The Probert Encyclopaedia of Nature

TICK

Tick is a popular name applied vaguely to a large number of genera of Arachnida allied to the mites. Most of them are temporarily parasitic on animals, whose blood they suck by means of a rostrum or beak, swelling sometimes to several times their original size. In the tropics ticks are a serious pest, as they wait in ambush in homes, under stones and in foliage, waiting for an opportunity to attach themselves to any passing mammal, including man. Ticks convey many germs of diseases, such as relapsing or tick fever and spotted fever in man, Texas or redwater fever in cattle, and piroplasmosis in horses and dogs. The brown tick causes the so-called coast fever in cattle in South Africa.
Research Tick