Like other arachnids, ticks have two main body parts, a head and an abdomen. A tick's head is so tiny compared to its abdomen, the creature looks like a body with eight curved legs. The front two pair of legs curve toward the tick's head, and the back two pair curve toward the abdomen. The life cycle of a tick involves four stages, egg, larvae, nymph, and adult. Adult female ticks are generally larger and more colorful than adult male ticks, but after laying eggs on the ground in vegetation, the female tick dies.
Males live on to mate with other female ticks.
Generally, ticks are found where they are most likely to come in contact with animals- near streams, lakes, or by a path animals are known to travel daily for food or water. Some ticks also are found in nests, burrows, and places where their animal hosts live and sleep. A tick's only source of nourishment is the blood it sucks from animals. Upon successfully boarding an animal host, the tick finds a place to attach itself and imbeds its barbed mouthparts into the host's skin, which makes it difficult, but not impossible, to remove the tick. The tick' s sharp mouth parts then pierce tiny blood vessels.