The most common ticksfound in Delaware are the American dog tick, the brown dog tick and the black-legged tick. The American dog tick, often called the eastern wood tick, rarely invades the home in large numbers. However, the brown dog tick can become a serious household pest. The deer tick will bite humans as well as domestic animals, but it is generally an outdoor tick.
Ticks have a four-stage life cycle.
The egg hatches into a six-legged larva, or seed tick. After another blood meal, the nymph molts and becomes an adult. The adult female then attaches to a warm-blooded animal, engorges on blood, mates, leaves the host animal, deposits several thousand eggs and dies. Adults can live a year or more without feeding, but they must feed before mating. The American dog tick is widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains and on the Pacific coast.