Lone star tick
The lone star tick is a small, flat creature that drinks blood. It is not an insect but a cousin of the spiders. The grown-up female has one white spot shaped a bit like a star on her back.
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?
Fun facts
It waits on a grass blade with its front legs stretched out and grabs on when an animal brushes past.
It can feel the breath, warmth and footsteps of an animal walking by.
A baby tick has only six legs. It gets its last two legs when it grows bigger.
It can stay on an animal for up to a week, drinking until it is round and full.
One mother tick lays thousands of eggs at once.
Most asked questions about Lone star tick
?Why is it called the lone star tick?
Because the female has one white star-like spot on her back.
?Where do lone star ticks live?
In woods and long grass in the eastern and middle United States and Mexico.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Amblyomma americanum
- Group
- Scorpions, ticks and friends
- Family
- Ixodidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Ixodida > Ixodidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Northeastern water tick, Turkey tick, Cricker tick
Where the facts come from
- Amblyomma americanum (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 xpda. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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