emilychenery's Identifications

ID’d by USASK tick surveillance as Dermacentor albipictus larvae aka moose tick aka winter tick

There were 1000s at this location clumped on tips of dried stems on grassland patch

These were collected from my jacket pockets upon returning home. I didn’t get photos of the clumps of larvae, because at the time we weren’t sure what type of tick they were and we just wanted to get them off of us, and to get out of there. At the time we were only able to determine that they were larvae (due to having only six legs) using a magnifying glass.

We encountered a ball of questing larvae on willows ~1.5m above the ground. Got all over us; estimate 500 - 1000 individuals on me alone. Horrible.

Photo isn't really sufficient for ID, but I'm adding this in support of a winter tick monitoring project regardless. Photo by @pkortsalo.