They Fly Through The Air...

...with the greatest of ease.  Blood sucking varmits.  Yes, those parasitic little pests, we call ticks. Did I mention I hate them? Well, just so you know...I do. I'm beginning to the get the full blown heebie-jeebies. Every time I walk outside I come in with a little "passenger" attached to  my personhood. This year seems to be really bad for the mini-vampires. Of course, the fact that we live in the middle of a field with lots of grass and the wind pretty much blowing 24/7 there is no telling what might decide to fly through the air before landing on you. Just sayin'.

Luckily (so far), I've found the parasites before they fully attach themselves. I told my husband, every time I come in the house from roaming around outside I have to do a full body check. Sneaky little things. Today I had one on my sweatshirt, and later another behind my ear....it was valiantly trying to bite through my hair. Good thing I found it when I did....otherwise it could have gotten lost in this wild mane of mine, and I'd be left defenseless with having the blood slowly sucked out of my brain. Don't laugh people. It could happen. And then what?

To me ticks are a cross between a vampire and a spider. Neither of those descriptions thrills me. I tend to be more scared of spiders than anything. Even snakes. Or clowns. Or other scary things. So, you can imagine that someone that has arachnophobia would be a little distressed about the whole tick infestation thing. My mind starts to play tricks on me. Oh, my back itches....is that a tick? My head itches is that a tick? Is that a freckle on my arm? NO. It's a tick! Agggghhhhhh!!!

Look what I found online....an up close and personal picture of my teeny, tiny enemy. He is not attractive.

Tick is the common name for the small arachnids insuperfamily Ixodoidea that, along with other mites, constitute the Acarina. Ticks are ectoparasites (externalparasites), living by hematophagy on the blood ofmammals, birds, and occasionally reptiles andamphibians.