Instead of soft bellies, we get scutums! Instead of nights, we get days! It’s a hard-shelled life for us!
Hey everyone, Tattle the Tick here, ready to drop some knowledge on you guys. Today I’m going to tell you about the other family of ticks: Argasidae, otherwise known as the soft-shelled ticks. Soft-shelled ticks are mainly found in areas like caves or run down cabins. So unless you like camping in old sheds or random caves, there’s not a huge chance you’ll come into contact with them (Trevejo et al. 1998). Good thing too, that side of the family is a bunch of brats.
The soft tick, Ornithodoros hermsi, pictured before and after feeding.
While soft-shelled ticks belong to the family Argasidae, hard-shelled ticks belong to the family Ixodidae. That Argasidae family is a weird bunch lemme tell y’all. They don’t have a scutum which is what makes ticks be considered hard-shelled and what’s even stranger is that their mouth parts are located dorsally meaning that you won’t be able to see their mouths unless you’re looking at its underside (What are Ticks? What is the Life Cycle of a Tick?). The Ornithodoros species, which is part of the Argasidae family, is primarily nocturnal and only briefly attaches itself to a host to feed (Palma et al. 2011). Those ticks of the Ixodidae family however are known to be active during the day and take longer to feed on a host, often for a few hours or days. Personally, I need my beauty sleep or I’m worthless throughout the day. And finally, soft-shelled ticks are known to transmit fewer diseases to humans in comparison to hard-shelled ticks. Some soft-shelled ticks like the Ornithodoros are able to transmit Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever (Tickborne Relapsing Fever). Hard-shelled ticks, however, are known to transmit a variety of diseases to humans from Rocky Mountain spotted fever to Lyme disease.
Like I was saying, the Ixodidae life is the best life. And if we’re throwing cheap shots here, those soft-shelled ticks are a lot uglier if you ask me.
See y’all next time,
Tattle the Tick
