Not sure what's creepier, those pictures or the lyrics to that Brad Paisley song.

It appears that you've encountered an adult female western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus) -- close cousins of the eastern blacklegged (deer) tick (Ixodes scapularis). They would be hard to tell apart without a microscope. In your area, these ticks typically start to become abundant by early December and remain active all winter into early summer. You might be interested in checking our hyperlink to see how much ticks can change their appearance the longer they're attached and feeding. It appears your tick was attached and feeding for about 1 day or less.

It’s important to identify any tick found biting since different species transmit different diseases. Studies have shown that typically 2-5% of adult western blacklegged ticks are infected with the Lyme disease bacteria and the agent of granulocytic anaplasmosis. They also could be carrying Babesia duncani, a malaria-like red blood cell parasite. Numerous studies support the concept of a transmission delay between time of tick attachment and pathogen transmission; in adult western blacklegged ticks transmission of an infectious dose of the Lyme and Anaplasma agents generally begins after 48 hrs of attachment. If this tick is infected, it may have transmitted the Lyme bacteria or one of the other infections too but the risk for some pathogen transmission from your tick would be low even if infected. If you still are concerned about even some low level of risk, you could always choose to have this tick tested for peace of mind and as a way of guiding your next steps, like discussing disease and prophylactic treatment options with your primary care provider. Blood testing will not likely reveal much until antibodies to an infection have time to develop--about 3 weeks post tick bite. It's important to always do a daily tick check to stay TickSafe.

I believe that's the first tick I've seen from the BLT area.
I got 'em lower down on Noble before, but never up on the top.

Ray, I found one crawling on my leg while driving home from a BLT ride 3 years ago. He hadn't attached to me yet, but he startled me while I was driving at 80 mph down I-8 so I just flicked him off of me onto the floor. Later, when I got home, I found him in the floor of the front passenger seat so I scooped him up and made him pose for some pictures before I offed him.

Not sure what species this one was - but appears to be a male brown dog tick from looking at the identification charts on the TickEncounter site (although in this light it looks more greenish than brown).

(pics taken 2012-11-24)