When do ticks cease? - briefly
«Ticks» cease activity when ambient temperatures stay below roughly 10 °C and daylight shortens, typically in late autumn. They enter dormancy and resume feeding only after spring warming.
When do ticks cease? - in detail
Ticks stop being active when physiological and environmental conditions no longer support their life processes. The cessation occurs at several distinct stages:
- Molting completion – after the final ecdysis, the adult stage ends and the insect no longer molts.
- Reproductive exhaustion – once females have deposited all eggs and males have exhausted mating opportunities, reproductive activity ceases.
- Environmental thresholds – temperatures below 5 °C or above 35 °C, coupled with low humidity, trigger dormancy or mortality, effectively ending activity.
- Host availability decline – absence of suitable hosts for prolonged periods forces ticks into diapause or leads to death.
The timeline varies among species. For example, Ixodes ricinus typically enters diapause in late autumn as daylight shortens, remaining inactive through winter until spring temperatures rise above 7 °C. Dermacentor variabilis may persist through mild winters but ceases questing when soil moisture falls below 10 %.
Physiological shutdown is governed by hormonal changes, notably a drop in ecdysteroid levels that inhibit further development. Simultaneously, metabolic rates decline, reducing energy consumption to a maintenance level that cannot sustain active searching behavior.
In summary, tick activity terminates when developmental cycles finish, reproductive capacity is spent, environmental parameters fall outside survivable ranges, or hosts become unavailable, leading to dormancy or death.