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Ticks feed entirely on blood. They need a bloodmeal to graduate from larva to nymph and from nymph to adult—the three stages of their life cycle. Females must take a third bloodmeal to lay eggs. All this usually happens in about the space of two years.
When they hatch (usually) in late spring, tick larvae are tiny—no bigger than the period at the end of this sentence. These newborn ticks are programmed to toddle out to the end of a blade of grass and wait there, squatting with their upper legs outstretched—something scientists call “questing.”
http://qz.com/441583 via @qz
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