e ssential pets
by Lori Scarlett, DVM
I recovered this letter from a tick we found in a dog in mid-January. Dear Mom, I am really enjoying living in Madison. After you left me and my 2,500 brothers and sisters in the spring, we hatched into larvae (although I kind of prefer being called a maggot—I think it has a nice ring to it) during the nice, warm summer and immediately found some white-footed mice nearby. Good thinking to lay us near their nest. We all ate our fill of mouse blood and it really filled us up. We couldn’t hold on anymore and dropped into the leaves. It was a soft landing, so don’t worry! It was really interesting to molt into a nymph. I wish you could have told us what it would feel like. Suddenly we were twice the size as before (as “big as ticks,” so they say, but really barely specks) and had two more legs! That was pretty cool. Now I could hold onto a piece of grass with two legs and wave
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six legs at passing creatures. I was big enough to stand up to an ant, but remembered you telling me to be good, so I moved aside. Sadly, I lost track of a lot of my siblings, but several of my sisters and I molted at the same time and tried to stick together. We discovered that we could smell using our front legs and, wow, there are a lot of different smells in the world. Our favorite smell is carbon dioxide— it makes us run to wherever the smell is coming from. Another great smell is ammonia. We discovered it when we saw a big furry creature lift his leg on a tree and let loose a rain shower. I don’t think we’ve ever moved so fast! It’s disappointing how slow we run compared to big furry things. But we found that if we crawled onto a leaf or little branch, we could wave our arms and yummy things would walk by and
we could grab and climb on. Guess I’m glad we’re so small they never know we’re there. Because all that questing for food made me hungry, I wanted to eat wherever I landed, but some of that furry skin is tough. I had to exert my power to hike up the skin mountain until I found a softer, thinner area. I ended up finding a dark cave that was a little slippery with a wax substance, but it was quiet and good eating in there. Once I was “big as a tick” again, I crawled back out and let go. I was glad I landed in a soft pile of grass because I was pretty high off the ground. I must have gotten my nice, hard shell from your side of the family.