Feature Animals

Ticks are here to stay. But scientists are finding ways to outsmart them

Here are the latest bulletins from the tick wars

Black-legged tick

A CUNNING ADVERSARY  You’d be wrong to call this black-legged tick an insect. Ticks have eight legs, like spiders and scorpions, not an insect’s six. Only a few of the world’s 900 or so tick species carry diseases, but those illnesses can be nasty.

DAVID M. PHILLIPS AND ERIC COHEN/SCIENCE SOURCE

By Susan Milius

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