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What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Dog Tick or Deer Tick???

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Subject: Engorged Tick
Location: Southern Connecticut
February 19, 2013 11:27 pm
Any way for a non-expert to tell the difference between an engorged dog vs. deer tick? Most internet images I’ve seen are very similar.
We found this on our bedroom carpet– we’re not convinced it was actually on our dog.
Signature: Fran Maurais

Tick

Hi Fran,
We don’t feel confident enough to distinguish between species of Ticks, but we are posting your images and perhaps one of our readers will be able to supply an answer.  Out gut feeling is that this is a Dog Tick.  You can also search BugGuide for images of Dog Ticks, Dermacentor variabilis, and Deer Ticks, Ixodes scapularis, are also represented on BugGuide.

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What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Tick

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Subject: In my bed
Location: West Palm Beach
February 20, 2013 6:48 am
I do not believe these are bed bugs as the head is not pronounced and we have not been bitten. There are not that many of them as well. they are under my mattress and sometimes on top.
Signature: Thank you, Joel T. [Ed. Note:  Surname withheld for privacy]

Tick

Hi Joel,
You are correct.  This is not a Bed Bug, but it is a blood sucking Tick and it appears to be engorged.  We suspect that perhaps you have a pet dog or cat that goes out and sleeps on the bed.  You should try to do a thorough cleaning and elimination.  Ticks do not prefer humans as prey, but if they are hungry, they will bite people.  FYI, we have taken the liberty of editing your surname from this posting in an effort to save you and your family from potential embarrassment.

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What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Tick from Costa Rica

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Subject: Bug stick on my leg returning from costa rica
Location: Guanacaste, Costa Rica
December 31, 2012 3:22 pm
I returned from costa rica yesterday, and that bug was stick hard to my leg.
Mesuring about half of a centimeter.
We did a lot of hiking in the guanacaste region. Just want to ensure that it is not dangerous.
Thanks a lot
Signature: email

Tick

This is a Tick.  Ticks are blood suckers that are known to spread pathogens.  Some Ticks are disease vectors like the Deer Ticks of North America that spread Lyme Disease.  You might want to seek professional help if you experience any unusual symptoms.

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What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Tick

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Subject: Bug
Location: Florida
December 6, 2012 8:48 pm
what bug is this that i found playing with my daughter??
Signature: whatbug

Tick

Dear whatbug,
This is a Tick, and they are blood suckers that can spread pathogens.  We would advise you to teach your daughter not to play with them.

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Greyish Beetle?
Location: Calgary AB Canada
December 13, 2011 11:48 pm
Hi There
I’ve seen this bug all over the house and am wondering if you can identify it. Thanks!
Signature: Chelsey

Tick

Tick

Thank you for your speedy reply. We believe (and hope) they are coming off our dog. Most of them have been spotted in his favourite areas (dog bed, our bed, couch). Thinking back now I have also seen the smaller, baby-type ones. I thought it was just a small spider hiding in the trim/moulding around the doors. Thanks again for identifying it.
-Chelsey

Hi again Chelsey,
Sometimes in an attempt to provide as many responses as possible, we just provide a name to a request that we do not post.  We had a few spare minutes this morning so we are posting your letter and photo in the belief it may help other visitors to our site identify Ticks which are often found in homes at the onset of colder weather.  They most likely did come indoors by hitching on your dog.

Thanks Daniel. We took our dog to the vet and the vet spent 2 hours taking 25 ticks off him. Since then we have found about an additional 10 on him. We’ve scrubbed our house, finding probably 50 ticks (all sizes and shapes but mostly small/baby ones) and finding eggs as well..we’re hoping the cleaning will help prevent them from coming back.
Fortunately neither myself or my husband have been bit, just my dog. We did find one attempting to bite my rabbit as well but he couldn’t burrow far enough to reach the skin past the thick fur.
Do you know what their resistance to cold weather is? It’s floating around -5 degrees Celsius right now (at night going to about -10) and we bagged all of our clothes and put them on our porch, until we are able to wash them, in an effort to try and kill any hiding in our clothing.
We were shocked to hear our local exterminators had no tips on trying to get them out of the house. It’s unheard-of to have a tick infestation here. haha what luck I guess?
Thanks again
-Chelsey

Hi Chelsey,
Alas, we don’t know what the Ticks tolerance to low temperatures is.  Many insects and arthropods can withstand low temperatures for short periods of time.

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weirdest bug ever
Location: Washington D.C. area, by chesapeake beach
December 7, 2011 10:59 pm
We found this bug, dead, on my little brother’s bed in a pile of what looked like it’s own goo. It has a huge abdomen and it looks like six tiny legs only on the front. It has, what looks like, one large eye in the front. Very strange, we are just a little freaked out because we have never seen anything like it and it was on his bed!
Signature: -Kris Moss

Tick

Dear Kris,
This is a blood engorged Tick.  Perhaps it entered the home on a household pet.

thank you for the reply. after i posted on your website i was able to figure that out on my own, it was fairly simple and i feel a little stupid. But maybe you can help me more, are there any steps that you suggest i take to ensure we dont find anymore?

Use a Flea and Tick product on your pet.

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What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Tick Bites

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Seed Tick Aftermath
Location: Kirksville, MO
August 21, 2011 10:46 am
Hi again, Daniel.
I have no problem at all with images being cropped/rotated to fit the site, and thank you for the compliments. I discovered, however, that there was a great deal more on the trail than the cannibal flies. On my drive home from the trail, my ankles started itching terribly. Once I was out of the car, I rolled my socks down to discover that my ankles were crawling with seed ticks! Needless to say, all of my clothes wound up in the laundry post haste, and my shoes were promptly treated with some permethrin based spray (which I admittedly should have done -before- the hike!). I discovered that a safety razor works really well in removing the pinhead-sized pests, but I wasn’t able to get them off quickly enough to save my ankles – my left one caught the worst of it!
A note to any hikers with ticks in the area, make sure you treat your clothing before going out, because a tick doesn’t have to transmit a pathogen to leave an unwanted ’gift’ behind!
Signature: EB

Tick Bites

Dear EB,
We were not aware of the term Seed Ticks to describe larval Ticks, though that seems a perfect name.  We researched the name and found a very descriptive blog posting on Mayaland as well as this informative page on the Flea and Tick Control website.  Thanks so much for your warning to our readership as well as your personal tips.

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What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Grain Weevils and Larval Tick

On · Category: Pantry Beetles, Grain Weevils, Spider Beetles, Meal Worms and Carpet Beetles, Ticks, Weevils Tagged With: , · 8 Comments

help!! bedbugs? body lice? help please!!
Location: southern Maryland
August 5, 2011 5:29 pm
Please help, my husband’s niece house sit for us & the next day after being home we found all these little bugs on top of the bed. We thought they were baby dog ticks round & black grey in color. We vacuumed them up & stripped the bed. The next day we came home to them on the bed again & I went into overdrive cleaning, even encased our bed. I have bites on my, neck, shoulders & around hairline. My husband & daughter have no signs….I. have checked our heads for lice & nothing!! I am losing my mind over this & getting tired of our nightly ritual of bed cleaning. We live in southern Maryland. I am also submitting a pic of a black bug we have seen a lot of, that bug is upside down in the pic….thank you!!
Signature: desperately need help

Thing found on the bed

Dear desperately need help,
We cannot make out any details in the thing you found on the bed.  Did they move?  Are you certain they were living things?  We sometimes get reports of Tropical Fowl Mites or Tropical Rat Mites entering homes and biting the occupants, but this generally happens if there was a bird nest on the roof or a rat’s nest the attic, and the occupants “flew the coop”, leaving nothing else for the Mites to feed upon.  Again, we cannot make out any details in your photo to be certain.  Here is a link to Biting Mites in the home from CityBugs website.  The second creature is a Grain Weevil, and it may be infesting stored grain products in the pantry or pet foods including bird seed.  You will need to find the source of the infestation to eliminate that problem.  Just discard the infested food products.  Here is a recent posting on Grain Weevils.

Grain Weevil

help!!! bedbugs? body lice? please help
Location: southern maryland
August 6, 2011 1:33 am
Thank you for responding so quickly! The weivels are an easy fix. The bugs found on bed were alive. At first glance it looked like dirt & then I did think were dead….but they moved very slowly. Sort of just pulling themselves along with their very tiny (many) legs. I took a couple of more pics, hope they help. Also the one in the pic seems to be dried up kind of shriveled…probably from one the many products I used. However my itching has not subsided. Thank you again!
Signature: desperately need help

Unidentified Bed Thing is probably Tick Larva

Hi again desperately need help,
We are sorry, but we cannot tell what this is.  It might be a Mite.  Perhaps one of our readers will be able to provide some information.

 

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What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination