A close look at the blood-sucking parasites called ticks proves they really are stuff of nightmares.
When viewed under a microscope, the tick's mouth looks as if it is a set of twin chain saws, the New York Times reported. The mouth also contains an appendage that resembles a long (and sometimes bloody) sword.
A new video allows viewers to sit back and watch a tick dig its horror film mouth into the ear of a hairless mouse.
The video was created as part of a study to help researchers understand how Lyme disease-infected deer ticks hang onto human skin for so long, even while the are gorging themselves on blood.
"Mosquitos or other biting flies stay on the host for a very short time," said study co-author Dania Richter, a parasitologist at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, told LiveScience. "The tick has a much different challenge, which is to be in there to stay."
To remain elusive while they feast on their hosts blood, the ticks insert a sort of anesthetic into the bite site. Some ticks have been observed to use a cement-like substance to keep itself anchored in place.
The research team combined the video with electron and confocal microscope images of the tick's mouth to unlock the critters secrets.
They found the tick uses a unique and complicated process to get its dinner.
The parasite punctures the skin with telescoping shafts which contain fingers covered in barbs. The critter then bends the bundle of fingers backwards in a "breaststroke-like motion." This movement throws the skin over a harpoonlike structure called the hypostome. Once this final step has been completed the tick is ready to eat.
When people remove a tick from their skin the hypostome. often gets left behind. Researchers have still not discovered how the ticks dislodge themselves when they are done feeding.
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