Fig. 2.

Concentrated nymphal emergence durations ($l_n=15$ days, A) result in a higher and earlier mouse infection prevalence peak (B) compared to longer nymphal emergence durations ($l_n=60$ days) for the same total tick population sizes. For example, a nymphal activity duration of 15 days ($l_n=15$ days, A) results in peak mouse infection prevalence (B) occurring on day 15, while $l_n=60$ days results in peak mouse infection prevalence occurring on day 61. In both models, $25\%$ of emerging nymphs are infected, $k=50,M=k(1-{\mu }_m/b)=45$. All other parameter values are shown in Table 1