Ticks

The warm months of the year are meant for being spent outside. While we enjoy our time in the great outdoors, the opportunity for pests, including ticks, to find their way onto us and into our homes is wide open. Ticks are very commonly found in tall grass, low-to-the-ground shrubs, or wooded areas and latch onto humans or animals in order to feed. 

While their tiny size might not seem menacing, ticks can transmit dangerous illnesses such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever to your or your pet. At the very least, their bite can cause unpleasant itching around the spot of insertion that lasts several days. Keeping an eye out for ticks after adventuring outside should become a regular part of your routine, as the longer they are allowed to feed, the higher the chance of infection is. 

If you are worried about an infestation of ticks in your yard or home, Burns Pest Elimination is here to help. Continue reading for more information on how to identify ticks and prevent an outbreak from occurring. 

How to Identify Ticks

While there are many types of ticks found across the country, many generally share similar characteristics. The most commonly found ticks in Arizona are the brown dog tick and the American dog tick, which are described as follows:

• Size – Generally, the young larval-stage ticks can clock in at around 1/32 of an inch, while adults get to about 1/8 of an inch big. If allowed to feed until fully engorged, they can swell up to 1/2 of an inch.
• Color – Both are typically a reddish-brown color when not engorged. If it has had a blood meal, its body will turn into a grayish-blue color.
• Shield – All hard ticks have a scutum, or “shield” on their top side. This shield takes up ⅓ of the body of female ticks and the entire body of males, protecting them from easily getting squashed. 

Both the brown dog tick and the American dog tick prefer to feed on the blood of domesticated canines, and will latch onto them when they are outside. They typically only feed on animal blood, but they will bite humans if given the opportunity. Brown dog ticks in particular can be found at all times of the year and survive for 18 months without feeding. 

Most ticks cannot survive in your home, preferring to stick to their natural habitat outdoors. However, the brown dog tick is an exception to that rule and can quickly create a population if brought inside. Female brown dog ticks only need 7 to 14 days to digest the blood they eat after becoming engorged, at which time they start laying eggs. They can lay up to 4,000 eggs at a time, choosing to do so on top of kennels, on ledges, or in cracks and crevices around the house. Because of this, outbreaks of brown dog ticks can occur very rapidly.