Tick Life Cycle
There are various types of ticks, and each have an different life cycle. They all do, however, share many similar stages, only these stages last for several different periods of time. Transition from each stage of life requires a blood meal to provide energy to move on.
The life cycle of most ticks has four distinct stages; the egg, larva, nymph, and adult, which then repeats with adult reproduction.
The Egg
Depending on the type of tick, this can range from between 15 to 30 days. During this period of time, the larval tick develops inside the egg. Each batch of tick eggs can range from just a few to a few thousand, with certain species of ticks on laying one batch of eggs before death. Hard-bodied ticks tend to only lay eggs once, while soft-bodied ticks, since they take smaller blood meals, can lay several batches of eggs before dying. Once the larval stage has been reached, the egg will hatch, transitioning the tick to the next stage of life. This is the only stage of the tick life cycle that does not require a blood meal.
The Larval Stage
Tick larvae start feeding almost immediately. Their first host animals tend to be smaller mammals, and humans are rarely bothered by ticks in this stage of life. The main characteristic of this stage of the tick life cycle is the lack of a set of legs. Being an arthropod. ticks are supposed to have eight legs, while this first stage of the ticks life has only six. The tick will frequently feed on numerous hosts, depending on the species, growing in size with each feeding. Once the tick has fed enough and grown in size, they will molt their exoskeleton and move on to the next stage of life. This stage of life can last anywhere from one to eight weeks.
The Nymph
Nymphs develop their missing set of legs, and are one stage away from being a full grown adult. Hard-bodied ticks tend to only have one large blood meal, then they fall to the ground and molt once again. This ushers them into the adult stage of life. Soft-bodied ticks can feed several different times and undergo several different molts before becoming an adult. Since the meals of soft-bodied ticks are much shorted than those of their hard-bodied counterparts, this is a common standard between species. Once the tick have finished growing and molted for the final time, they are then considered to be an adult.
Adult Ticks
The final stage of the tick life cycle is the adult. In hard-bodied ticks, both the male and the female of the species will become engorged, mate, then die. The female will usually have a much larger blood meal than the male, then lay her eggs after mating, dying after they have been laid. The male will commonly die directly after mating. The soft-bodied ticks will commonly have several smaller meals and several mating sessions, laying many batches of eggs. These batches are much smaller than those of the hard-bodied ticks. Due to the size of the meals required, this is the most common stage for ticks to bite a human.
Once the eggs have been laid, the life cycle begins all over again with a new batch of parasites.
