Tick question

I just crushed a flat tick (I was out cutting grass) and s/he was full of white goop. What was that?

It’s guts?

I’ve dispatched many, many ticks and I’ve never seen white goop. :slight_smile:

Eggs?

That’s not “white goop”, it’s a creamy filling of justice!

SPOON!

CMC fnord!

Frikin’ gross is what that was. Blech.

I’ve never seen a tick do that.

creamy filling of justice

Band Name!

Picture?

*loves being the person who thinks to ask… :frowning: *

Eggs.

Alas, I didn’t have a camera with me while cutting grass. :slight_smile:

Perhaps it wasn’t feeling well, and you disturbed it’s vomit reflex.

Probably not, as they need a blood meal to produce their eggs, and if this one was flat it hadn’t had a chance to feed. It was probably either hemolymph, some kind of innards (possibly fat deposits), or just possibly ova that had not developed much yet.

At least in my experience, a tick’s hemolymph (the arthopod equivalent of blood) is fairly clear, but I suppose in some circumstances or in certain species it could be whitish. The hemolymph does not circulate via blood vessels, but instead fills most of the arthopod’s body cavity.