Pacific coast tick
The Pacific coast tick is a tiny silvery grey tick from California. Like all ticks, it has eight legs and is a cousin of spiders. It waits on plants and climbs onto animals, and sometimes people, to drink 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.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Pacific coast tick compared to YOU?
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How fast is it?
Fun facts
When it has not eaten, it is only about 4.5 millimetres long, smaller than a grain of rice.
Its hard outer shell is a silvery grey colour.
It belongs to the hard ticks, also called wood ticks.
Most asked questions about Pacific coast tick
?Do Pacific coast ticks bite people?
Yes, people are one of the animals it can feed on. Check for ticks after being outside and ask a grown-up to remove any you find.
?How big is the Pacific coast tick?
About 4.5 millimetres long before it has eaten.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Dermacentor occidentalis
- Group
- Scorpions, ticks and friends
- Family
- Ixodidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Ixodida > Ixodidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Dermacentor occidentalis (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 (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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