What good are wood ticks?

When most people ask that kind of question I think they really mean to ask,
“What good are wood ticks to me as a human?” That is a question we might ask about other living things. What good is a mosquito? What good is a rattlesnake? To us as humans there are many organisms that seem to be a nuisance—or are really dangerous. And I do not know any simple way to answer that kind of question.

Many living organisms have developed and live together in the world. Each of them plays its own special role in nature. A biologist would say that each one fills an ecological niche.

As humans, we have become the dominant kind of animal in the world. That leads us to think that the rest of nature ought to be arranged just for us. And that leads us to look at some living things and ask what good they are to us.

We might turn our question around and ask: “If a wood tick could think, how would it ask the question?” It might ask: “What good are humans to me?”

I believe we should think of ourselves as a part of nature rather than that nature is made just for us. If you are willing to think of wood ticks as a part of nature, then you have answered your question.