# What Do Blacklegged Ticks Eat?

> What blacklegged ticks eat: Blood — feeds on mammals, birds, and reptiles, foraging style, and seasonal shifts in Deciduous forests, leaf litter, and grassy edges of eastern North America.

- **Species:** Blacklegged Tick (*Ixodes scapularis*)
- **Conservation status:** Not Evaluated
- **Diet:** Blood — feeds on mammals, birds, and reptiles
- **Habitat:** Deciduous forests, leaf litter, and grassy edges of eastern North America
- **Lifespan:** 2–3 years across larva, nymph, and adult stages
- **Top speed:** Slow crawler; waits on vegetation with legs outstretched
- **Canonical HTML:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/tick/what-do-tick-eat/
- **Parent profile:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/tick/
- **Last reviewed:** 2026-07-16

## Quick answer

The blacklegged tick, also called the deer tick, is a tiny arachnid that attaches to hosts and feeds on blood, transmitting Lyme disease and other pathogens in eastern North America. Unfed nymphs are poppy-seed sized; adults are larger and most active in fall. Listed Not Evaluated by IUCN.

## Who should skip this page

Skip this if you need a captive feeding plan from a veterinarian. This page is wild diet, not a pet-care sheet.

## Three-host life cycle

Blacklegged ticks feed once at each life stage — larva, nymph, and adult — dropping off between hosts to moult. White-tailed deer are critical adult hosts that distribute ticks, while mice and birds infect nymphs with Lyme bacteria during larval and nymphal feeds.

## Help protect the Blacklegged Tick

Even familiar animals lose ground as wild habitat keeps shrinking worldwide.

[Donate to wildlife protection](https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/donate/)

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Source: Global Animal Guide (https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/tick/what-do-tick-eat/). Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0 — free for non-commercial reuse with attribution.