An unfed adult Ixodes scapularis female weighs about 2 milligrams. Fully engorged she weighs 200 milligrams or more - around 100 times her starting mass. Most of that intake is plasma; ticks concentrate the meal by excreting water back into the host through their salivary glands during feeding.
Ixodes scapularis takes three blood meals over a roughly two-year life cycle. Larvae and nymphs feed mainly on white-footed mice and other…
Adult female Ixodes scapularis are about 3 millimeters long with a solid dark scutum behind the head and an orange-red abdomen. Adult…
An attached tick's level of engorgement is the most useful proxy for how long it has been feeding. A flat, unengorged tick is probably…
Ixodid ticks pass through four life stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult. Larvae, nymphs, and adult females each take one large blood…
Hard ticks (Ixodidae) take one large blood meal per life stage and stay attached for days. Soft ticks (Argasidae), including Ornithodoros,…
Field studies in the northeastern United States routinely find a single white-footed mouse carrying dozens of attached Ixodes scapularis…