Ticks. Those condemned mites that sicken our animals... and us too. The list of diseases associated with ticks is long, and once we detect their presence, they must be fought without respite, though it's never a bad idea to know your enemy better.
Their dependence on blood forces the tick to 'bite' its victim's skin, but in truth, the mechanism is based on burrowing, excavating, and penetrating with tools worthy of a horror movie.
One advantage ticks have is their ability to wait for months between feeding sessions. In fact, it only needs to extract blood three times in its entire life (if it's a female), but that advantage is a double-edged sword, because if it doesn't find a food source at the exact moment, it will die.
A common question is how ticks locate their victims; it's through the carbon dioxide we emit. Once on board, the tick can take between ten minutes and two hours (depending on the species) to find the ideal spot, and when it does, it needs to 'secure' its position...
The tick bite
The first step is to use its chelicerae to cut, tear, and displace the skin. With the hole 'finished,' the tick inserts its hypostome, the main attachment element, and begins to feed.
Blood accumulates thanks to the hemorrhage caused by the action of the chelicerae and hypostome, but its saliva contains components that cause its accumulation under the skin, including a mild analgesic that blocks pain and helps hide its presence.
The tick's feeding lasts from three to ten days, and it simply drops off, so full of blood that it has serious difficulty moving to a safe place.
What to do when you find an attached tick
Now, what do we do when we find an anchored tick? The web is full of recommendations like burning, rotating, drowning in vinegar, alcohol, or oil, pricking, or even painting the tick with nail polish, but the most effective technique requires tweezers to grasp the mite as close to the skin as possible, and extract it without wasting time.
