I think you showed them once before, I've been curious since. Can you talk about soft body ticks more? I was only aware of like, deer ticks and dog ticks! Are soft body ticks the same as their hard body equivalents? Or are they different? Can they also carry diseases? Do they attach to humans ever?
Sorry if that's a lot of questions, I am just very curious because I had never heard of them before!
Great question! Soft ticks are really cool. They’re of course related to hard-bodied ticks, but have slightly different anatomy, namely that they lack the hard scutum seen in typical ticks and have slightly different mouthparts, but otherwise are similar. Here’s a cute pigeon tick to admire:
Flat!!! Photo by bssmnt52
Softbodied ticks are different than hard ticks in that they don’t hang out in weeds waiting for a host to attach to and then stay attached for a long time while feeding. Instead, they live in nests, caves, and burrows of rodents, bats, and birds, and only feed for about 15-30 minutes at a time, usually while the animal sleeps, before dropping from the host.
Despite the short feeding time, yes, they can carry diseases, and yes, they sometimes bite humans and transmit disease! The most common one is tick-borne relapsing fever, which is caused by Borrelia bacteria. This tends to come from ticks living in rodent-infested houses.
Interestingly, while hard ticks tend to live at most three years, soft-bodied ticks can live....get ready for it....UP TO 20 YEARS. Holy moly. Good for them.
Let’s end this on a great note by admiring my favorite soft tick, the Blyborough tick...
Lol...Roumd. Photo by Loupyes
WAIT WAIT
SMALL. Whew. Too cute. Photo by dianabazzanella
Thanks for your question I love soft ticks :)