A Creepy Start to My Day

Early yesterday morning (4:30 am early) as I sat on my sofa drinking my first cup of coffee, I was assaulted.

Okay, maybe “assaulted” is too strong a word.

Sitting there, and feeling something ultra-feathery on my forearm, I lightly scratched at it.  When I glanced down at my arm, I saw a wood tick. 

I immediately dispatched the tick.

Ticks are not insects.  As you might suspect, they are arachnids.  But (this is hard to fathom) they are creepier than spiders because they are miniature vampires.  And, unlike most biting pests, they don’t ambush and then escape in a hurry.  Instead, ticks burrow in and make a comfy nest for themselves in your skin—all the time sucking your blood (and maybe sharing Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain spotted fever with you). 

The fact I found a tick on me so early in the morning while sitting on my sofa is especially weird.  Where did it come from?  Ticks neither fly nor jump.  They rely on something called “questing” to acquire a host.

Questing involves either hanging out on grass or brush and latching onto a critter wiping past or they might drop from a high perch as a critter passes underneath.

I have always claimed to be a “tick magnet.”  If ticks are about, they will somehow find me first.

—Mitchell Hegman