs when a tick acquires microbes from an infected host during feeding and later inoculates a new host with its saliva. Common agents include Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease), Rickettsia spp., and Babesia spp. Transmission efficiency depends on the pathogen’s ability to survive within the tick’s gut and salivary glands and on the duration of attachment.
Removal of a feeding tick should be performed with fine‑point tweezers, grasping the mouthparts as close to the skin as possible and applying steady upward pressure. Incomplete extraction can leave mouthparts embedded, increasing local inflammation and potential pathogen entry. After removal, the tick usually dies within a few days if it cannot locate a new host.
Environmental conditions—particularly temperature above 10 °C and relative humidity above 80 %—are critical for tick survival and activity. Desiccation, extreme cold, or prolonged drought significantly reduce population viability.
In summary, a tick’s lifecycle is a sequence of host‑dependent blood meals, physiological expansion, molting, and reproductive output, all tightly linked to environmental parameters and the capacity to acquire and transmit disease‑causing organisms.