Ticks are small, insect-like animals that live in woodlands or in mixed shrub and grassland environments.  Ticks differ from insects in several ways.  For example, ticks have two body segments and eight legs while insects have three body segments and six legs.  The life cycles of ticks are also different, and involve the following stages:  egg, larva, nymph and adult (Fig. 1).

The larval, nymphal and adult life stages all actively seek a vertebrate host in order to obtain a meal of blood.  The preferred species of animal host varies with the species of ticks.  In some species of ticks, the larva, nymph and adult each feed on different hosts; in other species all stages feed on the same host.  Through the process of attaching and feeding, ticks sometimes transmit disease producing microorganisms to both animals and humans.