Tick Life Cycle

Ixodes ricinus mating - Wikimedia Commons

Life cycle of Ixodidae family ticks - CDC, Wikimedia Commons

• Ticks are temporary parasites so only spend a short period of their lives on the host species

• When larvae are seeking a host they are known as seed ticks

• Both hard and soft ticks have the same life cycle
  • Egg → larva → nymph → adult

• Soft ticks feed little and often and on many hosts

Hard ticks

• Classified depending on the number of host species they parasitise during their life cycle

• Take one blood meal at each life cycle stage which lasts several days

• One-host ticks
  • Each stage feeds and develops on one host (the same host)
  • E.g. Boophillus spp.

• Two-host ticks
  • Larvae and nymphs feed on one host
  • Adults feed on a second host
  • E.g. Hyalomma

• Three-host ticks
  • Each stage feeds and develops on a different host
  • E.g. Ixodes spp.