Removing ticks from your dog's ear might make you shiver in revulsion, but it shouldn't make you worry that his ear is now full of tick eggs. Not all ticks that bite are adults yet, and mature females always leave their hosts to deposit eggs safely on the ground or in protected cracks and crevices.
How Ticks Mature
After hatching, seed ticks, or the larvae, resemble adult ticks but only have six legs. These larvae need to eat to grow, and they can feed on your pooch. Typically, these stay along his back. After they molt, the ticks turn into nymphs with eight legs that also stay along your dog's back. Each stage usually falls off after feeding to grow before finding another host. After they mature into adults, they attach to different locations on the dog, including his ears and toes. Spotting a tick on your pup's ear might be yucky, but when you remove the tick, there's no concern about eggs left behind. Female ticks fall off their hosts to find suitable, permanent locations to lay their eggs, such as sheltered areas on the ground. If a female tick falls off inside your home, she can lay up to 5,000 eggs along baseboards and wall corners, creating an infestation that could require the help of a professional exterminator.