Adult female Ixodes scapularis are about 3 millimeters long with a solid dark scutum behind the head and an orange-red abdomen. Adult males are slightly smaller and uniformly dark brown to black. There are no festoons (the small rectangular notches along the rear margin of some other tick groups).
Ixodes scapularis takes three blood meals over a roughly two-year life cycle. Larvae and nymphs feed mainly on white-footed mice and other…
An unfed adult Ixodes scapularis female weighs about 2 milligrams. Fully engorged she weighs 200 milligrams or more - around 100 times her…
A single Ixodes scapularis nymph the size of a poppy seed can deliver Borrelia burgdorferi after roughly 36 to 48 hours of attachment.…
Dermacentor variabilis adults have ornate white-and-brown mottling on the scutum and are roughly the size of a watermelon seed when unfed.…
Ixodes pacificus is the western counterpart of Ixodes scapularis, found from British Columbia south through the Pacific states. It…
Ixodes scapularis has expanded its established range north into Canada and west into the Dakotas over the past three decades. The…