I think a more accurate summation of the question is “Do ticks drop from trees with the intent of landing on potential hosts.” The answer is no, their sensory perceptions are much too limited to seek out and ambush hosts from an arboreal position. Ticks by nature stick to the ground and hang off the edges of grass and leaves, detecting basic signs such as motion, scent, and shadows. It is very unlikely that they’d climb trees to find hosts, and if they ever did find themselves high on a tree it was most likely by accident. Now, can a tick lose its grip from a certain height and unintentionally fall on a host, and then just decide to dig in? Certainly, that’s not outside the realm of possibility. But lying in wait on trees and then dropping onto hosts is way beyond their parameters.
I think you’re exactly right, the real question how could ticks have the mechanisms required to accurately dive bomb people from above in the first place? We know they can be in trees, sure, but we don’t know how/if they could accurately target and land on a moving person, although we can assume that that is very unlikely based what we do know about their sensory abilities.
It’s not like ticks are randomly spring-launching themselves off trees so often that some happen to land on a person… but if it’s deliberate, then there has to be a whole logical sequence occurring for them to move from from the tree to a person accurately and intentionally; it’s an issue of a false syllogism. You just can’t explain the gap in how they get up in the tree to how they get to a person (often and reliably; again, the claim is that it isn’t an accident). Of course, being unable to explain something doesn’t always mean it doesn’t happen, but it looks very sketchy compared to the alternative that does have backing. Knowing that some ticks don’t have eyeballs is a very compelling counterclaim to the detect-and-divebomb claim.
I think some people in the thread are getting too caught up in the possibility of it happening that they’re forgetting that something can be possible yet highly unlikely. I mean, for an analogy: it’s possible that the world could end this Friday, but it’s not likely to happen, and personally I’m not worried about it.
tl;dr To address the “if” question for something contentious, we ought to do a sanity check by addressing the “how”. Does it make sense that this could happen? If we can’t explain it, is it because we don’t have enough information, or is it because it doesn’t fully make sense?
Ticks do not fall from trees because they do not live in trees. They can climb to a height of up to 1.5 meters at most. It is not profitable for them to go high and wait in the tree for an opportunity, because the chance of hitting the target is much smaller then, and the effort is much greater.
I had a tick walking on my shoulder. Another hiker had one in her hair. We have antelope (and eland) so the ticks certainly wait at eland / human shoulder height.
And as sedgequeen said poised to - come 'ere and gimme a HUG!
this sounds a lot like tiny Drop Bears
https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/drop-bear/
Ultimately, if you are out in a tick infested area, have walked under trees but think you didn’t touch any low lying vegetation, you should still do a tick check because somehow they always find a way. I don’t really ever know where exactly i pick up ticks but in Vermont i find they are worst around inavsive shrubs (and there is in fact a link documented between invasive barberry and deer ticks). However, those don’t drop on you unless you are crawling through barberry, in which case you’re already having an absolutely miserable day.
When ticks latch on, they move UP looking for a suitable feeding site. It’s quite usual to find them on the upper parts of the body or the head. I often find them on the top of my cap on the prairie with nothing taller than 0.5m in sight.
A tick has fallen on me when I was under a tree; I felt it land on my neck and then removed it. A tick has climbed on my sneakers when I was laying in grass, I sat up and saw it climbing up.
I have had ticks come out of tree samples before when shaking branches onto a sheet. I think some of the rainforest species are more liable to this.
You’ve heard of Drop Bears (Thylarctos plummetus), now get ready for Drop Ticks!
It’s very common for ticks to drop from above in willow thickets in SW Idaho. I have experienced it many times!
In tropical monsoon forests in SE Asia I have also witnessed tricks dropping into my hammock even when there was no foliage immediately above. I don’t know how the little monsters do it!
Something to consider is that ticks in the genus Hyalomma, which aren’t too distantly related to lone star ticks, have well-developed vision and will quickly pursue hosts across the ground that they detect visually from up to 30 feet away (it sounded absurd to me the first time I read about it too).
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/11/5/303/htm
Lone star ticks also have developed eyes, so it doesn’t seem impossible at all that they could adopt a strategy where they climb trees, spot hosts moving below, and drop on them. If they did that, it might not be as accurate as grabbing onto a host that brushes past, but it would allow them to reach a distant host much more quickly than if they tried to pursue them horizontally.
Considering that ticks spoting and pursuing prey from a distance is a documented phenomenon, I find the anecdotes of ticks dropping onto hosts not at all unlikely and it seems like a strategy that makes sense.
Can’t say for ticks orlwide, but ours definitely don’t live on trees, this tale of them falling from trees was created because they try climbing up before biting, so it’s common to find them near head or shoulders, but actually they sit on grass.
Working in SE Asia for most of the last decade I’ve never encountered this, in or out of monsoon season.
I don’t think it’s necessarily typical, but they can. I once watched a tick fall from a tree and into my grandma’s hair. There was a lot of movement in the tree, so I am assuming it fell off an animal or an animal threw it off. I don’t think it’s something they would deliberately do though, because it’d be a bad way to reach people/other things. They’re so plentiful now though that I think there’s going to be a lot more variation in experiences with them.
imagine if ticks could do what tiny spiders do and release silk and fly in the air, only to attach to himans in any possible outdoor place. Eww.
I for one am imagining an alternate evolutionary history where ticks evolved wings
they almost have. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/130393-Lipoptena-cervi
(yes wrong taxonomy but they look and feel like ticks)
There ya go. I tend to do the opposite of the usual tick advice – I’m not going to wear trousers tucked into boots if it is shorts weather. But I do constantly check myself as I am walking around, and if a tick is climbing my bare leg, I flick it away before it attaches.
But you might if they were crawling up a bare leg.
And if it had fallen off your cap into your collar, you might feel it fall. If trees were nearby, it would seem logical to think it fell from the trees.
They feel much worse, ticks don’t travel with you, running around your head, they don’t fly off your head to your bathroom just to attack you afterwards, so I’d prefer a tick.
You can, but definitely they crawl the way it’s really hard to feel them or they wouldn’t be such a big problem.
I myself haven’t seen a tick in years, as they are fairly uncommon here, but I have experienced them just ‘appearing from nowhere’ on upper parts of the body. I would say it is just them climbing up, as it happens whether there are trees or not.
Then again, even tough bulldog ants don’t usually climb trees, i have had them drop from above and sting you. Must be an Australia thing🤔