Found on pillow..please help identify!! [a: tick? Expert ID needed]

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Found on pillow..please help identify!! [a: tick? Expert ID needed]

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Rascal3

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Posted 3 years ago
Sat Jul 9 2016 21:47:21
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Please help to identify..my husband I found this bug on our bed and we are scared it may be a bed bug. It was found on our pillow and we searched everywhere around the bed, under the mattress, around the corners..and found no traces of bed bugs anywhere. We also have had NO bites at all.

Here is the picture:

Please help us identify this bug!!! Thank you!!!
misery

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Posted 3 years ago
Sat Jul 9 2016 23:51:54
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I am not a pro.

But.............. Google "dog tick" or something similar (I don't know the scientific name like a pro would) and compare your picture to that, see if you feel better!

Not a pro here. Call me Jon Snow...... for I know nothing, except what I've experienced.
Nobugsonme

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Posted 3 years ago
Sun Jul 10 2016 1:43:38
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I agree-- definitely not a bed bug and I also think it's a dog tick. Wait for an expert to confirm on that part.

I started and run the site but am "not an expert."
GeekOnTheHill

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Posted 3 years ago
Sun Jul 10 2016 7:13:15
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Looks like a female American dog tick to me. But it could be a brown dog tick. It's definitely a tick and not a bed bug, however.

Ticks are also parasites and some can spread diseases, so they are not benign arachnids. If you actually have an infestation of these ticks (as opposed to just the one straggler), they'll have to be dealt with. If you have pets, they'll need to be looked at as well.

Richard
Rascal3

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Posted 3 years ago
Sun Jul 10 2016 9:20:09
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Oh my..we havent found any other ticks..and we don't have a dog..should we still call an exterminator just in case? Are there any precautions we can take now?? Thank you all for your responses by the way!
frightened

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Posted 3 years ago
Sun Jul 10 2016 9:32:47
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I am not an expert. I found one on my underwear 2 weeks ago when I had been hiking all day on the South Downs in the UK. I do not think it bit me but I am still being careful to check for any signs as these ticks carry Lyme's disease which is a very debilitating disease. If the disease is caught early enough then it can be treated with antibiotics. Take a look at this site to check for symptoms. Note not everyone shows the typical bull's eye rings
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/signs_symptoms/
How do you think the tick got there? If you do not see anymore then you do not need to get a PCO as these are animals that live outside and generally feed off deer, dogs, sheep
Rascal3

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Posted 3 years ago
Sun Jul 10 2016 10:57:17
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Thank you for the link! So sorry to hear about you finding yours in underwear - yikes! I don't think we got bitten, but we will make sure to keep an eye out for signs or more ticks. We honestly have no idea where it could have came from..there are a lot of dogs in our apartment so maybe one crawled in through the cracks of the door or maybe it came from outside..not sure. We will definitely have to keep an eye out for them!
GeekOnTheHill

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Posted 3 years ago
Sun Jul 10 2016 11:19:46
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Rascal3 - 1 hour ago »
Oh my..we havent found any other ticks..and we don't have a dog..should we still call an exterminator just in case? Are there any precautions we can take now?? Thank you all for your responses by the way!

For one tick? I personally wouldn't.

Personally, I'd just wash / vacuum / shampoo inside, mow the lawn outside, and then keep an eye out for more ticks. Checking each other for bites also wouldn't be a bad idea. But I would be reluctant to do a full interior tick treatment absent evidence that you actually have ticks and didn't just drag one in from outside.

If you want, use a hose-end sprayer to spray the lawn outside (if you have one) with any OTC insecticide product labeled for ticks in lawns. But personally, I wouldn't even do that much unless the lawn was definitely infested.

Richard
GeekOnTheHill

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Posted 3 years ago
Sun Jul 10 2016 11:27:00
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frightened - 1 hour ago »
I am not an expert. I found one on my underwear 2 weeks ago when I had been hiking all day on the South Downs in the UK. I do not think it bit me but I am still being careful to check for any signs as these ticks carry Lyme's disease which is a very debilitating disease. If the disease is caught early enough then it can be treated with antibiotics. Take a look at this site to check for symptoms. Note not everyone shows the typical bull's eye rings
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/signs_symptoms/
How do you think the tick got there? If you do not see anymore then you do not need to get a PCO as these are animals that live outside and generally feed off deer, dogs, sheep

I don't know about the UK, but in the US, deer ticks are the ones associated with Lyme. Do you know what kind of tick it was?

In any case, there are blood tests for Lyme; but the last time I checked, they were not sensitive enough to detect the disease before three or four weeks had passed from the time of the bite. Maybe they have better ones now. I'd ask my doctor if I were concerned.

Richard
loubugs

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Posted 3 years ago
Mon Jul 11 2016 4:40:14
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Looks like a female American dog tick to me. But it could be a brown dog tick. It's definitely a tick and not a bed bug, however.

Female American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis)- couldn't be a brown dog tick (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) because coloration all wrong for that species and body morphology all wrong, too.
Most likely attached to you when walking where it was questing (front pairs of legs up to capture a passing host).
Black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) is a vector for Lyme disease.
Feeding ticks stay on hours/days to suck up enough blood. Male ticks don't have the room and don't stay on that long. Larvae, nymphs and adult females will stay on the longest with the adult female staying attached the longest. This is dependent on the tick species, too, because certain life stages attach to particular hosts.

Professional entomologist/arachnologist. I consult on all matters dealing with insects and arachnids, including those of natural history and biology to pest management and forensic entomology investigations.
frightened

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Posted 3 years ago
Tue Jul 12 2016 4:40:24
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Thanks Loubugs for the clarification and information. I got mine out of the freezer and it has brown legs so not a deer tick.
loubugs

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Posted 3 years ago
Tue Jul 12 2016 4:47:52
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frightened - 2 minutes ago »
Thanks Loubugs for the clarification and information. I got mine out of the freezer and it has brown legs so not a deer tick.

That's just a common name, so it's important to see the shape of the front end, the basis capitulum and palpi and hypostome plus the scute on the abdomen for identification. The rear of the body of the adult female black-legged tick (I. scapularis) is sort of salmon-colored and palpi are elongate with a brown scute. If you compare to an American dog tick, you'll see short palpi, non-salmon colored abdomen and multi-colored scute. There is more than one species of Ixodes, but most often you'll come across I. scapularis. Other species differentiated by other body structures.