Be Brief: Ticked

Tick Main
Tick Main
This super close up of a tick's leg hair placed as a runner-up in the JEOL's 2016 SEM/TEM/EPMA Image Contest.
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In short: The hair of the tick that bit you. There are plenty of reasons to be mad at this small arachnid, but close-up they're undeniably fascinating.

'Tis the season for tick checks. This 35-micron-long hair on the leg of a dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) is a spike-like feature that helps it find, grasp, and climb onto hosts. Ticks may not fly—or even jump that far—but they do what's called "questing", and by waving their third and fourth legs like they're at a rock concert, they're better able to hitch a ride. However, ticks are fickle about humidity and temperature, and will hide under leaf litter to stay damp. To keep ticks off your own legs, keep them covered on hikes and check for hitchhikers after. Nymphs of the Lyme disease-carrying deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) may be only one to two millimeters across, about the size of a pinhead.

This photo was taken by Jeffrey Brookins on a scanning electron microscope. It placed as a runner-up in the JEOL's 2016 SEM/TEM/EPMA Image Contest.

This super close up of a tick's leg hair placed as a runner-up in the JEOL's 2016 SEM/TEM/EPMA Image Contest.
This super close up of a tick's leg hair placed as a runner-up in the JEOL's 2016 SEM/TEM/EPMA Image Contest.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.

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