Pest Organisms / Blacklegged Tick
Biology
for Blacklegged Tick
This tick runs on a roughly two-year cycle through four stages — egg, larva, nymph, adult. Source: https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/ent-0096 It is a three-host tick: each mobile stage feeds on a different host, and a blood-fed female drops off to lay eggs in late spring. Source: https://wisconsin-ticks.russell.wisc.edu/ixodes-scapularis-life-cycle/ Larvae feed on small mammals and birds — often the white-footed mouse, which serves as the principal reservoir of the Lyme bacterium. Adults prefer larger animals, especially white-tailed deer, whose local abundance strongly drives how common the tick becomes. Source: https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN300 Source: https://wisconsin-ticks.russell.wisc.edu/ixodes-scapularis-life-cycle/