I was out hiking with the Bullthistle Hiking Club a few weeks ago and the subject of ticks came up. Seems like everyone this year is finding them on their skin or clothing. Anyhow, there's a lot of talk out there about ticks. So I thought I would devote this week’s column to expounding on the current information out there.

Ticks are relatives of the spider, mite, scorpion, and chigger, and are members in the arachnid family. They have eight legs when they are adults. I never looked that close, have you? There are three different families of ticks, two transmit disease: the hard tick and soft tick. Throughout the world there are about 800 different species of ticks and they have been around about 90 million years. Not as long as the cockroach, but a lot longer than humans.

Ticks feast only on blood, and most are not very particular as to whose blood they dine on. They will attach to mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds. So even snakes are in danger of the dreaded tick! It seems like only fish are not on the tick’s menu as ticks are not aquatic by nature.