Community Contributors: Now that's a lot of ticks!

It is tick season folks.  And nothing reminds us of this more than all your help reporting on tick activity and collecting specimens.

Earlier this week we received a photo from a Carlton County contributor who sent us this photo:

Photo by E. Felien, June 2020

Each little black speck represents a tick, the whole bunch was collected over the course of a week.  Not all of them are the species responsible for transmitting Lyme disease, Ixodes scapularis (deer ticks), but other species of ticks can also spread various diseases.

So please, when enjoying the great outdoors, protect yourselves from tick bites, and when you do encounter ticks, let us know!

You can self report tick encounters at on our Tick Risk Story Map website (here) and then send us your specimens at: 

University of Minnesota Duluth

Ixodes Outreach Project

1035 University Dr.

Duluth, MN  55812

Attn: SMed 332

When submitting a specimen please include the following information:

Date found

Whether it had been attached to a human or animal or found unattached

Location where the tick was likely picked up

Optional: your name, mailing address and email address for follow up correspondence

Ideally, ticks are best preserved if they are stored in a Ziploc bag or small, airtight container with a dab of hand sanitizer gel to coat the tick.  However, ticks that have dried out can still be useful to our research.  When mailing, please keep in mind that a small baggie can usually be sent without extra postage and handling, however, sending tubes or rigid containers of ticks requires mailing specimens to us in a box to avoid damage.

Should you be interested, we would be happy to send you a Tick Kit with additional information, tick collection and submission information and a tick removal key.  Kindly send your mailing address and we will get a kit out in the mail to you.

Check out our Ixodes Outreach Project Story Map Website:  http://z.umn.edu/Ixodes

-photos and text by C. Fisher