A comprehensive multiple matrix model representing the life cycle of the tick that transmits the agent of Lyme disease.

An extension of Leslie matrix methodology was developed to describe the life cycle of Ixodes dammini, the tick that transmits the agent of Lyme disease in eastern North America. Thereby, we described the seasonally changing pattern of interactions of the tick with its various hosts in a well-studied site on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Particular numerical values representing the site were estimated mainly on the basis of published values and interpreted on the basis of experience. The model was used to predict seasonal abundance and annual rate of increase of this vector tick. Although these ticks quest for hosts during two consecutive feeding seasons, all but a few feed during the first such season. The relative distribution of developmental stages of the tick stabilized after 35 years. Abundance of the simulated population increased exponentially and doubled every 6 years. The simulations produced realistic seasonal feeding distributions of the ticks in its various developmental stages.