Ticks are relatives of mites, spiders and scorpions, belonging to a group of creatures with eight legs called arachnids. Ticks often attach themselves to dogs after coming into contact with the canines in the yard, woods, park or other scenarios. Many ticks have the ability to transmit diseases to you and your pet, which can be serious.
American Dog Tick
The Illinois Department of Health website notes that the American dog tick is also known as a wood tick. The American dog tick can attach itself to a variety of warm-blooded animals in addition to dogs, with creatures such as the opossum, raccoon, deer and squirrel all acting as hosts. Like all of the different tick species, the American dog tick changes from the egg stage to a larva, then a nymph and finally into the adult. This tick requires a meal of blood to make this transition to each subsequent stage after hatching. The American dog tick does not transmit Lyme disease, but it is a carrier of Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
Brown Dog Tick
The brown dog tick is a small tick with a reddish-brown color, existing all over the world, with a preference for warm weather areas. The brown dog ticks typically will feed off a canine, but in the absence of dogs, it will bite people. This is an atypical tick in that it can complete its entire life cycle indoors. A tick of kennels and homes, the brown dog tick will hide itself away in any crack or crevice it can squeeze into once reaching the adult stage. The brown dog tick will often secure itself to the area between a dog’s toes or in the dog’s ears. The females will feed until full, drop off the dog and then scurry away to lay her eggs. Luckily, this tick does not transmit or carry any significant maladies that can affect humans.
Black-Legged Tick
The deer tick’s official name is black-legged tick; this arachnid is a carrier and transmitter of Lyme disease and another dangerous ailment called ehrlichiosos. The tick makes its way up to larger hosts as it develops, with the minute larval stage feeding on small rodents such as mice and then developing into a larger nymph that will feed on animals as large as dogs, deer and people. The black-legged tick is about 1/8 of an inch long in its adult form and possesses a red-brown shade. These ticks inhabit wooded places and like all ticks, they cannot jump or fly. They will wait on the ends of grasses and shrubs leaves to climb aboard an unsuspecting dog as it passes through.
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