Presentation Type
Poster
Presentation Type
Submission
Keywords
Tick, Ecology
Department
Biology
Major
Biology
Abstract
Ticks are the most important arthropod disease vectors in both North America and Europe. Field collection of wild ticks is vital for research on the ecology of vector-borne diseases. Dragging and trapping are the two most common methods for collecting wild ticks. Dragging involves a researcher pulling a canvas through a field to collect ticks searching for a host, while trapping exploits ticks’ natural attraction to carbon dioxide to lure them onto a canvas where they get caught on tape. Our study aimed to evaluate which of these two methods is more effective. We chose six sites across three states, setting three traps and performing three drags at each site. We recorded the time for every collection event, the species, life stage, and sex of every tick collected. We collected a total of 1954 ticks belonging to four species, Lone Star Tick (Amblyomma americanum), Blacklegged Tick (Ixodes scapularis), Asian Longhorned Tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis), and American Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis). We found that trapping is slightly more effective for collecting adult females in Oklahoma, but dragging is more effective for collecting nymphs in Oklahoma, New York, and New Jersey. When considering other factors such as material and labor costs, we conclude that trapping has a higher material cost but a much lower labor requirement, while dragging has only one low initial material cost but requires much more manual labor.
Faculty Mentor
Javier Monzon
Funding Source or Research Program
Summer Undergraduate Research Program, Not Identified
Location
Waves Cafeteria
Start Date
22-3-2024 1:30 PM
End Date
22-3-2024 2:30 PM
Checking for ticks: Analyzing the efficiency of different tick collection methods
Waves Cafeteria
Ticks are the most important arthropod disease vectors in both North America and Europe. Field collection of wild ticks is vital for research on the ecology of vector-borne diseases. Dragging and trapping are the two most common methods for collecting wild ticks. Dragging involves a researcher pulling a canvas through a field to collect ticks searching for a host, while trapping exploits ticks’ natural attraction to carbon dioxide to lure them onto a canvas where they get caught on tape. Our study aimed to evaluate which of these two methods is more effective. We chose six sites across three states, setting three traps and performing three drags at each site. We recorded the time for every collection event, the species, life stage, and sex of every tick collected. We collected a total of 1954 ticks belonging to four species, Lone Star Tick (Amblyomma americanum), Blacklegged Tick (Ixodes scapularis), Asian Longhorned Tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis), and American Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis). We found that trapping is slightly more effective for collecting adult females in Oklahoma, but dragging is more effective for collecting nymphs in Oklahoma, New York, and New Jersey. When considering other factors such as material and labor costs, we conclude that trapping has a higher material cost but a much lower labor requirement, while dragging has only one low initial material cost but requires much more manual labor.