Organic Insecticides | Organic Pesticides | EcoSMART Bug Spray

Tick Control

June 17th, 2009 Posted in Spiders & Other Arachnids

They’ve come to suck your blood… and that’s about it. They’re probably the most useless out of all the bugs you’ll ever encounter, and they’re also a cesspool of disease. Basically, you’d have a better chance coming out of the Red Light District clean than getting away from one of these suckers scot-free.

In this article, you’ll learn about:

• Life cycle
• Characteristics and habitat
• Feeding and reproducing
• Tick-borne diseases
• Tick control

Life Stages

There are four stages in the life cycle of a tick, including:

• Egg
• Six-legged larva
• Eight-legged nymph
• Adult

Characteristics and Habitat

There are two types of ticks:

• Ixodidae- hard ticks
• Argasidae- soft ticks

Hard ticks have a hard outer shell, or scutum, which is made of chitin. The male’s shell covers his entire back, whereas the female’s only spreads across part of hers. In both sexes, the mouthparts can be seen from above. When unfed, hard ticks appear to be flat.

• Hard ticks hang out on the tips of weeds or high grass, as well as in moss, brush and bushes.

On the other hand, soft ticks do not have a hard outer shield, so the sexes are pretty much indistinguishable. And their mouthparts are situated underneath the front end of their bodies, making them invisible from above.

• Soft ticks hide out where their hosts live: in woodpiles, nests, burrows, caves, dens, crawl spaces and attics.

Sucking Blood

According to Jay Sharp, ticks “can detect light, shadow, shapes, movement, exhaled carbon dioxide, smells and heat.” These are all “signals it uses to find and climb aboard potential hosts, including mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.”

And once she’s on deck, the adult female hard tick will pig out for several days, setting some time aside to mate. When she’s through, she’ll leave her host, “produce as many as 6,000 to 7,000 eggs” and die.

Did you know? After fully feeding, the adult female hard tick is 100 times her unfed weight!

Although the adult male hard tick has much better table manners, he’s hardly a gentleman. He’s not on Bambi for room and board, but instead, he’s in search of a one night stand. But if he does happen to get hungry, he can always feed on his sugar mama. This hedonistic lifestyle ends abruptly, as the adult male hard tick kicks the bucket shortly after mating.

Like male hard ticks, male soft ticks also die after they’ve continued the bloodline; however, the female soft tick’s lifespan is significantly longer than the hard tick’s, as she lays eggs multiple times, producing “500 to 1,000 eggs during her lifetime.”

And even though mom and pop die after they’ve served their purpose, their legacy of disease lives on. According to eMedicineHealth, “ticks are the leading carriers of diseases to humans in the United States….” And you thought it was the doorknob to the men’s room at Taco Bell.

Tick-borne Diseases

Anaplasmosis

• Tick: deer tick; Western black-legged tick
• Location: New England; north central United States; northern California

Babesiosis

• Tick: deer tick; Western black-legged tick
• Location: Northeast; upper Midwest; Pacific Coast

Colorado Tick Fever

• Tick: Rocky Mountain wood tick
• Location: Colorado; Utah; Montana

Ehrlichiosis

• Tick: lone star tick
• Location: southeastern and south central United States

Lyme Disease

• Tick: deer tick; Western black-legged tick
• Location: upper East Coast; upper Midwest; northern California; Oregon coast

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

• Tick: Rocky Mountain wood tick; American dog tick; brown dog tick; cayenne tick; lone star tick
• Location: Rocky Mountains; Pacific Coast; East Coast; South; central United States

Southern Tick Associated Rash Illness

• Tick: lone star tick
• Location: South; East Coast

Tick Paralysis

• Tick: deer tick; dog tick; Rocky Mountain wood tick; lone star tick
• Location: all states; prevalent in the Rocky Mountains, the Northwest Pacific and parts of the South

Tick-borne Relapsing Fever

• Tick: soft tick Ornithodoros
• Location: western United States

Tularemia

• Tick: lone star tick; Rocky Mountain wood tick; American dog tick
• Location: all states; prevalent in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma

Tick Control

So, during your lunch hour you’re going to skip Starbucks and venture into the woods to try to find your chi. Just leave your Birkenstocks at the office, and take a tam, dread head.

Oh yeah, you might want to do this stuff, too:

Tick control for outdoor activities:

• Wear a pair of pants and a long-sleeved shirt.
• Wear light colors. That way, ticks will be easier to spot.
• Tick in your shirt.
• Tuck pant legs into socks or boots.
• Walk on paths, and avoid overgrown areas.
• Check your clothing/body (and your pet) for ticks every couple hours.
• Use EcoSMART insect repellent.

Or maybe you’re just going to quit your job and start a commune. There are enough people wandering around Whole Foods who’d want in, right? Well, whenever you find a spot, keep this in mind:

Tick control for your home:

• Pick up brush.
• Remove weeds.
• Clean up anything that would attract animals carrying ticks.
• Don’t keep woodpiles near your home.
• Cut your lawn regularly.
• Trim hedges.
• Use EcoSMART lawn insect killer and home pest control.

Why EcoSMART?

Because EcoSMART is an all-natural cure to your biggest pests, that’s why! The FDA considers the ingredients used in all EcoSMART products to be “Generally Recognized As Safe.”

By Max Sudak