Not Just a Tick Talk: A Day in the Field at the 4th Annual Tick Workshop

By Lily Samuels

Lorenza Beati, PhD, gave us instructions as we gathered on a nature trail in Statesboro, GA.

“Don’t believe the sock theory. Ticks can bite through socks, and they can go through the mesh of socks. Use the Deet available. And tape the bottom of your pants. We have duct tape.”

Dr. Beati is a professor of biology at Georgia Southern University (GSU) and curator of the U.S. National Tick Collection (USNTC), the largest curated repository of ticks in the world. I joined her team and a group of researchers and students from around the country for one day of the 4th Annual Tick Workshop at GSU. I visited on a field work day, taking place in the tall grasses along a nature path, and I was instructed to wear long pants, thick socks and boots for protection. Our job was to collect ticks, something people spend most of the summer months trying to avoid. We were handed forceps, vials and white cotton sheets known as “flags,” for catching ticks.

Ticks are disease vectors, second only to mosquitoes in the number of humans they infect globally with disease-causing parasites, bacteria and viruses. In the United States alone, nearly half a million people are diagnosed and treated for a tickborne disease each year.

CDC Foundation field employee William Hervey served as my personal tour guide for the day. At the start of the path, the group unfurled our “flags” and set to work. Contrary to popular belief, Hervey explained, ticks are not insects but arachnids like spiders and scorpions, which means they have eight legs with which to climb and quest–the official scientific term for a tick’s host-seeking behavior. There are about 90 species of ticks in the United States, and they can be found on any animal, including birds, reptiles and amphibians.

“We’re dragging the flags across the top of vegetation because ticks like to climb to the top of plants and quest,” Hervey said. “They stick out their top two legs…