A Dog Tick After a Meal

georgedingwall · Post by **georgedingwall** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:52 am

Hi all,

The weather hasn't been very good for outdoor macro work for the last few days, so here is something I found in the house.

I have a couple of dogs at home, and they occasionally pick up the odd tick when we're out and about in the summer. I usually manage to pick most of them off before they get their fill of blood, but I saw this one fall of one of the dogs this morning.

I've no idea what species it is or even how ticks are classified, but I thought this made an interesting shot. This is an un-cropped full frame shot form my Nikon D200. The total length of the bloated tick was about 8mm.

Nikon D200
Sigma 150mm macro lens
2 sets of extension tudes and a X2 teleconverter.
3 flash heads on full power
1/250 sec @ F8 with mirror locked up.
10 frames stacked with Helicon Focus 4.
Finished in Photoshop CS2.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:45 am

That is pretty gross George but a super photo. great work on the stack also

salden · Post by **salden** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 7:10 am

Looks like I feel after Thanksgiving

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:23 am

A very unusual shot, and nicely done! You did a great job capturing the striations on the stretched abdomen.

--Rik

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 3:16 pm

I hope you got rid of the tick. When they fall off they are ready to burst and give birth to "seed ticks," which are extremely hard to see due to their size and their translucence. There would probably be hundereds if not more of them.

I had the unfortunate privilage of having to deal with them while logging over in Arkansas. Usually if one powders their boots, socks and lower pants legs with Seven Dust, they are not a problem and you end up shaking off dead ticks at the end of the work day. Spraying your boots and pants legs with deisle fuel also keeps them off. Of course this may not be environmentally proper, weigh the cost between the Seven Dust/deisle and "tick fever."

A great image there George, you done good!

Beetleman...! What da ya mean "gross?" I always thought that sooner or later someone would come up with a pair of ladies earrings that looked like big, fat, blood gorged, purple ticks. You know...the kind you see hang'n off the dogs ear.

Reminds me of a joke by the way:

Mother: Son what are you doing out there in the yard?
Son: Eat'n raisens momma.
Mother: Where'd you get those raisens son?
Son: Off'n the dog momma.

Mike B in OKlahoma · Post by **Mike B in OKlahoma** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 4:20 pm

George, this is a very impressive shot....The kind of subject I thought that nobody but me was tacky enough to shoot! :-)

Good find!

paul · Post by **paul** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 8:18 pm

That's a remarkable shot, George. What are the little white dots all over the place? Dandruff?

georgedingwall · Post by **georgedingwall** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 12:54 am

Hi Ken,

Ken Ramos wrote:I hope you got rid of the tick.

I got rid of the tick right after I finished the shot. There would not have been any baby ticks, unless they can survive the death of the parent. I put the tick in a killing jar with acetone and then took the images.

I've never had a tick on my own body, but my two dogs get them all the time. After they've been out in the garden or the woods, I usually inspect them for ticks, and pull them right off. However, they both have long coats and I sometimes miss one.

Bye for now.

georgedingwall · Post by **georgedingwall** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 12:59 am

Hi Paul,

paul wrote:That's a remarkable shot, George. What are the little white dots all over the place? Dandruff?

Under the microscope they look like either fungal spores or pollen. I don't know enough about either to be certain. There were also lots of these dots on the Violet Ground Beetle I posted recently.

Bye for now.