If you have found a tick on yourself or your pet and want to have it identified, please follow the directions below:
The specimen must be alive (put the tick in a plastic bag or container with a piece of moist paper towel to provide humidity)
Write down the address where the tick was acquired
Note how long the tick may have been attached
Tick Biology
There are 49 species of ticks in California, most of which never come in contact with people because they live in the nests of birds, bats, or wild mammals. Ticks are divided into two groups “hard ticks” (Ixodid ticks) and “soft ticks” (Argasids). Soft ticks are not familiar to most people in the Bay Area. Most are parasites of birds and live in their nests. A few species live in the burrows of squirrels or rabbits.
The typical tick encountered by humans and their pets in San Mateo County is an example of a hard tick. These ticks have a three stage life cycle: larva, nymph and adult. All three stages feed on blood and a blood meal is required to molt to the next stage or lay eggs. Hard ticks attach to their hosts for long periods of time (three to seven days, depending on the life stage) swelling to many times their unfed size. After completing the blood meal, they drop off, digest the blood, and molt to the next stage or lay eggs. Each stage attaches to a separate host. Completion of the entire life cycle can take many months or even a couple of years. The different life stages of a tick often feed on different kinds of hosts. For example, larvae and nymphs of the Pacific Coast tick (Dermacentor occidentalis) feed on mice and other rodents. The adult stage of this tick feeds on deer or other large animals.
There are 28 species of hard ticks in California. Twenty-one of these have either been recorded in San Mateo County or could occur here. Of these 21 species, only three are likely to be encountered by people or their pets. The remaining 18 species feed on specific groups of animals (e.g., birds, bats, rodents, rabbits, etc.) and are closely associated with the nests, burrows, or bedding areas of these animals. These ticks are almost never encountered by humans and can only be found by examining wild animals or their nests.
Although there are 21 species of hard ticks in San Mateo County, the list below are the most common ticks that people and pets contact in the environment.