Tick Safe Hunting Practices: Ticks vs. Keds

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- Have you seen this critter before?

You might have seen one of these insects on your deer or elk, or worse, on you while hunting, and you may have thought it was a tick.

You wouldn't be alone.

But these are not ticks.

These insects are deer keds, a species of biting fly.

European deer keds were introduced to the United States from Europe and were first found in the US in the early 1900s.

Now they can be found in forests throughout the northeast.

Both ticks and deer keds are parasites that bite animals and feed on blood.

However, unlike ticks, deer keds are not known to transmit pathogens that cause diseases.

That said, head bites can be painful and leave hard red welts.

Next time you are out in the field, follow the six guidelines to determine if the arthropod you see is a tick or a deer keds.

Legs, size, wings, movement, season, and bites.

The two easiest differences to see between ticks and keds are the number of legs and size.

Ticks are arachnids like spiders and have eight legs.

In contrast, keds are insects and have six legs.

As for size, deer heads are generally equal in size or larger than most unfed ticks.

However, as ticks feed, they become engorged and may grow five to six times their original size.

In this image, you can see an unfed tick in the foreground and feeding ticks in the fur in the background.

Fed ticks may appear to be about the same size or larger than a deer ked.

Unlike ticks, deer keds remain the same size and shape while feeding.

Another difference between ticks and keds is that keds can sometimes have wings while ticks never do.

Deer keds emerge as adults with wings and find their hosts by flying.

When deer keds land on hunters, the wings are often present and obvious.

Once a ked has landed on a host, be it a person, dog or deer, they drop their wings and live the rest of their life on the animal.

This makes a ked appear more tick-like.

However, you can still see the wing stumps if you look closely.

Keds are also much more active than ticks.

Once a tick has bitten a host, it will not move from that spot.

Even ticks that haven't bitten their host are fairly slow moving like this blacklegged tick shown here.

In contrast, deer keds scurry through the fur and move quickly across the body of the animal.

Now that we have gone over the physical differences between ticks and keds, here are two other useful tips to help tell them apart.

The time of year can influence where you might find deer keds.

Deer keds in Pennsylvania and the Northeast fly in September and October when you might be hunting small game, sitting for early archery or scouting potential hunting spots.

They may even be active on warm days as late as early November.

During these flights, keds may land on you instead of a deer or elk.

You may feel keds land on your neck, move through your hair, or even bite you.

In the Southeast and Western United States, other deer keds species fly throughout the warm months.

So if you live in or travel to those regions, time of year is less important.

Once temperatures drop, keds stop flying, but you can encounter them on deer year round.

Adult blacklegged ticks are most active in the fall months.

They can also be found throughout winter and into early spring if temperatures are above freezing, even if there is snow on the ground.

The final difference between ticks and deer keds is that ticks and deer keds bite differently.

When ticks bite their host, they embed and feed until falling off, up to seven days after attaching.

On the other hand, deer keds do not embed into the skin.

Rather, they feed on blood for 15 to 25 minutes at a time multiple times a day.

The initial bite varies from being imperceptible to painful, but does not usually leave a mark.

After three days, the site may develop into a hard red end, itchy welt that lasts from 14 to 20 days.

Although some bite associated welts have been reported to last up to a year.

Deer keds and ticks are both parasites found on deer, but they are very different in their appearance and behavior.

Ticks may transmit pathogens causing disease while keds do not.

So it is important to understand your risk by knowing which parasites are on you or your deer.

These six simple differences can help you distinguish between a ked and a tick so you can stay safer while hunting.