Tick collection leads summer prep for health agencies

Tick surveys might give you the creepy-crawlies, but they're important as we enter the summer months.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Great big ones, alarmingly tiny ones, it doesn’t matter: the team visiting Pioneers Park wants as many ticks as they can find.

Why? Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services vector-borne disease epidemiologist Jeff Hamik explains the goal is to “know what kind of ticks are out here, as well as what’s in the area, and then also be able to test them for certain tick-borne diseases and know what kind of pathogens are circulating in the environment”.

The list of things they’re hoping to learn more about is pretty long.

“Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, tularemia, just to name a few”, lists off Hamik. “If we collect any black-legged ticks that are the vector of Lyme disease, we’ll actually send those to the CDC for testing.”

Everything else heads to the University of Nebraska-Kearney. That gives some indication of the massive team effort this expedition is. The combined forces of DHHS, Lincoln Lancaster County Health Department, and the University of Nebraska are all a part of this CDC-funded work.

As far as the tick harvesting process itself goes, it’s fairly simple. Sweep a sheet over the ground, and enjoy the results. Of course, you may wonder why a tick is going to bother hopping onto a sheet in the first place.

Hamik explains that the sheet mimics a person or animal moving through tick-infested areas. “When they feel vibrations and they sense the CO2, they start to do what’s called ‘questing'”, he says. “They’ll climb up a leaf or a blade of grass and put their front legs out, and wait for something, an animal, a person, to come by. When they brush up against it, they cling onto it, and then they crawl up from there to try to find a place to get a blood meal.”

This time, they’re only going to end up taking an alcohol bath. Remember, though, this does mean ticks are already out and about, and in great numbers. If you spend any time out with them, be sure to check yourself over at the end of your journey.