Interdigital gland substances of white-tailed deer and the response of host-seeking ticks (Acari: Ixodidae)

Abstract

Host-seeking male and female blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularis Say, exhibited an arrestant response when contacting substances from front and rear interdigital glands of male and female white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann). Female I. scapularis responded positively to substances from interdigital glands on the fore legs and hind legs of female deer, whereas male I. scapularis responded only to samples from the fore legs of does. These results showed that previously reported responses of I. scapularis to residues from interdigital glands of hind legs of deer were independent of tarsal gland substances, which may contaminate interdigital gland substances on hind legs. Nymphs of I. scapularis and female lone star ticks, Amblyomma americanum (L.), did not show an arrestant response to substances from hind legs of does, but male A. americanum did.