Ixodes scapularis has expanded its established range north into Canada and west into the Dakotas over the past three decades. The expansion correlates with shorter, warmer winters: nymphs need at least 85 percent winter survival to maintain a population, a threshold that has crept north as cold-day counts have fallen.
Winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus) outbreaks are tightly coupled to short snow seasons. Late autumns let questing larvae find moose…
Ixodes pacificus is the western counterpart of Ixodes scapularis, found from British Columbia south through the Pacific states. It…
Ixodes scapularis takes three blood meals over a roughly two-year life cycle. Larvae and nymphs feed mainly on white-footed mice and other…
Ixodes ricinus, the castor bean tick, is the European cousin of Ixodes scapularis and the dominant Lyme vector across Europe from Portugal…
Adult female Ixodes scapularis are about 3 millimeters long with a solid dark scutum behind the head and an orange-red abdomen. Adult…
Roughly 95 percent of confirmed Lyme disease cases in the United States are reported from 14 high-incidence states clustered in the…