Letters

I read the tick article by Brendan O’Reilly with great interest [“Chiggers On Your Legs? Think Again,” Residence, September 3]. In my real-world experience living with ticks, I’ve found that ticks live in the house for more than a few hours.

I try my best to learn all about these tiny bloodsuckers. Right now, I am in the middle of an experiment started on April 15, 2020, when I put several engorged ticks into a jar with a tightly sealed lid.

A few weeks later, the ticks stopped crawling around, went dormant — then they started laying thousands of eggs. A few more weeks later, those eggs sprouted legs. The larvae ticks are still alive as of this writing.

Ticks go dormant and then there is a transformation. My experience with ticks is completely different from Dr. Campbell’s.

A good tick is a squished tick.

James Ding

North Sea