Week 3 Tick Surveillance- Shawn Schwenn

 Last Tuesday, I took another trip to south central Virginia to Dick Cross Natural Area and Fort Barfoot Reservoir for more tick drags. Majority of the ticks collected Lonestar tick nymphs with 29 at Dick Cross and 43 at Fort Barfoot Reservoir. The bottom photo shows all the ticks collected at both sites in our ethanol tubes to show how many tiny nymphs decided to jump on my tick drag. The top photo is an adult male Gulf Coast tick uner the microscope I collected from Dick Cross. When I first collected it, I thought it was a adult male American Dog tick, but the mouth was different. It has a pretty decorative back that I thought looked really cool and it is not a common find in Virginia.



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