Ticks are small arachnids, related to spiders, scorpions and, more closely, mites. Their appetite for blood meals from mammals, birds and other vertebrates makes them an unwelcome pest, especially because ticks are known to be vectors, or transmitters of disease, for a number of ailments – including Lyme disease, Colorado tick fever, tularemia, relapsing fever and meningoencephalitis. But ticks ordinarily don’t infest structures, unless they hitch a ride indoors on a pet or a commensal rodent.    

[Animalia > Arthropoda > Arachnida > Acari > Ixodida]