What is the point of ticks?

I haven't had a chance to get on the trail the last few weeks, partly due to laziness, partly due to my work schedule, and partly due to me contracting conjunctivitis. Blech. I do have a day hike planned for this weekend now that my eye is better.

But although I have been stuck at home in the evenings/weekends, I have managed to replicate the wilderness experience by contracting poison ivy and getting stuck all over with ticks while doing yardwork. Well, okay, one tick. But it was latched on. Holy crap, I wonder if that might have led to my eye infection? I mean, it wasn't latched onto my eye but ticks are full of nasty bacteria and stuff.

I don't see the point of ticks, incidentally. Every other creepy-crawly out there, yes, I know they're part of the food web. But does anything actually eat ticks? And if so, where are they when I need them? I'm sure if you asked ticks if there was a point to ticks, they'd say, of course, we're all part of nature and also I have children. But ticks can't actually talk, so I guess they wouldn't say that after all.

As for poison ivy, I understand it. It doesn't want to be eaten or otherwise bothered, so it gives people a rash if they touch it. (That doesn't stop goats from eating it with no ill effects, of course. Small flaw in your plan, poison ivy.) I don't agree with poison ivy, but I understand it, and I wouldn't actually have poison ivy now if I didn't insist on running over it with my lawnmower while growling, "Die die die." My yard is still full of poison ivy and I itch intolerably all summer, but sometimes you just have to attack a plant with a bladed machine.