Hello, I'm the OUTDOOR PROFESSOR from DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com. Here's your outdoor tip on how to remove a tick. A tick is a blood-feeding parasite—not an insect. They are closely related to scorpions, spiders and mites. Ticks feed on mammals, reptiles, birds, or frogs to give them the blood meal they need to survive and reproduce. Most tick bites do not result in illness, but they can transmit several diseases such as Lyme disease, rocky mountain spotted fever and tick paralysis. Ticks frequently become passengers on you or your dog when you are exploring the woods and grasslands. People talk about ticks jumping on them, but ticks don’t jump or hang on trees waiting to drop down on you. Most ticks ambush their victims using behavior called questing. Hungry ticks crawl up a tall plant stem and extend their front legs using them to sniff the air for your scent or to sense your movement. They can detect the carbon dioxide you exhale and the ammonia in your sweat—maybe your t
