Hedgehog tick
Ixodes hexagonus
The hedgehog tick is a small, dark brown tick that lives in hedgehog nests. It climbs onto the hedgehog to drink its blood. When it is full of blood it swells up and turns light grey or white.
Fun fact: this one is not an insect. It is an arachnid with eight legs, a cousin of the spiders.
Lives in
Central and western Europe and east to Siberia, wherever hedgehogs live
Can it hurt you?
Dangerous: look, do not touch
It can carry the germs that cause Lyme disease. Look, do not touch, and tell a grown-up if you find a tick on you or your pet.
What does it eat?
It drinks the blood of hedgehogs, and sometimes of foxes, dogs and cats.
Ticks: how to stay safe
- In Estonia, the castor bean tick and the taiga tick can carry Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis.
- Ticks wait on grass stems, from ankle to knee height. Long trousers tucked into socks and light clothes help you spot them.
- After playing outside, check your body, your hair and your pets for ticks.
- Found a tick? A grown-up should take it out quickly with fine tweezers or a tick tool: hold it close to the skin and pull slowly. No oil or alcohol on it. Then wash the spot.
- There is a vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis, for children too from one year old. Ask your doctor.
- If in the weeks after a bite you get a fever, feel ill or see a red patch that grows, go to a doctor.
How fast is it?
Hedgehog tick about 0.02 km/h (0.01 mph)
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It spends most of its life inside the hedgehog's cosy nest, safe from bad weather.
2
Like spiders, it has eight legs, because ticks are cousins of spiders.
3
The girl has a shield on her back shaped like a heart or a six-sided hexagon.
you asked
Most asked questions about Hedgehog tick
?Where do hedgehog ticks live?
Mainly inside hedgehog nests in Europe.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Ixodes hexagonus
- Group
- Scorpions, ticks and friends
- Family
- Ixodidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Ixodida > Ixodidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Ixodes hexagonus (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 André Karwath aka Aka. CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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