Pattern of early questing in unfed larval Amblyomma americanum from twelve years of monitoring in northern Missouri, USA

ABSTRACT

In this study, we report the pattern of early season questing of unfed larval Amblyomma americanum from twelve years of monitoring in northern Missouri. In ten of these years, we collected unfed larvae before June. Early questing larvae likely impact the complexity of the nymphal pool by increasing its size and seasonal questing period and may alter human exposure to pathogens as they could co-feed with adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Ixodidae
• nymph
• seasons
• larva
• humans

Acknowledgments

We thank Matthew Mangan and Deborah Hudman for providing comments on an early draft. Partial funding to support the monitoring was provided by the MathBio program at Truman State University and through the National Science Foundation under UBM Grants No. 0436348 and 0926737 and numerous small grants from Truman State University to undergraduate students.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of USA [0436348, 0926737].