“…It is evident that tick microbes can be maternally inherited (vertical transmission), environmentally acquired through the tick spiracles, mouth, or anal pore (environmental transmission), or obtained from host‐blood feeding (horizontal transmission) (Narasimhan & Fikrig, ). The microbial community resulting from these processes consists largely of tick symbionts and guest commensals (Clay & Fuqua, ; Greay et al, ), which can affect vector fitness (reviewed in Bonnet et al, ) and have been associated with variation in vector competence (Budachetri et al, ; Civitello, Rynkiewicz, & Clay, ; Gall et al, ; Narasimhan et al, ; Telford, ). The latter observation motivated an increased number of studies of the role of ecological and environmental factors in shaping the microbiome and the relationship between microbial symbionts and pathogens (Fryxell & DeBruyn, ; Gall, Scoles, Magori, Mason, & Brayton, ; Kwan, Griggs, Chicana, Miller, & Swei, ; Narasimhan et al, ; Swei & Kwan, ; Van Treuren et al, ; Zolnik, Prill, Falco, Daniels, & Kolokotronis, ).…”