Subject: What the…..?
Location: South Park, PA
October 29, 2013 11:04 am
Found this when I returned home on October 28, 2013, in the middle of the mattress my son sleeps on. We had just relocated a bunch of furniture and shampooed the carpets on the entire floor the day before. The legs are very tiny and look barely capable of hauling its load, and I couldn’t make out a head. The ”shell” on its back appeared penetrable and had the feel of bendable plastic. I did not let it crawl on me but was able to pick it up by the back of its ”shell” without any risk of its legs/mouth making contact with my skin. It moved with the characteristics of a hermit crab.
Signature: CreepedOut
Blood Engorged Tick
Dear CreepedOut in South Park
Do you have a pet that goes outdoors and then crawls into your son’s bed? This is a blood engorged Tick, and thought its primary mammalian blood food source it furry, it would not pass up an opportunity to feed off of a human. Ticks are known disease vectors and you can educate yourself about Tick borne diseases on the CDC website.
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The dog we’re doggy-sitting had a tick like the engorged one shown, but when I found it on the floor, it was not filled with blood, but a tar-like black sticky substance. Does this mean it had been on her so long that the blood turned into that? I will have the owner bring her to the vet tomorrow, but just wanted to check as we’d never seen anything like this.
Thank you.
Perhaps one of our readers more familiar with Ticks and respond to your query.