Brown dog tick
The brown dog tick is a tiny reddish brown tick that likes to drink the blood of dogs. It is only about as big as a sesame seed. It is special because it can live its whole life inside a house or a dog kennel.
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Fun facts
It likes to hide on a dog's head, in its ears, on its back and between its toes.
A mother tick can lay up to 7,000 eggs.
It changes host three times: once as a baby, once as a teenager and once as a grown-up, and drinks blood each time.
Tick babies have only six legs. They get their eighth and last pair of legs later.
Checking and brushing dogs often is the best way to keep these ticks out of the house.
Most asked questions about Brown dog tick
?How big is a brown dog tick?
A grown-up tick is only about 2 to 3 millimetres long, as small as a sesame seed.
?Can brown dog ticks live in a house?
Yes. Unlike most ticks, it can live its whole life indoors, in houses and kennels.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Rhipicephalus sanguineus
- Group
- Scorpions, ticks and friends
- Family
- Ixodidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Ixodida > Ixodidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Kennel tick, Pantropical dog tick
Where the facts come from
- Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by unknown author. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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