Most people only tend to think about ticks in the context of avoiding them, or dealing with them once you’ve been bit. Understanding more about ticks can be key in helping you prevent tick-borne illnesses, especially if you’re often in areas where they’re more prevalent.
Tick education can help you better understand tick behavior, and how to decrease your risk of contracting a tick-borne illness. For example, feeding on hosts allows ticks to grow and move through different stages. Different ticks have different feeding behaviors depending on what life stage they’re in. Blacklegged deer ticks, the type of ticks that carry Lyme disease, typically choose a different host through different life stages, while others might use the same hosts throughout their lifespan.
This article covers the tick life cycle, which affects how and when they’re infected with disease, when they can transmit diseases, and how that comes into play in different seasons.
The Stages of the Tick Life Cycle
Stage 1: Eggs
Ticks can live for two to three years, and during that time they go through four different stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult. The first stage in a tick’s life cycle is the egg.
Female ticks complete their lives by laying up to thousands of eggs, typically in the spring. These eggs are often found in leaf litter and other warm, soft places outside. This is because, unlike some other parasitic organisms, ticks cannot lay eggs directly on a host.
Most ticks contract diseases when they bite an infected host. One exception here is Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever. TBRF can be transmitted by an adult tick to its eggs through the bacteria that causes it, meaning that some ticks are infected with TBRF from birth (and can go on to infect humans with it).
Stage 2: Larva
After two weeks to two months, the tick eggs hatch into a six-legged organism known as larva. This usually happens in the summer.
During the larva stage, ticks typically feed on smaller hosts like the white-footed mouse, raccoons, and squirrels. This feeding is called a blood meal. When a larval tick feeds on a white-footed mouse, the tick can contract the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, as the mouse is a reservoir host for the bacteria. This causes the larval tick to then become infectious for the remainder of its life. The same is true for other infections a tick may contract in its larval stage. Because ticks feed on several hosts and spread diseases among them, they are sometimes referred to as “nature’s dirty needle.”
After feeding for the first time, tick larvae start transitioning to the next stage in their life cycle by falling to the ground and beginning to molt.
Stage 3: Nymph
Ticks usually move into the nymph stage between the fall and spring and are most active when the weather is above 37 degrees Fahrenheit. Nymphs have eight legs, and their behavior changes depending on the weather. During warmer weather, they explore looking for new hosts, while in colder weather they can be found in shaded areas, under snow cover, and leaf litter. Note that though it is less common, it is possible for some ticks to feed during this period and thus to spread disease during colder months.
There are some differences between the life cycles of hard and soft ticks. Soft ticks have more life stages, which can include two to five nymphal stages.
During this stage, ticks can transmit Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections to their hosts. Nymphs can also become infected with a bacteria for the first time or contract a co-infection with a second bacteria. Nymphs feed for four to five days before starting their next stage in life.
Stage 4: Adult
Ticks typically turn into adults during the fall. During this time, they will look for their third host, which also happens to be their last. If they are unable to find a host before the winter, they will become dormant until the weather warms up again around February or early March, depending on the location.
While some tick species like the brown dog tick feed on the same hosts during all life stages, most prefer to have different hosts at each stage. Blacklegged ticks, or deer ticks, for example, may feed on birds, reptiles, and amphibians during their nymph stage, and move to larger mammals, like humans, in the adult stage.
A tick’s life usually ends when it can’t find a new host for feeding. Before this but after feeding on its last host, a tick typically starts to mate. Females die soon after laying thousands of eggs, and males similarly die after mating.
Protecting Yourself from Tick-Borne Diseases
Understanding the tick life cycle of different species can help you assess your potential risk of contracting a disease if you get a tick bite. You can also help to prevent tick bites by covering your arms and legs when you’re in an area where ticks are prevalent and using a bug spray containing DEET or lemon-eucalyptus oil. Finally, protect your pets – especially dogs – by always checking them for ticks after outdoor activities, such as hikes or playing outdoors.
If you or a loved one gets a tick bite, it’s important to seek comprehensive testing through a reputable lab like IGeneX. If you’re able to, you can also save and send in the tick for testing for more accurate results.
