On 8/9/06 11:07, in article , "K"
wrote:

Martin Brown writes
snip

Biggest one was nearly 1cm across. But on closer inspection it seems
they were ticks, but bigger by far than any that I have seen before
close up. I was surprised that they looked light grey and elongated
despite presumably being full of blood.

They're quite tough, but with a good blood-carrying capacity, so they
need to be flexible (stretchy), so my guess is that they're made of
quite thick skin, so you wouldn't see the blood through it.

One way of removing them is to use a cotton bud dipped in meths. Ray has
treated a couple of birds this way recently with great success. The only
trouble is that the birds keep well away from us for a while afterwards!
snip

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/