Fig. 4

Assessment of treated hosts by paired species. Simulated mean proportions of landscape cells infested with off-host (potentially host-seeking) tick larvae per hectare on a hypothetical 10,000-ha ranch under weather conditions recorded in Willacy County, Texas, USA from January 2009 through December 2018: (i) on whole ranch (grey dash line), and in (ii) good (black line), (iii) fair (black dash line), and (iv) poor (grey line) tick habitats. Simulations assumed complete and continuous elimination of all on-host ticks on cattle and white-tailed deer (a), white-tailed deer and nilgai (b) and cattle and nilgai (c) beginning week 25 of 2009. Tick hosts present on the ranch included cattle, white-tailed deer and nilgai. Thirty-one percent, 28 percent and 41 percent of the ranch was considered good, fair and poor habitat, respectively, for off-host tick larvae. Relative habitat use preferences of hosts for good, fair and poor tick habitats, respectively, were 0.30, 0.10 and 0.60 for cattle, 0.20, 0.40 and 0.40 for white-tailed deer, and 0.30, 0.10 and 0.60 for nilgai