CreatureData

Wood tick

Dermacentor variabilis Say, 1821

Status not recordedarachnids

The wood tick (Dermacentor variabilis) is a species in the family Ixodidae, order Ixodida.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the wood tick

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Resting metabolic rate
0.00172 mW
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the wood tick live?

Not recorded

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the wood tick as introduced in 1 country.

  1. Denmark

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

Is the wood tick endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the wood tick classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classArachnida
  4. orderIxodida
  5. familyIxodidae
  6. genusDermacentor
  7. SpeciesDermacentor variabilis Say, 1821

Synonyms Dermacentor electus, Dermacentor variabilis, Dermacentor variabilis variabilis, Ixodes albipictus, Ixodes punctulatus, Ixodes quinquestriatus, Ixodes robertsoni, Ixodes robertsonii, Ixodes variabilis

Other names and names in other languages (14)
  • American dog tickEnglish
  • Common wood tickEnglish
  • SataniAlabama
  • piják americkýCzech
  • Amerikansk hundeflåtDanish
  • Amerikanische HundezeckeGerman
  • Garrapata americana de perroSpanish
  • Tique du chienFrench
  • gartanScottish Gaelic
  • kleszcz łąkowyPolish
  • американский собачий клещRussian
  • amerikansk hundfästingSwedish
  • 美洲狗蜱Chinese
  • Tique américaine du chienFrench

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the wood tick

Other species in the same genus Dermacentor.

Marsh tick

Dermacentor reticulatus

IxodidaeNo free photo yet

Elephant tick

Dermacentor circumguttatus

IxodidaeNo free photo yet

Elk tick

Dermacentor albipictus

IxodidaeNo free photo yet

Net tick

Dermacentor occidentalis

IxodidaeNo free photo yet

CompareWood tick vs Marsh tickWood tick vs Ornate sheep tickWood tick vs Rocky mountain wood tickWood tick vs Elephant tick

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Is the wood tick an invasive species?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the wood tick as introduced in 1 country: Denmark, but does not flag it as invasive in any of them.

What kind of animal is the wood tick?

The wood tick (Dermacentor variabilis) belongs to the family Ixodidae in the order Ixodida.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Wood tick (Dermacentor variabilis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/wood-tick

MLA

“Wood tick (Dermacentor variabilis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/wood-tick.

BibTeX
@misc{wood_tick_2026,
  title = {Wood tick (Dermacentor variabilis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/wood-tick},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}