[3] It is a hard-bodied tick found in the eastern and northern Midwest of the United States as well as in southeastern Canada.

[3][8] The scutum is dark, inornate (plain), and, in unfed females, contrasts with the exposed orange or red remainder of the idiosoma.

[7] Ixodes scapularis has a 2-year life cycle, during which time it passes through three stages: larva, nymph, and adult.

[14] The CDC reported over 30,000 new cases of the disease in 2016 alone, the majority of which were contracted in the summer months, which is when ticks are most likely to bite humans.

[15] While adult deer ticks are more likely to carry and transmit Borrelia burgdorferi, it is more common for the hard-to-spot nymphal stage to infect humans.

[20] Deer, the preferred mammalian hosts of adult I. scapularis, cannot transmit Borrelia spirochaetes to ticks.

Ticks acquire Lyme disease microbes by feeding on infected mice and other small rodents as nymphs or larvae.

[12] One of the keys of the success of I. scapularis as a Borrelia vector relies on its ability to limit the proliferation of the spirochaete.

[21] The product of dae2 expression has been shown to degrade bacterial peptidoglycan of different species and particularly from B. burgdorferi, but does not limit initial acquisition of the bacterium by the tick.