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 in cabin woodwork for many seasons and infect a new sleeper each summer until the wall is sealed.
Ornithodoros hermsi is a soft tick that lives in rodent nests inside walls and rafters of mountain cabins from California to Idaho. It…
Hard ticks (Ixodidae) take one large blood meal per life stage and stay attached for days. Soft ticks (Argasidae), including Ornithodoros,…
Ixodid ticks pass through four life stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult. Larvae, nymphs, and adult females each take one large blood…
Rhipicephalus sanguineus is the only major tick species that can complete its full life cycle indoors. Engorged females drop off a dog and…
Winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus) outbreaks are tightly coupled to short snow seasons. Late autumns let questing larvae find moose…
Dermacentor albipictus is a one-host tick: larva, nymph, and adult all stay on the same animal for the entire roughly year-long cycle. A…