What is the difference between tick and mite

Dust mites are commonly a cause of allergies inside the house. I am not sure if "bed bugs" are some kind of mite, but maybe. A flea is something that also sucks blood -- you did not ask about it, but sometimes people get fleas and ticks mixed up. A flea usually lives on cats, dogs, or other hairy animals. They have very itchy bites. Another similar animal is a louse lice , which live on the hair. They are small than fleas and do not jump around, though. But we somehow use the same term for tick and mite.

See a translation. The one learning a language! Another important structural difference between the two lies in the hypostome, by which they attach to their hosts to feed. The hypostome in ticks is barbed and is inserted into the host allowing it to attach itself very effectively to the host. This is why it is difficult to remove a tick, especially when it is feeding as the hypostome may remain inside the host body. The hypostome in mites has no barbs and so mites can be easily be removed from their hosts.

Ticks have no hair on their bodies or have short hair, while mites have long hair on their bodies. Ticks strictly live on animal hosts, while mites can feed on plants and animals.

Tick-borne illnesses include Lyme disease, Kyasanur forest diseases, Indian tick typhus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, relapsing fever, tularemia, babesiosis, Q fever. Scrub typhus and Rickettsial pox are mite-borne. The Typhus group includes Epidemic typhus louse , Murine typhus flea and Scrub typhus mite. The Spotted fever group includes Indian tick typhus tick , Rocky Mountain spotted fever tick and Rickettsial pox mite. Like all arachnids, mite and ticks have incomplete metamorphosis. Young ticks and mites hatch from eggs and resemble tiny adults, although newborn immature stages have 6 legs instead of 8.

They shed their skins as they grow. ECOLOGY Although they are not noticed as often as some of their arthropod relatives, mites are very common and occur in many different kinds of habitats.

The most common kinds of mites live in soil and feed on debris. Other kinds feed on plants, and some are predators. There are many mite species that are fully aquatic. Many common species of mites are parasitic, living off the blood and tissues of larger animals. There are parasitic mites that live on just about any kind of animal imaginable, everything from fish to insects.

Chiggers are a well-known type of parasitic mite that sometimes attacks humans. Ticks are types of mites, and all ticks are parasites.

Spider mites, clover mites, and red mites damage crops and decorative plants. Many tick species transmit diseases to animals and humans, and some mites are pests of honey bee hives. Common pest mites and ticks are shown in the "common mites" section below. Although mites are everywhere, most are too small to see. However, there are few kinds that are fairly large and frequently encountered in Kentucky.

Pictured below left is the Two-Spotted Spider Mite , Tetranychus urticae , a common pest on a variety of plants. On the right is a red velvet mite, a predator. These large mm , bright red mites are sometimes seen crawling on trees below. Young velvet mites are parasites on insects, and the adults are predatory on small arthropods.

We also have a number of aquatic mites that are common in Kentucky streams. Some of the aquatic mites are also relatively large and bright red.