• Deer ticks seek hosts by an interesting behavior called “questing.”

• Questing ticks crawl up the stems of grass or perch on the edges of leaves on the ground in a typical posture with the front legs extended, especially in response to a host passing by.

• Certain biochemicals such as carbon dioxide as well as heat and movement serve as stimuli for questing.

• These ticks climb on to a potential host which brushes against their extended front legs.

• These ticks are commonly collected by the use of “drags” made from 1 m square pieces of fabric.

Where do you find ticks?

Deer tick “questing” in tall grass.

Our tick collection methodsMaterials:

• Light-colored bed sheet• Hand held GPS devices• Sealable plastic containersMethods:• We began by stopping at the banks of pre-selected locations listed in the GPS.• We separated into groups of about two and while holding the sheet open, we swept the ground.• After dragging for 100 yards we examined the sheet in hopes of finding black-legged ticks.

Our Results• We continued collecting over two days for a total of eight stops.• We found six ticks.• Some observations were made about the general environment in which the ticks were found, however, very little information was recorded.• All of the ticks found were in their nymph stage and were not much larger than the point of a pencil.• Our sampling was done during the mid summer season rather than the late spring or fall, this may be why so few ticks were collected.