I used to work with a guy who was a bit of an expert on ticks; he'd done his PhD on them.
One day we were working in a woodland in East Anglia. We had to wait for a while, and while we chatted, he poked about with a stick in the leaf litter, idly looking for creepy-crawlies.
In five minutes he produced about sixty ticks from a square yard or so of leaf litter.
My brother-in-law used to live in Richard's Bay in South Africa. Walking through the bush there, I noticed that the grass stems were all encrusted with little black seeds. On closer inspection they were millions of ticks, ready and waiting to hitch a ride. We checked ourselves over quite carefully at the end of that day!
I suspect that if you spend much time among undergrowth, you probably get small ticks attach and bite quite often, but never know it. They like to crawl underneath your sleeves, trouser legs and what have you. The creases of the groin are a favoured spot for latching on. The really tiny ones only attach for a few minutes and then drop off again, so you might not know they'd ever been there.
The big fat ones are gross, though, aren't they?
first, parts of it can remain inside the skin. As far as I understand, oil prevents them from breathing and then they release their hold to get some air and can be removed more easily. Not sure about the details but it works.
