Tick Identification
Only specific ticks carry Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections. So, it is useful to know what each tick looks like, what diseases they carry.
Ticks are not insects. Ticks are arachnids, as are chiggers, spiders and mites; they have eight legs as an adult and two body segments. Insects have six legs as an adult and three body segments.
Ticks found in Rhode Island
Deer Tick ( or Black Legged Tick Ixodes Scapularis)
- adult female, adult male, nymph, and larva on a centimeter scale.
- Description: Adult deer ticks are red-brown in color and about 3mm in size. Larvae and nymphs are considerably smaller and tend to be paler in color.
- Habitat: Deciduous forest and habitat containing leaf litter.
- Host animals: Humans, deer, dogs, small birds and rodents, etc.
- Diseases Carried: Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis.
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American Dog Tick ( or Wood Tick Dermacentor Variabilis)
- Description: About 1/8 inch in length with a dark brown body and an irregular white pattern on the part of the body behind the head.
- Habitat: Found in grassy meadows and wooded areas, also near barns, kennels, and anywhere that animals are kept
- Animal Hosts: Small rodents, opossums, raccoons, horses, deer, and cattle
- Diseases Carried: Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF)
- In animals: Cytauxzoonosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
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Brown Dog Tick (or Red Dog Tick Rhipicephalus Sanguineus)
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Lone Star Tick (Amblyomma Americanum)
Showing characteristic “lone star”
- Description: Adults 1/3 inch long unengorged, ½ inch long engorged, colored from brown to tan, females have silvery white spot (“lone star”) on backs and males have scattered spots or streaks around perimeter of body.
- Habitat: In wooded areas with brush, especially hickory-oak forests, along creeks and rivers.
- Animal Hosts: Small birds and rodents (larvae and nymphs), cattle, deer, humans.
- Diseases Carried: Ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness (STARI)
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