What makes a tick-host encounter successful? Isolating the effects of host and tick qualities on rates of larvae adhering to hosts

Blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) require a single bloodmeal from one of many potential host species during each of their three life stages. However, host species vary tremendously in their permissiveness for ticks. Given the variation in tick survival on hosts, we would expect ticks to have evolved mechanisms that increase their probability of feeding on highly permissive species. However, we know little of what happens during an encounter between a tick and a passing host. To explore the influence of host and tick qualities on the probability ticks adhere to hosts, we constructed an apparatus in which an artificial host passed over I. scapularis larvae, simulating hosts walking over ticks. This allowed us to control isolated qualities of the host and ticks we hypothesized to be important and observe how many larvae adhered to hosts. In one experiment, larvae were twice as likely to adhere to mouse fur than opossum fur, and even less likely to adhere to drag cloth corduroy. However..., , , # What makes a tick-host encounter successful? Isolating the effects of host and tick qualities on rates of larvae adhering to hosts

These data come from an experiment designed to isolate the qualities of hosts or ticks that influence the probability larval blacklegged ticks (*Ixodes scapularis*) adhere to hosts, given contact with the host. We constructed an apparatus in which an artificial host passed over *I. scapularis* larva in a controlled manner, simulating hosts walking over ticks. Each trial consisted of an artificial host passing over 10 larvae, each larvae isolated on a single tine of a comb, and then counting how many ticks got onto the fur. Our artificial hosts were constructed from strips of corduroy and fur from frozen, unprocessed Virginia opossums (*Didelphus virginiana*) and white-footed mice (*Peromyscus leucopus*). Larvae were obtained from Oklahoma State University's Tick Rearing Facility. We examined host and tick traits that could influence adhesion in two experi..., ,