Can you help identify this?

3 years ago by Francisco to c/arachnology

Found it on my son's hair after a 10min visit to our veggies garden. My guess is that it might be a tick but we are not in an area of lime disease and although it's an open, rather unkept, field the only mammals I see around are 2-3 stray(?) cats.

The photo was done using a stereoscope+smartphone. The dark lines underneath are .4 to .5 mm.

Any pointers would be welcome.

southsamurai 8 points 3 years ago

Ticks exist outside of Lyme disease zones. And it's easy to pick them up in fields where animals roam. Doesn't even have to be high traffic. Plus, there was recently news that the little buggers can use static electricity to passively "jump" onto animals and humans, which is just extra annoying.

Are you looking for a species ID? I'm not trained in such things, but I can try to search up similar critters if you like, but it's definitely a tick of some variety.

Edit: did a quick search for poo and giggles (and ticks). Looks like a brown dog tick

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Mothra 5 points 3 years ago

I think this is the best guess, it checks out especially with the head shape and geo distribution.

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improvisedbuttplug 6 points 3 years ago

Definitely a tick

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Mothra 3 points 3 years ago

A tick for sure. Which species I don't know. Whereabouts in the world is this veggie garden?

Also, ticks often climb to trees or tall grasses and let themselves fall when they sense a potential host underneath. I doubt your kid got it straight from the cats, and as for mammals- you see cats, but are you sure you don't have any foxes, raccoons, rats, bats, kangaroos, possums, deer, squirrels, dogs... ?

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Francisco 1 point 3 years ago

My veggies garden is in the litoral north of Portugal.

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Mothra 2 points 3 years ago

I'll second southsamurai and agree with Rhipicephalus sanguineus, the brown dog tick. Shape of the capitulum checks out, it has visible eyes, similar body and so on.

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Francisco 1 point 3 years ago

Visible eyes? Capitulum? Would not know where to look for that. Is there any online resource where I can learn on that?

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Mothra 2 points 3 years ago

Also! Might be a bit late now, but I would recommend a thorough search for other ticks on your child. I've found ticks on myself a few times and it's never pleasant, these buggers latch onto your skin and you don't feel them.

You might need a very strong repellant the next time you go into the garden, the DEET ones are effective against ticks. Apply on the neck, waist and shoes as well as on any other exposed skin areas. Stay safe!

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Mothra 2 points 3 years ago

Wikipedia is a good starting point, then you have this

https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/...

And you can also search online for how to ID ticks, you have visual guides and such

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JimmyChanga 2 points 3 years ago

Lone star tick according to a reverse image search

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Nathanator 1 point 3 years ago

Might be a Red Spider Mite?

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Mothra 3 points 3 years ago

I appreciate that you are considering other options but, it's a tick. What kind of tick though, I have no idea.

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Nathanator 3 points 3 years ago

I am no tick expert, so will happily defer to your judgement 😄

Thankfully, OP is not in a Lyme disease area, which hopefully reduces the risk of a bad outcome.

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