The life of a tick

Ticks on pets often provoke immediate concern among pet owners, who may be uncertain how to remove them safely and what health risks they pose. Educating clients, especially those who have encountered a tick or reside in regions with high tick prevalence, enables veterinary teams to assess disease risk more rapidly and to reassure anxious owners. By providing clear, accurate information about tick biology and pathogen transmission, veterinary professionals can both streamline clinical decision‑making and help reduce client stress.

During her lecture at the 2025 American Veterinary Medical Association Convention in Washington, DC, Susan E. Little, DVM, PhD, DACVM, Krull-Ewing Professor of Parasitology at the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, broke down ticks and their life stages to help give clients a better understanding of these threats to pets.

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The tick family tree

“We have 5 [tick species]. We used to talk about the big 4 in veterinary medicine in the US: Amblyomma, Ixodes, Dermacentor, and Rhipicephalus. Now we have the big 5 because we have Haemaphysalis longicornis, the Asian longhorned tick...established in almost half the states in the US, [including] here in the DC metro area,” Little said during her lecture address.

With the 5, each goes through multiple life stages: larvae, nymph, and then either adult female or male—except for the Haemaphysalis, [for which] there is only 1 female, a larva, and a nymph, no males. Little explained that these ticks reproduce through parthenogenesis clonally, so new larvae hatch from eggs laid parthenogenetically, without fertilization by a male.

Besides the big 5, there are several other species out there, including the most feared tick, Ixodes scapularis, also known as the deer tick or black-legged tick. This tick is the one that transmits anaplasmosis, Ehrlichia muris eauclairensis, and the agent for Lyme disease.

As larvae, the ticks feed for about 3 to 5 days, nymphs for 5 to 7 days, and then adults feed for 7 to 14 days, sometimes even longer. For ticks, their physiology is also different between the stages, so transmission can vary. According to Little, different tick genera locate hosts in distinct ways. For example, she explained that most ticks are supported by wildlife and then spill onto people and pets from the wildlife that is supporting them—but then there is the brown dog tick.

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“That's the tick that wants to be a flea. It lives in homes and kennels. It infests premises where there are dogs.... It's still a 3-host tick, but the larvae, the host for the larvae, the nymph, and the adult are all dogs, right? Whereas for the others, they're supported on wildlife and then spill over to the dogs or people, so a [few] differences there,” Little said.

Most people think that ticks are passive questers, crawling up vegetation and waving their first pair of legs until something walks by and brushes up against the vegetation so it can transfer over. Although that is true for some species, like the Dermacentor and Ixodes, the Amblyomma does not wait. It will go out and run after hosts in the wild because it is drawn to the pheromones that are given off, carbon dioxide, as well as the shadow and movements of a potential host. Dog ticks are also very similar to this, as they will pick up on cues in the environment if a dog is there and go after it, as well as all its species.

Conclusion

“The No. 1 thing we can do to change the situation for dogs in the field is advocate for tick control. Dogs are better off protected from ticks than not. We don't know when they're going to come out. We used to talk about tick season, and now I say it's always tick season, right? It used to be spring and summer, [but now] it's also fall [and] winter, and winter is not as cold as it used to be,” Little said.

Clinicians should emphasize year‑round tick prevention. Once a tick attaches, treatment is reactive, not preventive. By informing clients about tick life stages, behaviors, and associated disease risks, veterinary teams can communicate the importance of consistent protection. The more guidance and preventive measures they offer pet owners, the greater the likelihood their animals will remain tick‑free, regardless of season or region.

Reference

1. Little S. Perfect timing: protecting dogs from tick-borne infections. Presented at: 2025 American Veterinary Medical Association Convention; July 18-22, 2025; Washington, DC.