An Ixodia tick is a very small tick which is much smaller than dog or cat ticks. The juvenile deer tick is about the size of a pinhead, the biggest adult deer tick can grow to about three-sixteenths of an inch.
A Lyme disease infection can happen after a deer tick is attached to a human or other host for twelve to twenty-four hours. An infected deer tick has Borrelia that lives in the tick’s midgut. Ticks are parasites that insert their mouthparts into their hots and drink blood for several days. When an infected tick attaches itself to a host and feeds, the Borrelia enters the salivary gland and proceeds into it”s human hosts blood stream.
The tick larvae and nymphs usually become infected with Borrelia burgdorferi when they feed on infected small animals, in particular the white-footed mouse. The bacteria remain in the tick as it changes from larva to nymph or from nymph to adult. Infected nymphs and adult deer ticks then start feeding on other small rodents, other animals, and humans, and transmit the bacteria to them. Adult ticks preferentially feed on the white-tailed deer, which thereby becomes an significant source of Borrelia burgdorferi in regions of infestation. The tick’s life cycle takes two years to complete (see diagram below).
The deer tick’s life cycle is comprised of three distinguishing stages: larvae, nymphs, and adults and lasts aproxinately two years.
In the spring and summer of the first year, eggs hatch into larvae which feed once and molt into nymphs. Nymphs become dormant for the fall and winter.
In the second year, nymphs emerge to feed from May through July. At this time, the nymph may transmit bacteria to humans or to wild or domestic mammals.
In the fall, nymphs molt into adult ticks. The females feed on deer and various large mammals, mate, lay their eggs, and then die. If females don’t feed in the fall, they will try to find a large mammal host during the following spring. Male deer ticks attach to a host to wait for females, but do not take a blood meal.