Sorting through the Rain

Due to the lovely tropical storm Beryl, rain canceled the hope for fieldwork today. Ticks don't particularly love the rain, and wet flags are not very effective. So today I learned how to sort and enter data into the tick database. After ticks are collected in the field they are placed in vials, vials are put in a ziplock bag and then that ziplock bag is put in a ziplock bag. We wouldn't want the ticks to run all over campus or something. The ticks are then placed in the freezer hoping to freeze them, killing most of them usually but occasionally you get a hardcore tick that wants to rebel, so watch out.

Lone stars were easy to spot and sort, which are most of the ticks we get so they are quick. However, some species such as the Ixodes or Macs or DVs required dissecting scope work to identify key indicators. I was reminded of  how important patience is today because pulling nymphs off the tape and pooling them together was tedious, but I'm always up for the challenge.

Each tick is sorted and labeled by species, life stage, gender, and all field data from that day (7 pieces: Site, Transect, Date, Temperature, Weather, Time, and Names of flaggers) and placed in a ziplock bag and labeled with a special code. This is the stage that may not be viewed as the most 'fun' but with some good music and a careful eye we were able to sort through quite a few ticks, but there are always more to go before be send them to the lab. We'll save that for another rainy day...

Vial with mesh used initially to entertain the ticks, tape with a bunch nymphs, tweezers used for organizing and  some ticks for purpose of course

-Lexi