Wood Tick

The wood tick, more precisely called the Rocky Mountain wood tick, is a hard tick native to the mountainous and foothill regions of western North America, from British Columbia and Alberta south through the western United States. The common name "wood tick" is also used regionally for related Dermacentor species such as the American dog tick, so identification should rely on range and markings rather than the name alone.

Like other hard ticks, it spends most of its life off any host, only climbing onto vegetation to seek a blood meal during specific windows tied to each life stage.

• Flattened, oval, reddish-brown body that swells to gray-blue and balloon-like when fully fed
• Males have an ornate, mottled grayish-white shield (scutum) covering nearly their entire back
• Females have a smaller whitish shield confined to the area just behind the head, leaving the rest of the abdomen plain reddish-brown
• Eight legs in the nymph and adult stages; larvae have six
• Distinguished from the similar American dog tick mainly by range (higher elevations of the Rocky Mountain region) and subtle scutal pattern differences

This species is found in grassland, sagebrush shrub-steppe, and open, brushy woodland at moderate to high elevations (roughly 1,200–3,000 m) throughout the Rocky Mountain region of western North America. It is most active in spring and early summer when adults quest for large hosts.

Wood ticks use an ambush strategy called questing, climbing to the tip of grass or low brush and extending their front legs to grasp onto a passing host. Once attached, they feed slowly on host blood over several days before dropping off to molt or, in adults, to lay eggs. As external parasites, they play a role in regulating populations of small mammals through predation pressure from the hosts they rely on, and serve as prey themselves for some birds and other predators.

The Rocky Mountain wood tick follows a three-host life cycle: eggs hatch into six-legged larvae that feed on a small mammal host, molt into eight-legged nymphs that feed on a different (often larger) host, and finally molt into adults that seek a large mammal for a final blood meal before mating and egg-laying. The full cycle can take one to several years depending on host availability and climate, with unfed adults commonly overwintering in leaf litter or soil.