Ticks Are Durable

This evening while riding through River Bends to look for specific areas in need of trail work I picked up two ticks on my legs. I found them both while driving and while I was able to flick the first one out the window, I dropped the second on the floor. I stopped to find where the second had landed, and after picking it up with a napkin I tried three times to crush it between my fingers, but each time failed. I eventually smashed it between the hard plastic console and a bike light housing, and after applying a good bit of force it finally snapped, crushed, and stopped moving. It’s amazing how well built ticks are.

While I didn’t get a good look at the first one, a bit of research shows that this one is a female Dermacentor variabilis or American Dog Tick (Wikipedia).