Our tick collection methods

1. Our tick collection methods • Materials: • Light-colored bed sheet • Hand held GPS devices • Sealable plastic containers • Methods: • 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.

2. 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.