Tick bites usually don’t hurt, as an anesthetic is delivered in saliva, which prevents rapid detection. Ticks successful in finding a host attach their mouthparts to the skin by means of a rapidly hardening excretion. If the quest is unsuccessful, the ticks return to the ground until the next spring. Once on a host they climb upwards, giving rise to the erroneous observation that they have dropped from trees. Both sexes "quest" for hosts by waiting near the top of grass and low shrubs, readily attaching to passing people or animals that brush against them. The adult female is reddish-brown with a white "shield" near the front, and the similarly sized male is mottled-grey in colour. This tick is most frequently encountered between March and June, usually in open, rocky areas. Usually rodents and other small animals serve for the first two feedings, and large animals such as deer, cattle, dogs, sheep and humans serve as the host for the last feeding. The Rocky Mountain wood tick is a three-host tick, a new host being sought for each one of its three feedings which occur over a period of 1 to 3 years. It is not found west of the Coast Range mountains. In British Columbia, this tick occurs in the interior dry belt from the United States border north as far as Williams Lake and eastward into Alberta. The Rocky Mountain Wood Tick ( Dermacentor andersoni) Learn more about ticks that are commonly found in B.C., how to remove attached ticks, and how to prevent tick bites: A few simple precautions will decrease the likelihood of tick bites. They require blood as a source of protein for growth and egg development. Ticks cannot jump or fly and do not drop from trees. Adult ticks have eight legs, unlike insects, which have six.
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