Conservation Wildflower Plantings Do Not Enhance On-Farm Abundance of Amblyomma americanum (Ixodida: Ixodidae)
| dc.contributor.author | McCullough, Christopher T. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Angelella, Gina M. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | O'Rourke, Megan E. | en |
| dc.contributor.department | School of Plant and Environmental Sciences | en |
| dc.contributor.department | Entomology | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-09-28T12:42:05Z | en |
| dc.date.available | 2020-09-28T12:42:05Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-09-09 | en |
| dc.date.updated | 2020-09-25T13:29:31Z | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Planting wildflowers is a commonly suggested measure to conserve pollinators. While beneficial for pollinators, plots of wildflowers may be inadvertently performing an ecosystem disservice by providing a suitable habitat for arthropod disease vectors like ticks. The lone star tick, <i>Amblyomma americanum</i> (L.), is a medically important tick species that might be able to utilize wildflower plantings as a suitable habitat. In this two-year study, ticks were sampled using dry ice baited traps from wildflower plots, weedy field margins, and forested areas to determine if wildflower plantings were increasing the on-farm abundance of <i>A. americanum</i>. Abiotic and biotic environmental variables were also measured to better understand which factors affect <i>A. americanum</i> abundance. We found no more <i>A. americanum</i> in wildflower plots than in weedy field margins. Forested areas harbored the greatest number of <i>A. americanum</i> sampled. The height of the vegetation in the sampled habitats was a significant factor in determining <i>A. americanum</i> abundance. Depending on the sampled habitat and life stage, this relationship can be positive or negative. The relationship with vegetation height may be related to the behavior of the white-tailed deer and the questing success of <i>A. americanum</i>. Overall, wildflower plots do not pose an increased risk of exposure to <i>A. americanum</i> on farms. | en |
| dc.description.version | Published version | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | McCullough, C.; Angelella, G.; O’Rourke, M. Conservation Wildflower Plantings Do Not Enhance On-Farm Abundance of Amblyomma americanum (Ixodida: Ixodidae). Insects 2020, 11, 617. | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11090617 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/100085 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | MDPI | en |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | pollinator | en |
| dc.subject | tick | en |
| dc.subject | ecosystem services | en |
| dc.subject | vector ecology | en |
| dc.title | Conservation Wildflower Plantings Do Not Enhance On-Farm Abundance of Amblyomma americanum (Ixodida: Ixodidae) | en |
| dc.title.serial | Insects | en |
| dc.type | Article - Refereed | en |
| dc.type.dcmitype | Text | en |
| dc.type.dcmitype | StillImage | en |