Be Wary of Ticks While Exploring Idaho’s Outdoors

Living in Idaho is a wonderful experience. All of us Idahoans enjoy hiking, camping, morel hunting and a plethora of other outdoor activities. Idaho is meant to be enjoyed outside our homes, which brings us into nature and within nature exists a particularly gruesome pest arthropod, ticks!

Ticks are within the Phylum Arthropoda (arthropods, “joint-footed” animals), Order Acari (mites and ticks) and of the Suborder Ixodida (two main families, the hard ticks [Ixodidae] and the soft ticks [Argasidae]). Ticks are parasitic and feed on the blood of mammals, birds and/or reptiles. For the full story, pick up a copy of the Mountain Home News or click on this link to subscribe to the newspaper’s online edition.