mkh
New Member
Posts: 2
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Post by mkh on Aug 13, 2021 5:51:50 GMT -8
imgur.com/a/O3Us9tqHi all, I was wondering if I could receive some help identifying these small creatures? I just spent two nights camping in Dorset, UK near a cow farm. I checked myself regularly for ticks and didn't find any, until this morning when I woke up back in my home in London, with 15 of these things feeding on me. I removed them carefully with tweezers, but have no idea what they could be. They have 6 legs and are fairly hard, and full of blood when crushed. They move slowly and I have found a few on my bed as well. The bites aren't very noticeable, just small red marks that could be old spots. As you can hopefully see from the photos, a few are darker and fuller, a few paler, but I haven't found any that look significantly more developed. I'm at a loss, terrified Ive bought an infestation home, and have no idea what they could be to even develop a plan of action. Could anybody please help? Thank you! imgur.com/a/O3Us9tq
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Post by livingplanet3 on Aug 13, 2021 6:52:59 GMT -8
imgur.com/a/O3Us9tqHi all, I was wondering if I could receive some help identifying these small creatures? I just spent two nights camping in Dorset, UK near a cow farm. I checked myself regularly for ticks and didn't find any, until this morning when I woke up back in my home in London, with 15 of these things feeding on me. I removed them carefully with tweezers, but have no idea what they could be. They have 6 legs and are fairly hard, and full of blood when crushed. They move slowly and I have found a few on my bed as well. The bites aren't very noticeable, just small red marks that could be old spots. As you can hopefully see from the photos, a few are darker and fuller, a few paler, but I haven't found any that look significantly more developed. I'm at a loss, terrified Ive bought an infestation home, and have no idea what they could be to even develop a plan of action. Could anybody please help? Thank you! imgur.com/a/O3Us9tq Yes, these are definitely ticks. Once you've caught them all however, that will be the end of them, since unlike fleas and bed bugs, ticks aren't able to reproduce indoors - any that you find in your home must have come inside on clothing or pets. |
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mkh
New Member
Posts: 2
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Post by mkh on Aug 13, 2021 7:16:28 GMT -8
Thank you!
Can I just confirm though, that they can be ticks even if they only have 6 legs, I was under the impression that only tick larvae had 6, and for some reason had discounted that as a possibility...
Thank you for your time and patience
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Post by livingplanet3 on Aug 13, 2021 9:15:11 GMT -8
Thank you! Can I just confirm though, that they can be ticks even if they only have 6 legs, I was under the impression that only tick larvae had 6, and for some reason had discounted that as a possibility... Thank you for your time and patience Yes - the larvae have only 6 legs. |
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Post by trehopr1 on Aug 13, 2021 10:23:35 GMT -8
Ticks can be a particular nuisance here in eastern North America during our summer season (May through September). Rural places and seldom traveled spaces are particular haunts for them.
Here in the Great lakes region deer are prolific and along with them go ticks...
I have at least eight fields within a 45-minute drive of my home which I investigate for butterflies; and of them two are frequented by deer as I have seen evidence of them bedding down at night in the fields.
Those two fields are the ones I have to be especially vigilant of when I leave them as I almost always have 2 - 3 ticks about my clothing. I additionally check myself when I get home just in case.
I probably wouldn't even bother entering those fields if it weren't for the swallowtails who's allure taunts me !
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Post by trehopr1 on Aug 13, 2021 12:39:55 GMT -8
I think that anyone living in or around a domestic farm situation (with large numbers) of domestic stock tests ones endurance for discomfort.
Cows, horses, pigs, and chickens all have assorted things associated with them which make human presence testy.
The stench of a pig farm alone has to make one wonder how anyone could live around that. Horses also have another issue -- the drawing of flies.
My aunt boarded horses for 15 years and had upwards of 20 there at a time; and I can tell you there were flies ever present between the months of May and into October. There were horse flies, biting stable flies, blow flies, and muscid flies at every turn near the barns. They could never have a picnic out of doors...
I made an acquaintance of a man whom I met had a yearly car event and he was from Canada and was a chicken farmer. He was a regular there for several years but the one year he didn't show up I inquired about to see why he didn't show up and I was told he died from a virus that he contracted from the chickens that he was raising for market.
He had several thousand chickens on his property at any given time and while he had done that job for years -- it caught up with him.
So it absolutely makes sense that one could expect to have ticks wherever you might have free ranging cattle on a ranch.
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