Boffin; if you have ever had to remove an embedded and bloated lyme tick from you or your pet; take a course of antibiotics, or suffer from the disease, you might feel like killing yourself. (The tick larvae are this size . and hide in areas of the body where they are very difficult to find.)
They are a scourge in the NE US. Every time we come inside, we have a tick inspection. They are now around even during the cold months if the snow has melted.
I took two off my cat yesterday – one was crawling around and the other was attached and so engorged that I thought the cat has a new spot of black fur. It took serious tugging with a special tweezer to get the thing off (like a large, squishy black grape.)