#tick

[onenicebugperday]

Eastern black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, Ixodidae

Commonly known as the deer tick, this species is a vector for several diseases, most notably Lyme disease. In most cases, the tick must be attached for at least 36 hours to transmit the disease.

Photos 1-3 by allysonv, 4 (for scale) by adeans, 5 (engorged) by duncan10, and 6 (male - all others are female) by sambiology

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT NEGATIVE COMMENTS ON MY BUG POSTS ARE NOT ALLOWED. That includes posts about potentially harmful species. Negative commenters will be blocked.

[persuadedasians]

Those melons on Tick

[dustyskalez]

The Krosmaga games between Caper and Tick get intense (and bloody) sometimes LOL (Tick, the eliatrope, belongs to doctor.fool on insta)

[arvalis]

I accidentally spent 80 hours painting my own take on a Mimic. Please take a look.

Can see higher res here

[bluedotjpeg]

Online misinformation campaign

[typhlonectes]

Lizards may be protecting people from Lyme disease in the southeastern U.S.

The reptiles make poor hosts for transmitting the infection.

Lyme disease is one of the most devastating tick-borne infections in the United States, affecting more than 300,000 people each year. It's also one of the most mysterious: The creature that spreads it—the black-legged tick—lives throughout the country. Yet the northeastern United States is home to far more cases than anywhere else. Now, researchers have identified an unexpected reason: lizards. Black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), also known as deer ticks, carry corkscrew-shaped bacteria that cause Lyme disease. The ticks pick up the pathogens—spirochetes that belong to the genus Borrelia—when they suck the blood of animals like mice, deer, and lizards. In the next stage of their life cycle, the ticks may latch onto an unlucky human. But every host transmits the microbes differently. Reptiles are worse transmitters than mammals, so ticks that have lived on reptiles are less likely to make people sick. The north-south divide in Lyme cases is a fairly sharp line right along the border of Virginia and North Carolina. Researchers have hypothesized that disparity in cases stems from ticks feeding on different hosts in the two regions...

Read more: https://www.science.org/content/article/lizards-may-be-protecting-people-lyme-disease-southeastern-united-states

[textless]

Tick-o-rama!

When I first spotted these clumps on tall grasses in Olare Motorogi Conservancy, in Kenya, I thought they were some kind of insect eggs. (My vision isn't as sharp as it once was.) But when I touched a piece of grass, the tiny specks started moving... because they were thousands of baby ticks!

There is no Lyme disease in Kenya, but there is an illness called African tick bite fever that is no joke. I didn't see a single mosquito during my trip - it wasn't their season - but these little guys made me glad to have hardcore insect repellent on hand.

So. Many. Ticks.

[justinmadson]

The Tick, Arthur and American Maid

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I had a tick sucked onto my throat and the doctor I went to plucked it off with her fingers pinched in a quick manner while saying, “Yoink”.

[jaegerpilotmax]

Inktober 2021 day 14, tick

a tick if it was a soulsborne boss

[solemarc2]

One finger is all it takes and you're a mess, I wonder if your heel is ticklish... Let's see 😎😈😈

[ex0skeletal-undead]

Tick Season by TheHollyLord This artist on Instagram

[vintagewildlife]

Mouthparts of a deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) By: A. Spielman From: Natural History Magazine 1977

[gottdeswill]

“[…] lately I’ve been hearing this sound. Everywhere I go, like a tick, tick, tick… Like a time bomb in some cheesy B-movie or a saturday morning cartoon. The fuse has been lit. The clock counts down the seconds, as the flame gets closer, and closer, and closer, until… all at once [boom]”

[driveintheaterofthemind]

The Tick

Art by Jeremy Brooks

[flame-shadow]

A Love Letter from a Vampire to the One She Fed From

I followed your trail. I smelled your blood. I felt your breath. I reached out with yearning. And when you deigned to brush against me with the grace of a dancer, I could not help but latch on. You swept me away with your long strides and sure footing, and I clung to you desperately. Trying to find purchase. Trying to find blood. Your skin was damp and salty as I carefully explored it. Your hand passed over me as I caressed. Your hair brushed against my back as I hovered my mouth over your vein. Oh, that warm liquid of life, tantalizingly full of promise; it called to me! You made no move to stop me as I brought my face closer, as I parted your skin with mouthparts suited for this task, as I tasted that first drop your body's wine.

My dear, I am perfect for you. You felt no pain as I fed from you. We stayed like this for days while I sated my hunger. My belly swelled as I drank from your eternal fount until I could only stroke your skin with my first two arms. Yet that was when I most wished I could embrace you fully to express my gratitude. Part of me wished that you would embrace me instead. The larger part of me feared that same thing.

My love, are you aware of your own strength? Could I have trusted you to remove me with the same delicacy that I practiced when I latched on? Had you become aware of me, would you have loved me enough to let me move on with the gift of your life I had taken? …Maybe it was better that I left before it came to that.

My life, you are both god and temple, and I worship you even as I drag myself away with eight limbs and belly full. I will whisper to our eggs of the ichor I kissed out of you, of the essence which helped me create them, and I will pray that they live a life as full of love and longing as the one I have experienced in my quest for you.