Harvest ticks are part of the acarid, or dust mite family. Acarids are arthropods where the body appears as having no segments.

Their resemblance to tiny spiders links them to the arachnid class. There is thought to be between 30,000 to a half a million species. They feature great adaptability and can be found all over the globe, Antarctica and the oceans included.

Harvest ticks or “thrombidions” are crawling microscopic larvae. The female lays its eggs in the ground and the larvae which results waits on the grass until a warm-blooded vertebrate comes along, a human for instance. They then crawl up the arms and legs and gather in natural cavities like armpits or skin areas which are compressed, like near the belt.

Their small size of 0.25 mm doesn’t stop them from biting and injecting their saliva containing agents which aid external pre-digestion. Harvest tick bites are annoying, causing itching the next day and lasting 5 or 6 days. They form a very swollen bump from 1 to 2 cm. Harvest ticks thrive in meadows from July to September.