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Project Noah Nature School
Ixodes texanus
Blue grey female tick, ~ 1.5 cm long. (photo color is off, was more grey than aqua).
Suburban back yard.
This tick was found on the outer wall at the back of a house in Fremont CA. The odd thing is that the home owner doesn't have a dog. There is an occasional cat visitor, and squirrels and opposums, but no dog.
Yellow jackets can be nasty. I always give them lots of space. It doesn't take much to get the riled up, and if you squash one, it releases an alarm pheromone that tells its nestmates to attack.
We do get Raccoons. Maybe I will look out for these.
My neighbors kid broke a yellow jacket's. As a result my other neighbor had wasps going in thru their chimney into their living room.Some wasps came into our backyard. They seemed really upset and disoriented
Actually, my sister spotted it on the outer wall of my mother's house. We couldn't figure out how it had gotten there (no pets), but then my mother mentioned she gets opossums and raccoons. I looked into raccoon ticks and found a match!
Thanks Teresa! I think you've solved the mystery! My mother mentioned that she did get raccoons back there from time to time!
OMG. That link to that pic is creepy!! Eeeek! Now I really have insomnia. LOL
Wow! That's neat. I've never seen one that color before. I wonder if it came from a raccoon or deer? Thanks for sharing. :)
Isn't it? I had the golden book of insects (which I loved) and the golden book of insect pests (which gave me nightmares) as a kid. There was a picture of a female tick laying eggs that really freaked me out as a 5 year old. I still find it kind of bizarre!
Wow, I have never seen this before. Thank god. I have dogs and have never seen one.
The link is frightening.
The mosquitos and fleas are the ones I can't seem to avoid. They crave the taste of my blood for some reason.
We've had an unusually dry winter her ourselves. This is the least amount of rain I've seen in the 35 years I've lived in California. I try to stay away from the ticks whenever possible.
Unfortunately I am very familiar with ticks. I pull about half a dozen deer ticks off me every week in the spring & summer. It's especially bad at the moment as we have had such a mild winter round here.
She may look cute NOW, but she's about to do this: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/+2004/...
Not a pretty sight.
Spotted on May 21, 2007
Submitted on Mar 12, 2012
