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ARS Home » Plains Area » Kerrville, Texas » Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory » LAPRU » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #363735
Title: Metastriate ixodid life stages protected from predatory ants in Texas

Author
item Showler, Allan
item OSBRINK, WESTE
item DORSEY, BAILEE - SCHREINER UNIVERSITY
item CAESAR, RYAN - SCHREINER UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Environmental Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/17/2019
Publication Date: 8/28/2019
Citation: Showler, A., Osbrink, W.L., Dorsey, B.N., Caesar, R.M. 2019. Metastriate ixodid life stages protected from predatory ants in Texas. Environmental Entomology. 48(5):1063-1070. https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvz097.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvz097

Interpretive Summary: A number of predatory ant species, including the aggressive red imported fire ant, have been reported to attack hard ticks but evidence has largely been circumstantial. When living lone star tick eggs, and unfed and blood-engorged larvae, nymphs, and adults were deployed on bait transects with hot dog slices and dead house flies at locations in West, Central, and South Texas, the various tick life stages, fed and blood-engorged, were not attacked while ants were strongly recruited to the hot dog and dead house fly baits. Similarly, when the same tick life stages and other baits were placed adjacent to ant colonies of selected species, the tick life stages were not preyed upon while the hot dog slices and dead house flies were immediately attacked. In the instance of blood-engorged adult ticks, some ant species dragged them away from the colony entrance before discarding them, and eggs were removed in mouthfuls and also discarded on the soil surface away from the colony. Evidence for chemical ant deterrence by certain hard ticks (i.e., metastriate ticks) is discussed. Protection of ticks from predatory ants helps to explain why metastriate tick species worldwide remain problematic despite the presence of ants.

Technical Abstract: A number of predatory ant species, including the aggressive red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta (Buren), have been reported to attack ixodid (Acari: Ixodidae) ticks but evidence has largely been circumstantial. When living lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum (L.), eggs, and unfed and blood-engorged larvae, nymphs, and adults were deployed on bait transects with hot dog slices and dead house flies, Musca domestica L., at locations in West, Central, and South Texas, the various tick life stages, fed and blood-engorged, were not attacked while ants were strongly recruited to the hot dog and M. domestica baits. Similarly, when the same tick life stages and other baits were placed adjacent to ant colonies of selected species, the tick life stages baits were not preyed upon while the hot dog slices and dead M. domestica were immediately attacked. In the instance of blood-engorged adults, some ant species dragged them away from the colony entrance before discarding them, and eggs were removed in mouthfuls and also discarded on the soil surface away from the colony. Evidence for allomone-based ant deterrence in the genera Amblyomma, Dermacentor, and Rhipicephalus (metastriate ticks) is discussed. Protection of ticks from predatory ants helps to explain why metastriate tick species worldwide remain problematic despite the ubiquitous presence of ants.