South African bont tick
The South African bont tick is a hard tick with eight legs and a back painted in patches of different colours. Its legs are dark or reddish with paler joints, like little striped socks. It climbs onto farm animals to drink their blood.
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.
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Fun facts
The male and the female look different. The male's back is dappled in many colours, while the female has a solid black patch.
A male is only 4 to 6 millimetres long, but a female can swell up to about 20 millimetres after a big meal of blood.
It can carry a sickness called heartwater, which makes cows, sheep and goats ill. Some wild animals hardly notice it.
A tick that catches heartwater keeps it for the rest of its life.
In South Africa only a few ticks carry heartwater at any time, about 1 to 7 out of every 100.
Most asked questions about South African bont tick
?Is the South African bont tick dangerous?
It bites and drinks blood, and it can pass a sickness called heartwater to farm animals. If one is on you, a grown-up should remove it.
?How big is a South African bont tick?
A male is about 4 to 6 millimetres long. A female full of blood can grow to about 20 millimetres.
?What does a bont tick eat?
Only blood. It feeds on animals such as cows, sheep and goats.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Amblyomma hebraeum
- Group
- Scorpions, ticks and friends
- Family
- Ixodidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Ixodida > Ixodidae
- Lives on
- Africa
Where the facts come from
- Amblyomma hebraeum (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 JMK. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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