Haemaphysalis chordeilis

(bird tick or grouse tick)

Distribution

Haemaphysalis chordeilis occurs in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming in the US, and in Canada from British Columbia east into Ontario.

Hosts

One of the earliest recorded collections of this tick is a nymph from a killdeer (Charadrius vociferus L.), from Fort Collins, Colorado. Hosts include mainly ground-dwelling, especially gallinaceous birds and incidentally, mammals, including humans. Haemaphysalis chordeilis has infested quail in Texas in excess of 80 ticks per bird.

Vector Status

This tick may play a role in a sylvatic cycle of the agent of tularemia and has been reported to kill turkeys in multiple locations in the US.

Resources

H Joel Hutcheson, James W Mertins, Boris C Kondratieff, Monica M White, Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases of Colorado, Including New State Records for Argas radiatus (Ixodida: Argasidae) and Ixodes brunneus (Ixodida: Ixodidae), Journal of Medical Entomology, tjaa232, https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjaa232