Tick Life Cycle: Overview, Stages & Diseases

Ticks are invertebrates that belong to the suborder Ixodida and the subclass Acari. Ticks are parasites that include around 825 species. They are part of domestic parasites that attack people in some cases. The most famous tick is the hard tick called the American dog tick, which feeds on the dog for several days. 

Based on the species, ticks can live up to three years, during which they carry on with four distinct life stages namely egg, larvae, nymph, and adult. A tick needs a blood meal at each stage to get by and keep on developing. 

Read More: Bird and Insect Life Cycle

Key Terms: Ticks, Tick Life Cycle, Egg, Larvae, Nymph, Hard Tick, Soft Tick, Parasites, Blood

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What are Ticks?

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Ticks are external parasites which can be distributed among two major families, Ixodidae (Hard ticks) and Argasidae (Soft ticks). 

• The mouthparts of hard ticks are at the frontal position while the mouthparts of soft ticks underlie their bodies. 
• Their main source of feeding for ticks is the blood of mammals, reptiles, birds and amphibians. 
• The body of an adult tick is pear-shaped with 8 legs.

Ticks

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Life Cycle of Tick

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Ticks go through distinct stages all throughout their life cycle. It takes more than a year to complete a full life cycle of ticks. 

The life cycle of a tick is completed after four stages which are as follows:

• Stage 1: The Egg
• Stage 2: The Larvae
• Stage 3: The Nymph
• Stage 4: The Adult

Stage 1: The Egg

• After the adult female tick has got a decent amount of blood meal, she mates with an adult male tick leave the host, and look for a potential spot to lay her eggs. 
• The eggs hatch and six-legged hatchlings rise out of the eggs.

Stage 2: The Larvae

• Aside from missing legs, the larvae tick seems to be the adult tick in this stage. 
• After incubating, the larvae climb the leaves of grass and wait for a potential host to connect. 
• The aroma of the mammal allows the tick to distinguish it and attach itself to the host. 
• Once attached to the host, the hatchlings feed and go through several phases of moulting to change into a nymph.

Tick Life Cycle

Read More: Fly Life Cycle

Stage 3: The Nymph

• After completing a good blood meal, the larvae detach and moult in order to develop 8 legs. 
• The larvae moult for around two weeks and change into nymph ticks. 
• The nymph develops 8 legs and again starts looking for a potential host to join and feed. 
• The process is the same as the larvae tick.

Stage 4: The Adult

• Here the tick is physically and sexually developed and can replicate. 
• In the case of hard ticks, the male and female adult ticks get adequate blood meals before mating. 
• While feeding, the female tick takes a longer time to feed on as compared to male ticks. 
• The male tick dies after mating and the female tick dies after laying the eggs. 
• The eggs laid by the female tick are roughly 2000 to 18000 eggs. 
• In the case of soft ticks, they eat out smaller blood meals and lay eggs several times.

Read More: Grasshopper Life Cycle

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Tick-Borne Diseases

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As ticks feed on blood, they transmit many infectious diseases to the host brought about by microbes like bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. Here is a list of a few tick-borne diseases:

• Anaplasmosis: Communicated to humans primarily by the bite of dark-legged ticks. It is a bacterial kind of sickness that attacks the white blood cells in the body. Side effects inculcate fever, chills, muscle pain, weariness, and stomach pain.
• Babesiosis: It is a protozoan kind of sickness brought about by the Babesia microti parasite primarily transmitted by dark-legged ticks. Side effects inculcate low circulatory strain, paleness, and influenza-like side effects.
• Colorado Tick Fever: It is a viral disease caused by the colorado tick fever transmitted to humans by Rocky Mountain wood ticks.
• Lyme Disease: The most well-known tick-borne sickness is Lyme infection, It is a bacterial kind of illness primarily brought about by deer ticks. Side effects inculcate Fever, headache, cranial nerves paralysis, carditis, weakness, flu-like sickness, and rash, which later gets larger and shows up as a round red ring.
• Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever (TBRF): It is a bacterial disease. Transmitted to people through the bite of infected soft ticks mostly of Ornithodoros species. Side effects inculcate repeating high fever, afflictions, migraines, muscle, and joint pain, and influenza-like side effects.
• Tick-Borne Encephalitis (TBE): It is caused by the TBE infection and is transmitted to people through infected species of ticks called Ixodes.

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Things to Remember

• Ticks are invertebrates belonging to the suborder Ixodida and the subclass Acari.
• Ticks are domestic parasites which are distributed among two major families, Ixodidae namely hard ticks and Argasidae namely soft ticks. 
• The life cycle of a tick involves four stages namely egg, larva, nymph, and adult. 
• It takes more than a year to complete a full life cycle of a tick. 
• Ticks feed on warm-blooded amphibians, reptiles and birds.
• Ticks don't live on one single host and change the host in different stages of their life cycle.
• They transmit many infections to the host caused by microbes like bacteria, viruses, and protozoa.

Read More: Ant Life Cycle