Yes and no. They’re just different species, the common name has no consistent application and really means nothing. All of them are ‘hard ticks’ in the family Ixodidae.
The “yes” comes from the fact that different species carry different diseases. The species Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes pacificus, the “deer ticks”, can carry the spirochaete that causes Lyme’s Disease, whereas “dog ticks” in the genera Dermacentor, Rhipicephalus and Amblyomma mostly do not. However the latter genera can the organisms that cause Tularemia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, various versions of Ehrlichiosis and other things, so pick your poison ;).
And I should add, though I have seen people refer to the latter as “deer ticks”, deer actually aren’t all that important as hosts for I. pacificus, which is one of the reasons Lyme’s Disease is not as prevalent on the Pacific Coast as it is in New England. The western species seems to prefer reptilian hosts as nymphs, which aren’t good incubators of Borellia burgdorferi, the spirochaete in question.
I do believe they borrow into the skin… As I was checking my daughters hair like i do every week to make sure she doesnt have lice. I found a lump on her head (if she was to stan infront of yo looking the same way it was on her let side midway of her ear) and i looked closer and i say a brown cloured thing sticking out with it looked like 2 little legs sticking out. I than took her over to the walk in and the doctor had to pull it out and it was in deed a tick and it was stl alive which made me sick tosee it. The tick it self was at last 1/2 an inch and it took the doctor at least 7 mins to get most of it out… H couldnt get the last two legs out but he is treating her for tick dieases. they have he on a cream and an antibotic. They told me it was there for at least3 days as to how deep it had got but they still cannt say it for sure. They had asked me if she had any symptoms and i asked what. She is 4 its the brgin of spring.she has allergies and a cold and has been tired lately. The doctor had informed me tha they are all syptoms of a diease from ticks so he is going to put her on the med it just incase… She just went to hospital for lots of blood work, i hope everything comes back good…
But i would like to point out that you dont have to be in the woods to getthem you can simply go out in your yard and sit in the grass, more than likelly not but it is possible, as i have learned that form experiece with mysel a couple yeas ago, My daughter i do believe gt hers from the woods when she was helpng her dad get wood for there little fire. The quicker you find them the better and i never thought to check her hair for it. and her father told me he checked her over and whn i told him where it was he was shocked as well…
No, they don’t burrow. But if the skin around the tick gets inflamed (from the tick’s saliva and from scratching at it) it can look like it’s burrowed, especially when the tick is tiny like a deer tick. Dog ticks get huge when they’ve been attached for a while, there’s no way it could burrow.
ticks don’t burrow, they bite and hang on. they want to feed on your blood, not to make a nest. after feeding they use that energy to reproduce outdoors where the ticks need to be. they get plump and fall off.
Ticks can burrow under the skin. My family and I are outdoor adventures and it isn’t uncommon for one of us to find a tick attached to us. Usually, that is exactly what it is, attached. This year our dogs has had several ticks that have actually burrowed under the skin, with only a portion of its body sticking out. And no, it isn’t an engorged tick and it isn’t a tick that has been left on and left the skin inflamed. I would have answered the post in the same way if I had not experienced this myself and been totally freaked out. After finding a few like this on my dog, my husband had one do the same thing. Then a friend came over and showed us one on him. Never before this year have any of us saw this. These are not chiggers. They are regular full grown, but not engorged ticks. You can not grasp them at the head, because the head and half the body is completely under the skin. You can not smother anything that has its head already buried. Which leaves pulling the tick or cutting it out. The ticks are so far under the skin that the bodies actually pull apart it you try to pull them off. I have literally had hundreds off ticks on me in my life. Never, ever have I seen this. I believe it has to be a tick new to this area. I have actually seen ticks new to this area, in the last few years. Kinda scary. My husband now has lyme disease. One of our dogs was diagnosed with multiple tick diseases and the other dog had tick paralyzes. And yes, they are treated with flea and tick medicine. And my husband uses bug spray with deet. There are several people in our area who have been diagnosed with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme Disease. There are definately more ticks in this area than there were 15 years ago.
Interesting news; thanks for posting. Could you tell us roughly where on Earth you are?
We have people from all over the world reading here and knowing about these new ticks in “your area” doesn’t help much if we don’t know where “your area” is.
I’d like to know the straight dope on the advice that you have to twist or unscrew the ticks from your skin in some specific direction. I get that gently twisting might be necessary (although tick removal advice being what it is, I shan’t be surprised if someone tells me that it’s the worst possible idea)
But do ticks have any kind of chirality to their bite? Why are people oddly specific about the direction in which one should unscrew them?
I lived in a rural area for years, and I have always just yanked the little bastards off.
I have never seen them burrow, and would be interested in pictures and would like to know the species and location.
