Subject: Found on scrotum
Geographic location of the bug: Pennsylvania
Date: 08/04/2018
Time: 09:38 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Please identify this for me
How you want your letter signed: Andrew
Dear Andrew,
When we read the subject line, we really thought we were going to find an image of a Crab Louse. We feel for the man who discovered this well fed Tick. According to BugGuide: “External parasites of reptiles, birds, and mammals; larvae, nymphs, and adults feed on blood” and “Important vectors of agents of humans & animal disease throughout the world. Ticks transmit the widest variety of pathogens of any blood-sucking arthropod, including bacteria, rickettsiae, protozoa, and viruses. Some currently important human diseases in the US caused by tick-borne pathogens include Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, and tick-borne relapsing fever.”