What is the Difference Between a Chigger & a Tick?

Ticks and chiggers are easily confused. Both bite humans and leave itchy marks behind, but chiggers are the larvae of harvest mites and unrelated to ticks. The two types of arthropod differ in other ways, such as feeding habits and the diseases ticks carry.

Classification

• Chiggers are insects, but ticks are arachnids, the same class as spiders and scorpions. Like other arachnids, adult ticks have eight legs, not six.

Size

• Ticks are small, but they're visible to the naked eye. Chiggers are usually too small to be seen.

Diet

• Ticks bite humans and other animals and drink their blood. Chiggers bite, then their saliva liquefies animal skin cells, which they drink up for food.

Effects

• Chigger bites become annoying and itchy after a few hours, but nothing more. Ticks spread diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease.

Removal

• Ticks bite deep for their size, and usually have to be pulled off with tweezers. Chigger bites are much less forceful and they can simply be brushed off our skin.