Conservation Wildflower Plantings Do Not Enhance On-Farm Abundance of Amblyomma americanum (Ixodida: Ixodidae).

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, Amblyomma americanum (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 A. americanum. Abiotic and biotic environmental variables were also measured to better understand which factors affect A. americanum abundance. We found no more A. ame

SUBMITTER: McCullough C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7563295 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature