Ornithodoros hermsi is a soft tick that lives in rodent nests inside walls and rafters of mountain cabins from California to Idaho. It emerges at night, feeds painlessly for 15 to 20 minutes while a sleeper is unaware, and drops back into the wall. Most relapsing fever patients never noticed the bite that infected them.
Soft ticks in the genus Ornithodoros can survive years between blood meals and live for a decade or more. A single infected tick can sit…
Soft tick relapsing fever in the United States is largely a disease of mountain cabins above 3,000 feet in California, Nevada, Arizona,…
Hard ticks (Ixodidae) take one large blood meal per life stage and stay attached for days. Soft ticks (Argasidae), including Ornithodoros,…
Rhipicephalus sanguineus is the only major tick species that can complete its full life cycle indoors. Engorged females drop off a dog and…
Dermacentor occidentalis transmits Rickettsia 364D (now classified as Rickettsia rickettsii subsp. californica), the cause of Pacific…
Rhipicephalus sanguineus is a competent vector of Rickettsia rickettsii in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where…